Blank screen when I turn computer on

[BanDeodorant]

A few days ago I came home and turned on my computer, and the screen remained blank and doesn't POST, but all the fans were running. I finally got to boot after about more than an hour of replugging IDE cables and power cables. I even pulled the CMOS battery out and put it back in after a few minutes, but that didn't solve the problem. I'm pretty sure I got lucky that it finally booted, since I kept trying. I'm thinking it might either be the power supply or the motherboard.

The weird thing is, when the comp is on and running, everything is fine and there's no problem at all.. it was just that starting it up took forever and now I'm scared to turn it off, lest it takes another hour or two to get to work again.

So did anyone ever experience this before? My computer is getting to be about 4 years old soon (in sig) but it still shouldn't be dying that fast. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

P.S. I also noticed that the HDD activity light doesn't light up during the times the computer fails to POST, and does when I finally got the computer working.

 

[Dangman]

Hit up the basic trouble shooting guide. It might help you out.

But off the top of my head, the times when your particular problem occurs in my experience, it's usually due to A) something is shorting out the mobo or B) the mobo is dying.