[ar1stotle]

Well, I did a lot of work trying to figure out this one for myself but I came up empty and since I'm back on here, might as well let yall take a stab at it. Basically, my desktop has an Epox 9NPA+ Ultra motherboard. Sometime last summer, it became really tough to turn on. Basically, if I shut it down, I have to switch the power supply off for 5 seconds, flip it on, wait 5 seconds, and then see if it'll turn on. If not, I have to repeat the cycle. I tried with a different power supply, and actually the same thing is happening to a friend who has the same motherboard, so it appears to be a motherboard issue. But does anyone have any idea what it could possibly be?

[NT50]

update the bios?

[ar1stotle]

It's as up to date as it can be, and I'm fairly certain my friend doesn't know how to so he's got a different version. But this didn't happen after a BIOS update either. Just over time. Thought it might be a bad capacitor or something but I couldn't find any.

[NT50]

Now that could be true with the capacitor

[ar1stotle]

Anything to look for other than bulging ones and leaks?

[NT50]

You may need a magnifying glass and spec the complete board

[ar1stotle]

Ugh, I'd really like to look at it without taking it out of the case cuz it's quite a pain. I'll give it another look at some point though. I've got a feeling it's just a defective batch. Can caps get "weak" without deforming?

[yeshuas]

Ugh, I'd really like to look at it without taking it out of the case cuz it's quite a pain. I'll give it another look at some point though. I've got a feeling it's just a defective batch. Can caps get "weak" without deforming?

Unfortunately capacitors can fail and you won't be able to tell, the company I used to work for CTS Corporation, makes millions of them. Another thing to look for is oozing at the bottom, also whether they are flush to the board, if they are tilted every which way, that is a sign of bad capacitors, also the cap can be swollen ever so slightly it is hard to see without taking the board out.