OT: Which is broken?! (computer part)

[psimancer]

i spent 5 yearzs working on computrers in my own shop

what i would have suggested would be to jumper the motherboard power supply connector (while not connected to your motherboard ) and thenm to verify the correct voltage of each of the wires as usually the symptoms you have described have proven in my experience to be a weak powersupply usually meaning something was about to go out
not being a electrical tech (my father was the one who did that he fixed monitors and powersupplies at the component level) i usually turned it over to him however learning basics from him i have discovered that a power supply can provide power but as it ages its ability to provide the correct wattage diminishes then usually a capacitor in the powwer supply goes out and it wont start up again

classic symptoms of a power supply with this problem
computer will get to post but will not finish just quits
disconnecting power to one or more drives (usually cdrom or extra harddrives ) will reduce the load enough to permit booting
eventually the power supply will quit entirely usually quietly
sometimes with a pop (a capacitor blows its top most times )


ps the day they make a capacitor that can Last more than 20 years in continous on off usage we might actually have a shot at making outstanding quality electronics