Computer unable to boot up correctly twice in a day...

[timelapse]

Hello. My parents have an old PC I built for them: K7S5A with a 1.4 Ghz Athlon. They tell me that only once a day will the computer boot up correctly when they turn it on. If they turn it on in the morning, use it a couple of hours and turn it off, when they try to turn it on in the afternoon it wont boot up or POST (no video signal to monitor if i recall). they usually have to wait ~ 24 hrs for it to boot up correctly when they turn it on.

I just want to know if anybody has maybe an idea as to what may be causing this and point me in the right direction. I will be going to visit them this weekend for the first time in 6 months so i would like to fix their PC problems ASAP

Thanks in advance!

 

[CrispyFried]

On occasion my some PCs I work on wont turn on via the front switch. I just hold the front switch down and unplug, then plug in the back power cord at the ps It has always powered up then and runs fine afterwards power cycling wise. Or if the ps has a switch in the back, cycle that while holding down the front power button.

I have no idea why this happens, but its happened to me about 5 times in 4 years

 

[Bozo Galora]

check for bulging or leaking filter caps - especially the tall ones around the CPU
tops must be dead flat

I'm guessing a really complete/thorough virus scan with several dif AV would be in order

 

[mindwreck]

I fixed a computer sorta with that problem. It would run fine first boot. 2nd boot was dead. I figured it was the power supply since the system was entirely dead. Took out some weak looking generic one and poped in my spare enermax psu and it ran fine.

1: follow bozo's post
2: check the power supply