DELL XPS 420 lazy morning starter - Power problems

[Mont Morentze]

I have a 6 year old Dell XPS 420.mother board 3 years old.1 new Corsair 750w psu. 2 new 1TB hard drives. 4x 1Gb new memory sticks

A memory card went and closed the computer down.Gave it to some people who could not find anything else wrong with it but I had to re-install the operating system. I ran it on just two 1GB memory sticks and the computer was slow but OK. Upgraded to the maximum of 4 x 1GB sticks and the computer now runs faster and better than it has ever done.

But problem. Now when it starts up in the morning,there are no lights on the mouse or keyboard. But when it is once again restarted, it's fine. You can stop it, strip it down and start it up no problem but next morning, It has to be started twice, before it works.

I have had the bleeps and the display on top of the desktop, telling me that the sticks are not reading but this happens only in the morning. It seems to need some residual power to help it start but only in the morning.

The problem briefly stopped when I upgraded the PSU. Surely if the slots were knackered, then they would be knackered all the time and not just once a day.Occasionally the screen stays black but then comes to life on the second start. I have pulled everything out and pushed everything back in,reset the BIOS by the plug in the case,pulled the battery out and reset CMOS. But to no avail. I am looking for a spare MOBO, because I am keeping the computer for another 6 years and I need to get one when I can.

Any Ideas would be much appreciated.

 

[Digerati]

A memory card went and closed the computer down.Gave it to some people who could not find anything else wrong with it but I had to re-install the operating system.

Why did you need to reinstall the OS? A failed memory module should not cause it. It could corrupt some critical files if the failed module caused the system to hard crash, but that can typically be repaired without such a drastic process of a total reinstall.

reset the BIOS by the plug in the case

Huh? What plug? Never heard of that.

pulled the battery out and reset CMOS

I hope you unplugged the computer from the wall first. And note when you reset the CMOS memory module, that resets the BIOS.

Are you shutting down your computer at night, or just letting it go to sleep? There are settings in the BIOS Setup Menu for various "Wake on..." commands. These include Wake on Keyboard and Wake on Mouse. If not enabled, you cannot wake the computer by pressing a key or wiggling the mouse or pressing a mouse button.

If your USB ports are not kept alive during sleep, that may be the problem too, and is another setting in the BIOS Setup Menu.