Computer works fine...then fails to start up again

Right, I'll be brief so you don't get too bored reading this.

My computer isn't really well oiled - needed reformatted about a year ago and I still haven't bothered. But I don't think a format would solve this. After shutting down and restarting the system the computer no longer starts. There is no wrongful shutdown or anything that could have caused it. When I push the power button the lights light and the fan whirrs, but then it dies after about a second. And it remains totally unresponsive.

My solution, and it works every time, is to pull the power cable from the back of the unit, leave it for a few seconds, replug and go. I know I could cause more problems by pulling the cable out with the power still on but I always flick the rocker switch on the back on the unit to minimise this risk (the rocker switch overrides the power button on the front.)

So, does anyone have the same problem? And does anybody have a solution? It was suggested to me that it is a fault with the socket that the power cable goes into, in the back of the base unit, but before I took any action I thought I'd ask around.

Cheers in advance.

Jarvis

PSU's power supply units do fail and is commonly the first thing to fail in pc's, you can test it manually or use a power supply tester here's an example

power supply tester would be the option i would go for, psu's are not that expensive to replace either, just a pain reconnecting everything and people lose patience and damage some of the connectors.

Thanks axxxo, I'll definitely look into getting one of those. I've been a Doubting Thomas my whole life and the fact that the computer starts up every time, without fail, after disconnecting/reconnecting the power cable leads me to think that it isn't the socket that is the problem, but something inside that computer. Some wee chip that helps with the booting maybe?

I know enough about computers but not an awful lot about the hardware and inner working of the base unit but as I said, I was born a skeptic haha!

Thanks again axxxo.

no problem, be sure to check all connectioins are secure inside anyway, hopefully it is the psu and not the cpu after overheating

[bimgx=250]http://www.ink2print.com/media/gbu0/cat/psu.jpg[/bimgx]Had a very similar issue quite recently with my xp machine changed ram etc etc but that bugger over there on the left was my problem,changed it for about 30 euro and sorted my problem,so could it be the Power Supply Unit ? Maybe worth checking out.