Thanks for the advice Dave -
I have since investigated further and after dismantling the case and got
access to the switches found that by pressing the power on switch directly
( i.e. not via the external case buttons) the power on LED flickers briefly
and then goes out - if I repeat the process the light doesn't even flicker
with the power remaining connected - (and the Pc doesn't acutally power up)
.. I have swapped the PSU and lead with a known working one and the same
happens - thus ruling out any PSU issues.
In summary the power on LED only lights after the power has been connected
for the first time and the PC doesn't power up - subsequent power on
attmepts don't even result in the LEd flicerking unless the power supply is
disconnected and reconnected.

At first I susepcted a blown fuse but the this appears not to be the case
as the process is repeatable.

Do you think this might be a switch problem or something more fundamental
? - unfortunately I don't know the background to this PC ( why it was being
discarded) but it seems worth saving i.e. PII processor full set of memory
and a reasonable hard drive)

Thanks
Chris


"David Maynard" wrote in message
...
chris wrote:

Hi,
my wife recently aquired an oldish ex work PC which I would like to reuse
for our kids as the spec is still resonable and it has a fiar amount of
memory /disk - however the problem is the power on and reset switches on
the main case. They only work perhaps once in 50 or so times

What are the symptoms, other than it not powering on. I mean, do the
switches 'stick' in one position or the other, or not move at all, or move
but no 'click', or what?

Look inside the case and see how they're mounted. Are they simply loose?
Is the mounting bracket broken off the front bezel support?

What I mean is, it may be possible to simply fix the ones that are there.

so I wondered if there was a way of replacing these

Yes, they can be replaced but it's not easy to describe in text because
you're unlikely to find some place that sells a 'direct replacement' so
it's a matter of looking at them and finding something close enough to
fit, and that depends on being passingly familiar with typical switches
and perhaps some ingenuity in mating them to the existing brackets inside.
If it's a *simple* one it might simply be a round shaft, momentary, switch
screwed into a flat bracket behind the plastic pushbutton and another
'standard' round shaft, momentary, switch could be put in the same hole,
perhaps using the back nut to adjust how far/close to the plastic plunger
it is so it depresses and releases properly.

The generic solution is to buy a 'normal' pushbutton switch from some
generic supplier, Like radio Shack, and simply drill a couple of new,
correct size, holes in the front bezel, mount the new 'standard' switches
and move the power and reset wires to them. That means snipping the wires
off the old switches and soldering them to the new ones.

or just bypassing the switches and hardwiring and using the main PSU
on/off switch to power the PC?

Well, there's not really anything to 'bypass'. Wiring the power switch
permanently 'on' would cause the computer to turn itself right back off
after the 6 seconds, or so, "hold me down to power off' timeout and
'bypassing' the reset switch is "disconnect it," but since it don't work
anyway it's already 'disconnected'.

If the BIOS power settings can be set to always power on after a power
failure then you might be able to cycle the rear switch to turn it on but
that's really a kludge.


I'm not sure what effect taking out these switches would have.

Any ideas appreciated -

TIA
Chris