Strange pc trouble

[Biff Hardbody]

I had some strange problems with my pc earlier. Here's what happened, any info on what it might be is appreciated.

I opened up my pc for its anual cleaning. I used compressed air on the the various fans and surfaces inside. I removed the graphics card and cleaned the fan. I made sure to ground myself when I did this. After the cleaning, I put everything back together and powered the pc on. However, when I pressed the power button, nothing powered on.

It took several tries of pressing the power button until the pc went on. Went it did power up, I got no signal on the monitor. I powered off, and reset the graphics card and its power connections. I retried powering on again, but met with more of the same results. Having to repeatedly press the power button, and when it did go on getting no signal put through to the monitor.

I then decided to reconnect the case wiring to the motherboard (Power switch, power led, rest switch...etc). This did nothing, and things actually seemed to worsen with repeated power button presses not turning anything on. I decided to close it all up and not touch it, because I had no idea what to do and figured it was something out of my control. A few hours pass and I decide to take another try at it. I press the power button, and the pc boots up perfectly, like it always has.

So, what gives? I'm half afraid its going to shut off or I won't be able to get it started back up. Any ideas? Thanks for your time.

 

[Biff Hardbody]

Also, I used two cans of compressed air to clean. One of them basically on my graphics card when I was cleaning the dust from it. I noticed this made the card very cold. Could I have made it so cold it needed time to warm up? Thanks.

 

[paulmr]

do you hear the POST "beap" from your pc speaker?

 

[Biff Hardbody]

No, I didn't hear anything.

Its been fine ever since. Maybe it needed to thaw after I went overboard with the compressed air?

 

[paulmr]

lol odd... I had a computer that sometimes would not power on without a few hits of the button

 

[Socket7]

How were you spraying this canned air on the system? It should be done from a few inches away and in breif bursts. The can should also be upright. If you were spraying the liquid inside the can all over the card, it's possible you could have had issues related to thermal expansion, or something else weird happened. Back up your data and see what happens over time. It's working fine now so it's probably ok.

 

[Biff Hardbody]

I was spraying it incorrectly (long bursts, close). I think it was some type of thermal issue like you say. Fortunately, everything seems better now. Thanks again.