Lately need to press power button for a full second for PC to actually turn on

[TomasK]

Hi! Minor issue here. Before a few days ago all I needed was to press the power on button for a fraction of a second and the PC would turn on. Now I have to either press it twice or hold it for about a full second to turn on the PC. Bothers me a little bit mainly because of the habit of just clicking the button to turn on the PC, not holding it. Also, main question - can this be an indication that something bad is happening with the mobo? PC: Aorus B550 Elite v2, Ryzen 5800X, RTX3080Ti, 700W PSU (SilentiumPC Vero L3)

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Test the power button on the case. Unplug it from the motherboard, short the power on pins on the motherboard to power on, see how long it takes. It will tell you if it is the switch or the board.

 

[QuietBob]

Could also be an early sign of a failing PSU. Once you've eliminated the power switch as a possible cause, try swapping in a known good PSU to see if it changes anything.

 

[Wirko]

Agreed with both, mechanical switches fail, often gradually and not at once, as dirt finds its way inside.

I suggest another test: can you power off the PC (or send it to sleep, whatever you've set in Windows) with just a brief press on the same button, reliably, every time? If you can then the switch seems to be OK.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Try to swap it with reset switch, to test if the button itself is faulty.

 

[TomasK]

Button is not faulty, tested by temporarily connecting a power button from this set in its place, same behavior. Google suggested turning off Fast Startup in Windows settings, that did not change anything. What did change things was turning off ErP in UEFI settings. I, however, want ErP ON, because I want power to USB ports to be OFF when the PC is OFF (without having to turn off the PSU). Also, I've had ErP ON ever since I got this mobo almost a year ago but the long-press-to-turn-on behavior is recent (few days) and I did not change any UEFI settings nor have I upgraded UEFI/BIOS etc. Also, if I turn off power to the PC and wait a few minutes, then turn power back on, PC can be turned on normally, with a short click on the power button. But in this case, as soon as I turn power to the PC back on, USB devices get turned on, which suggests to me that in this situation, ErP is not in effect.

Edit: I'd like to add that I will most likely be upgrading my PSU in a few weeks to Seasonic G12 GC-850 once I research it a little and if the reviews are OK. So I hope that if my PSU is on the leave (which is a possibility since it is a cheaper 700W PSU and the 3080Ti with 5800X might be a little too much for it), it will fight on at least until then

Edit2: So after reading more about the Seasonic G12 GC-850, I think I'm gonna rather buy the Corsair RM850. While the cheap Seasonic G12 would handle powering the components in my PC just fine I'm sure, I want the PSU to be silent and it seems that the G12 would fail in that regard.

 

[mclaren85]

Have you ever checked bios? Try to reset it. Some energy saving features can cause this.

 

[TomasK]

Have you ever checked bios? Try to reset it. Some energy saving features can cause this.

see the post above yours

 

[Mr.Scott]

Button is not faulty, tested by temporarily connecting a power button from this set in its place, same behavior. Google suggested turning off Fast Startup in Windows settings, that did not change anything. What did change things was turning off ErP in UEFI settings. I, however, want ErP ON, because I want power to USB ports to be OFF when the PC is OFF (without having to turn off the PSU). Also, I've had ErP ON ever since I got this mobo almost a year ago but the long-press-to-turn-on behavior is recent (few days) and I did not change any UEFI settings nor have I upgraded UEFI/BIOS etc. Also, if I turn off power to the PC and wait a few minutes, then turn power back on, PC can be turned on normally, with a short click on the power button. But in this case, as soon as I turn power to the PC back on, USB devices get turned on, which suggests to me that in this situation, ErP is not in effect.

5vsb is going bad.
New PSU is in your future.

 

[TomasK]

Found the culprit! I realized that the issue started when I found an old (from 2008) USB soundcard among my stash of "electronics I no longer use" a few days ago, an ESI U24 XL (semi-professional portable USB audio interface supporting 24bit/48KHz, very nice sound quality). I connected it to my PC and my speakers to it, all in hope that it will get rid of the motherboard noise I was able to hear from my speakers when using onboard audio (which it did, perfectly. And it elevated the sound quality quite a lot). When I disconnect it from my PC, the PC starts normally, immediately after even the shortest click on the power button.

Do you think the sound card might be misbehaving? It did lie under my bed for about 10 years unused... Or maybe bad design? I know for a fact ESI made several hardware revisions of this device after I bought mine.

Might it even be hurting my PC in some way?
(the RGB LEDs on my mobo turn on for a split second when I push the power button, and then immediately they go off, unless I hold the button longer, so the mobo does turn SOME power on briefly, I can imagine this could hurt my 2 M.2 SSDs in some way, if the mobo is powering them on for a split second and immediately off, like it does the RGB LEDs...)

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Do you have optical out on your PC, if so use the external like that, and PC will still start up fine.

 

[TomasK]

Do you have optical out on your PC, if so use the external like that, and PC will still start up fine.

The U24XL does not work standalone, without being connected to USB (USB is the only power source it has)

Edit: Solved. The speakers I mentioned I have connected to the U24 XL are "secondary" cheap speakers I use when I don't need high quality audio, because my studio monitors along with my subwoofer consume 30W when idle and significantly more (depending on volume of course) when playing sound. The cheap ones are USB-powered and consume next to nothing. So I will simply connect them to the (unused) headphone output of my main, better USB sound card (Focusrite Scarlett 2i4). I did not want to use the headphone output because it's amplified for headphone use, which I think has negative sound quality impact on speakers compared to a line out, but I don't think I will notice any sound degradation with those cheap speakers.

