[chrisbreame]

Hmmm, I notice that many users of N299 seem to be having the same problem that I am having. I'd guess that it is a motherboard or BIOS issue with the box.....

It look like some of you guys have had success by simply replacing the backup battery with a fresh one.
So far, I have not tried this, but I have found one way around the problem.

First, I'd like to describe the problem itself:
1. Machine is turned off
2. Plug power cable in
3. Hit on button (nothing happens)
4. Play around with power cable (still nothing happens)
5. Play around with power cable some more
6. About 5% of the time, the machine actually WILL turn on!!!! But due to some terrible BIOS problems, it gets itself into a bit of a state. It *looks* like it's booted up correctly, but really it hasn't - and because it's in a dodgy state, you have to pull the power plug to get it to switch off (as the button doesn't work)

OK, so I've been experimenting with a few ideas:
1. Try taking the hard drives out (maybe they are drawing too much voltage?). No effect
2. Try repeatedly unplugging/replugging the unit (might sometimes turn on, but half the time it doesn't boot up correctly)


The best idea that I found was the following:
1. Unplug the device
2. Press and hold the power button
3. Plug the power cable in

This *seems* to work every time (so far anyway)! It's almost as if you plug the power cable in, the motherboard gets some power and decides that it doesn't want to turn on. The fact that the power button is on when you put the power cable in seems to somehow bypass this. Almost as if it doesn't get a chance to decide it doesn't want to turn on - like you sort of catch it before it gets a chance.

I hope that this post makes some sense to some people?

In the meantime, I'm going to purchase a new battery and see if that makes a difference

Thanks
Chris