A computer failure mystery...

I've got an old AMD Athlon eMachines (about 6 or 7 years old) that my family got rid of to upgrade to a newer computer. This computer's been put to use as a sort of media pc, jacked to the 27" TV in my college apartment and hooked up to a RF keyboard/mouse, the apartment network, and the living room sound system (great for downloading and watching stuff, use as a jukebox, etc.). Lately though, wierd stuff's happening... when we try to turn it on, half the time it will not turn on at all, the other half it will turn on but only the disk drives and hard drive spin up, the tv gets no signal, and needless to say, no bois comes up. The motherboard does not beep or do anything to actively indicate a fault, and for all we can tell, the power supply is powering everything but the motherboard. I've taken the power supply out, and it is a Bestec ATX-250-12E 250W power supply (remember, pretty weak computer, not much power needed).

I know this is an old computer, but before I drop money on a new power supply, what are the chances that it's the motherboard that's toast? If the motherboard's done, I'm not going to bother buying a new one, but if it's just the power supply, I'll probably just go out and get another 250-300W one.

The thing that confuses me is that if the motherboard wasn't getting power, how could the HDD light light up, and how could the power switch on the front of the computer function (both the HDD light and the front power switch plug into the motherboard)? Dunno, any thoughts? Did I troubleshoot this right?

 

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Your mobo might be shorting. Try removing your motherboard from your case, placing it on a box or something, reattaching all the wires to your devices and turning it on. If it works, then you just need to buy a couple of extra washers to put between the motherboard and the standoff screws inside the case.

 

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A 250 watt PSU is very low for any Athlon equipped machine. Take a peek at both the motherboard, and inside the PSU for bulging capacitors. Remove and reinsert both the memory and the video card. A failing PSU can have enough power to turn on the fans, but not enough to boot the machine.

 

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Seems strange, it's been fine for years and it should suddenly have an underpower issue? I'll give that a shot though, maybe it is shortening, or maybe some dust has collected where the vacuum can't reach, I'll give it a shot. Thanks!