In other news: I have an ESI U24 XL USB sound card for sale!

 

[Chrispy_]

Ah cool, you fixed it.
I was reading down the thread and coming to the conclusion that you had a bad USB device connected or there was some conductive crap fallen into a USB port and interfering with the +5/0 voltages.

 

[Wirko]

I have a very speculative explanation. Upon a quick press of the button, the motherboard tries to power up the USB ports from 5VSB only, like it does when ErP is disabled. However, the ESI consumes too much and the 5VSB supply is insufficient, so the voltage quickly drops - you just can see a brief flash of LEDs. The MB detects an error and briefly switches to "what do I do now?" state, but then recovers.

Your PSU should be able to output 2.5A at 5VSB, and that should be plenty enough for an external audio interface or two - but you probably have other peripherals on USB ports too, and the motherboard may have current limiters built in, too.

Try connecting the ESI through a powered USB hub so it doesn't use power from the motherboard. With some luck you will work around the problem until you get the new PSU.

 

[TomasK]

Ah cool, you fixed it.
I was reading down the thread and coming to the conclusion that you had a bad USB device connected or there was some conductive crap fallen into a USB port and interfering with the +5/0 voltages.

Thanks for reading!

Not sure if my trouble are solved, though. Seems that the ESI card was better at filtering out the noise from the mobo and now when my cheap speakers are connected to the Focusrite soundcard, I can hear the mobo noise, again! It is barely audible, I would subjectively say it's about 10 dB quieter than when connected to integrated audio, but still, it's driving me nuts!

I wish I knew what was going on with the PC when the ESI was connected to it, because I would really like to use it again. I don't want to risk the health of my PC components though...

I have a very speculative explanation. Upon a quick press of the button, the motherboard tries to power up the USB ports from 5VSB only, like it does when ErP is disabled. However, the ESI consumes too much and the 5VSB supply is insufficient, so the voltage quickly drops - you just can see a brief flash of LEDs. The MB detects an error and briefly switches to "what do I do now?" state, but then recovers.

Your PSU should be able to output 2.5A at 5VSB, and that should be plenty enough for an external audio interface or two - but you probably have other peripherals on USB ports too, and the motherboard may have current limiters built in, too.

Try connecting the ESI through a powered USB hub so it doesn't use power from the motherboard. With some luck you will work around the problem until you get the new PSU.

That is an excellent potential explanation, will look into your suggestion when I have time tomorrow, thanks!

So I could not sleep without trying Wirko's suggestion first Before trying a powered USB hub, I tried connecting the ESI via a cheap non-powered USB hub I got ages ago from aliexpress. It worked! The PC now powers on normally, with a single quick click of the power button! Thanks, man!

I just hope all is now well with my PC and no components will get damaged because of the ESI card, I really like its sound and the fact that it completely filters out all the noise from my mobo...

 

[Devon68]

I'm sure 80% of the people would just remove the sound card and be done with it, or accept that it takes a second for a PC to turn on but since I said I will start this year positive I wont say anything more. Hope you figure it out.

 

[TomasK]

I'm sure 80% of the people would just remove the sound card and be done with it, or accept that it takes a second for a PC to turn on but since I said I will start this year positive I wont say anything more. Hope you figure it out.

95% of people would not even bother with the cheap small speakers if they already had studio monitors + subwoofer that sound so much better and would not be bothered by the few dozen extra watts of power consumption. But I am not 95% of people!!!

 

[Wirko]

That is an excellent potential explanation, will look into your suggestion when I have time tomorrow, thanks!

So I could not sleep without trying Wirko's suggestion first Before trying a powered USB hub, I tried connecting the ESI via a cheap non-powered USB hub I got ages ago from aliexpress. It worked! The PC now powers on normally, with a single quick click of the power button! Thanks, man!

I just hope all is now well with my PC and no components will get damaged because of the ESI card, I really like its sound and the fact that it completely filters out all the noise from my mobo...

I don't even have a speculative explanation for that. But as long as it works ...

As for the Focusrite, it's too good to let the mobo noise pass through. Are you sure you don't have nasty things in your setup, like ground loops or poor quality audio cables near data/power cables?

 

[TomasK]

I don't even have a speculative explanation for that. But as long as it works ...

As for the Focusrite, it's too good to let the mobo noise pass through. Are you sure you don't have nasty things in your setup, like ground loops or poor quality audio cables near data/power cables?

Well, maybe both. The Focusrite is connected to the BX5 D3 monitors via balanced 6.3 TRS, those monitors are grounded via power cables, so there might be a ground loop PC <--> Focusrite <--> Monitors <--> Power outlet. Also, I do have audio cables running right along power cables. Thing is, I don't hear ANY noise when listening to the monitors (but it might be that thanks to being connected via a balanced connection, the noise just cancels out) and I do not hear any noise when listening to headphones via my O2+ODAC (connected via USB to PC and via power brick to power - but that might be the utterly genius design of the ODAC)

Edit: solved the noise coming from the Focusrite. When manipulating the equipment, one of the speaker cables got partially unplugged by about half a centimeter, that was causing very noisy sound on the headphone output of the 2i4. Plugged the cable properly back in, now the sound is perfect. So I won't need the ESI after all.