Left it unplugged overnight; looks like it reset. *Phew* (Recruitment)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Monday, June 22, 2015, 15:09 (3453 days ago) @ stabbim

Good news. Glad you're back online.

I just wanted to say that if it is overheating, unplugging it for a while may get it back - but unless the conditions change, there's no reason to think it won't happen again. If you do get a similar issue in the future, put your hand on the power supply (carefully) to see if it's abnormally hot. If it is, then the next time you get it to turn on, check to see if the internal fan is running (you should be able to hear a mechanical noise with your ear up against the brick).

I had a 360 power supply that the fan stopped running inside. I was able to disassemble it, oil the fan motor's shaft, and put it back together. That was 2 or 3 years ago, and it's still working.

On the other hand, it may not have been a heat issue. I've had a few experiences with PCs where they'll refuse to turn on despite being briefly unplugged. Then I'll have the person leave it unplugged for 5 or 10 minutes (which, the first couple of times, I thought seemed silly), and it works. In the instances I'm remembering, the issue did not reoccur, which means it probably wasn't heat. But I'm not sure what it WAS. The only thing I can figure is that through a power surge or some other random anomaly, a circuit got into a state of charge that it wasn't supposed to be able to get into, and cutting it off completely allowed it to reset to its normal state. Not that I pretend to understand the particulars of how that would work.

I think this hypothesis has merit. When this happened to me it was after a power surge. (I think that's what happened--there was a pop and everything turned off. Scary!)