Hello to all

I appologize in advance for a lengthy message.

I am building a new machine using the following basic components:

Tekram P5MVP-A4 ATX Motherboard [This mobo has soft power startup]
AMD K6-2/300 processor
Enlight 250 watt Midtower case.
64 meg 100mz DIMM Ram
Etc

The setup and configuration worked fine.  I probably started, shutdown and
restarted this machine 20 times over a two day period.  When I took it to
the customer to set it up, the machine will not boot, it will not even light
up the power led.

I changed the power supply, no help.  Checked the old power supply in
another machine, works fine.  I did notice that when I insert the power plug
to the back of the power supply, the fan on the CPU runs for about 1 second,
then stops, however the machine does not respond in any other way.  I can
get the fan to repeat this action if I wait about 1 minute and try to plug
the unit in again.  All of this post problem testing was done in my shop
[same place the machine was built].

I have stripped the unit down and tried to no avail to find a short etc. and
have found nothing.  I am sure that I can get an exchange under warranty, so
there is some delay, but not a serious setback.

Now here is the confusing twist, and the real question that I have:

The customer has another machine that is connected to a pair of HP printers
on different surge protectors, but on the same source breaker that I am
attempting to use.  Occasionally if the printers are both turned on, and he
attempts to start his computer, it will not startup.  Almost like the
voltage is not high enough to start the machine [no power good signal?].  If
he turns off the printers, he can immediately startup the computer.  This
does not seem to have caused any problems other than irritation for the
customer.  This computer is an AMD-K2 200.

I am obviously interested in knowing if this problem could have caused the
new motherboard to die, and if so, how.  Is it possible that low voltage, or
a reversed polarity on the 120v circuit somewhere could cause a perfectly
good mobo to go bad instantly without any smoking of components?

TIA for any help and thoughts about this problem.

Mike Buraczewski
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