About 2 days ago, my recently built computer would not power up when pressing the front panel button of the case. And to my surprise, the power on/restart button had completely broken somehow. Since I needed to use my computer, and I was on a tight budget so I could not afford a brand new case. So after searching online, I found out that I could short out the pins that control the on/restart button on the mobo with a flat headed screwdriver... Well the first time I tried it, it worked great, but after a while, the computer turned off suddenly. Now, I can't get the darn thing to tunr on anymore even when shortening the pins(It starts up, but after 3 seconds or so, loses power) Do u guys think I completely screwed up my comp? Will buying a new case remedy the problem? please help..Thank you.

I haven't run into this problem before so I'm only guessing. Shorting out the leads isn't the best thing to do because your bypassing any resistors in the line. Now, I haven't taken apart a PC switch so I don't know how the whole switch/PSU lineup is. Shorting out pins on the mobo might have damaged it; the switch is there for a reason, so it may have additional resistance or circuitry to prevent damage to the mobo. Bypassing the switch allows full power to go to the board. Chances are the board got fried.

You don't say how often you've shorted out the board, but the more you do it, the more likely you are to cause damage. It may be overheated, a small arc zapped the board, or who knows?

I don't think getting a new case will help at this point, if you were jumpstarting the board directly. If you had just shorted the switch, then it may have not damaged anything. Go to a local computer shop and see if they have old cases or even just a replacement switch and try that. If not, then you may need a new mobo.

__________________
Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

OK..I just returned from my comp shop and replaced the mobo with a brand new one, i also bought a antec case(pretty cheap) but the thing is... I am still running into same problem, even with using the power switch on the case... I thought it might be my PSU so I tried to turn it on without plugging in my video card but still the same result. any advice plz

Sorry. I don't know. It's possible it's the PSU; it could be damaged or just not putting out the power it should be. A new PSU shouldn't cost much, but I would suggest trying your parts w/ a friend's system first. There might be a problem component that isn't obvious.

I remember in school when I was building a workstation I had two mobo's that both had interlayer breaks near the power connectors. It would work fine for a while then just die. We only found the problem by flexing the boards and seeing if we could make it die. I don't think that is the problem in your case, but it illustrates just how weird some problems can be.

__________________
Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

This sounds like a processor problem to me. I would say memory, but when it's memory, the system will usually restart itself sporadically, rather than consistently, or it won't even get past the POST process. A dead CPU will disable the system a few seconds after it is turned on. Does the system beep at you? If so, it may have overheated. You also may have damaged the motherboard, as others have said, by using that screwdriver, which was really a terrible idea in the first place. The best way to figure out what the problem is, is to test each part individually, or swap out all of the suspect parts for working ones and then put the old parts back in one at a time, checking to see if there are problems after each replacement.

When a PSU goes bad, parts will start slowly degrading until they just don't work anymore. You may experience a crash now and then, with increasing frequency. Then you can't even boot your system up all the way without crashing. Usually, if you have a problem with a power supply, you should IMMEDIATELY replace it, as it will damage any sensitive electronics that it gets hooked up to. So, if you think the power supply is causing the problem, DO NOT install new hardware until you replace it, or until you are sure it is not causing the problem.

__________________
-Aaron

I also posted this on various tech support forums, and everybody seems to think that my 300watt PSU is not strong enough to handle my mobo and CPU, so I am going to get a 400 watt PSU and see if that solves the problem. I dont see how it could be a CPU problem though.

Honestly, you didn't give enough information for me to be able to tell if your PSU was strong enough to support the hardware it's running, but if you don't think it could be CPU related, then it probably isn't. Actually, I misread the post. But, why would your PSU run fine before it quit on you if it wasn't strong enough? I had the same problem when I purchased a high end video card. But, when I put it into my system, it just wouldn't turn on. The graphics card required too much power... I don't know why your system would work in the first place if it required more power than your PSU could provide.

__________________
-Aaron