Flashing red light by tower on/off button

I have a compaq presario 6000 series desktop bought in december 2002. I am running winXP with SP2. I recently went to turn on my computer pressing the on button, and the little light to the left (there is second light to the right of the on/off button) of the on/off switch started blinking red with a regular rythm. I depressed the button, holding it for a count to ten, then let go and pressed the on button again. The left little light blinked green once, then started blinking red again. I repeated this prodedure until one time I pressed the on button and the computer turned on like normal. If I turn off my computer in my normal way, (click on "start", then click on "turn off computer", then "turn off") this scenario repeats itself every time. I am concerned that one of these times the computer will never turn on.

But... if I turn off the computer in another way, everything seems normal. If I depress the on/off switch, hold it for a count of ten, everything seemingly turns off just fine. The little light to the left of the on/off button stays on and is green, but everything else seems to be off like normal. There is no shutting down process that I can notice. But the next morning, I can depress the on button and everything proceeds like it did when the computer was new.

Can I keep shutting off my computer this way, or am I causing some unseen damage? Is ther any way to get it working like it used to?

 

I would suspect that the PC is in some sort of hibernate mode.

Boot up the PC and right click anywhere on the desktop Select Properties>Screen Saver tab> and under the Energy Saving Features you should find the modes which can be selected. Pick the one you want from there.

And no you aren't causing any damage.

 

Thanks so much. I've got the button set to go to stand-by when pressed. I have no energy savings schemes turned on. I still wonder why I can't shut down from inside windows?

This is my first day at this site and it's great!

 

Well the PC never really properly shuts down from within Windows. There will still be power onto the motherboard and the only way to totally turn off your PC is to unplug it.

And glad you like it here!!

 

Just shut it down...

 

I guess the best course of action is to do nothing. Let's all raise a glass to hoping I'll always get my computer to turn on.

 

I put in a new power supply and everything now works great.