Computer won't stay running

I have an old, PC but my wife uses it for all of her digital photography stuff so I would like to keep it running so she doesn't load up the drives on our other computers with pictures. It's a Talon brand PC, just some generic thing. It's got an Athalon 500 chip. A couple of years ago the power supply failed when we had a power outage. I replaced it with an Antec 300 PS. We had another power outage and the same thing happened. I put another Antec 300 in there, but now, when I push the power button everything turns on but if you let go it shuts off. If you keep holding it in it beeps and then shuts itself off.

I was a little careless disconnecting the plugs from the old one but I'm pretty sure I got it all back the way it should go. It's a bare bones computer so there's not much in there.

So where do I go from here? Any advice, other than throwing it away, is appreciated. Thanks, Andy

 

Hi,

Follow the wirers from the power switch to were it plugs in to the motherboard, disconect them and touch the two pins with a screw driver and see if it powers on, if it works then bad switch. I doubt it but worth a shot.

Make sure the 20 pin connector from the power supply to the mobo is seated correctly, more likely

If that fails try reseating the ram and video card if it has
one.

Make sure you unplug and touch the case to ground yourself before touching anything

If none of the above work try unpluging the power to all the drives and turn on to see if it will post.

Rick

 

Make sure nothing is bumped loose. If something is knocked out of whack, that could case startup failure. Like the previous post, make sure everything is seated and pressed in correctly.

 

I checked everything twice and all connections are good. I took the RAM board in and out. I Disconnected everything, mouse, keyboard, etc. Connected power to components, floppy drive, hard drive, etc. one at a time, no change. Same results all the time. The switch is working because everything starts going once button is pushed. But something is stopping it at the same point everytime. It's about 3 seconds whether you push the button and release or push it and hold it in. Thanks, Andy

 

See if the CPU fan is running.

 

I am not sure just because everthing turns on that means the switch is working properly. On some computers when you push and hold the power button for 3 to 5 seconds it shuts the computer off. I would try shorting the pins with a screw driver to be sure.

Rick

 

I'd say pull the RAM and try it, see if it beeps. Then try pulling the Video Card, and seeing if it beeps. Might be a bad mobo.