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I'm not sure if this is the place to go, or if this is even formatted correctly but whatever.

I have an old computer from around 20008. This is an old computer that I found on the side of the road (great start), the hard drive was broken so nothing interesting there but the machine has a weird issue with turning on.
It was working fine for weeks until one day it just wasn't turning on. I tried everything for weeks but nothing worked.
Eventually one of my last ideas was to put alligator clips in the 24-pin PSU cable and use a rocker switch to force it on. This actually had worked but I have no idea how.

This is NOT a PSU issue I've already tried different ones with the same result. The power button is also fine, when the computer is running and I press it, it turns off normally. There is no instability, when its on, it works just fine. Same goes for the BIOS which I have already re-flashed btw.
Also tried re-seating the ram and running it with only 1 stick.

I know its probably just a motherboard issue, but I've never seen anything like this. And I wanted to know if just maybe there is some capacitor or thing I could replace. It's a computer I found on the side of the road so I'm not replacing things like the CPU or graphics card or motherboard.
Obviously I have the wires taped down to prevent death. And I am aware that this is quite dangerous, but I basically have no choice or it won't turn on at all.
I just want to know if there's any explanation.

Also here are the specs (doubtful it would be useful as I couldn't find useful information about them).

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 rev 2.0
Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5770
CPU: Core2 Duo E6850
Case (standoffs are in correct position, I checked that): Some generic Cooler Master Elite case.

Not even sure if I'll get a response but oh well. I tried.

Dumb question, but are you sure your power button is plugged in correctly?

If yes, then maybe the 24 pin got a little dusty? Hard to tell

Have you cleared CMOS? I have had a machine that had power cycle issues that carried over even after a bios flash. Clearing the CMOS fixed the issue I was having.

https://download1.gigabyte.com/Files/Ma ... 08156fd9c3
Follow Page 35 of the manual

I have cleared the CMOS, and yes the power cable is plugged in right.

But speaking of the CMOS, it is worth mentioning that every time the machine gets turned off by the wall it will forget all of its BIOS settings, but then it will say that the CMOS and BIOS have a checksum error. If I choose the "Last Known Good" configuration, then it restores all my settings.

Also I have pulled out the board and there doesn't seem to be any physical damage, no weird metal bits shorting stuff. It still works though.

Maybe the CMOS battery or battery contacts are dead or defective. Other than that I am getting out of my element. I hope you figure it out!

I actually could be. Any recommended ways to clean the contacts?