I have a computer in my possession that is having a very odd problem. If the PC sits for an extended period of time, say over night, it will not boot on the first attempt. The LED on the power will light, but you get no visual from the monitor, and if you let it sit it will turn itself off.
Probably about 2 to 3 boots later, the computer will stay on after pressing the power, but still no visual on the monitor.
By the 4 to 5th boot, you get the bios splash screen and will successfully get into windows XP. However, when I got into windows XP the first time, I lost my video during the loading of the services/start up items and never got it back. Also to note, I will get a "Sorry Windows did not start properly" message and given the option of starting windows normally/safe mode/etc.
Every boot after this point will successfully get you into windows xp, with no headache.
Possibly some sort of weird heating element to this? Or maybe there needs to be an amount of charge somewhere that dissipates after it sits for long periods of time?
I have a feeling it's the motherboard but I wanted some other opinions before I do anything.
PC Spec Basics:
Dell Dimension 4400
Processor: Pentium 4 1.6 GHz
512mb of memory, I'm assuming because of it's age DDR, PC 3200.
PC Specs Extensive:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4400/
I don't believe this computer has ever been altered from it's original setup .