I have a FreeNAS box with a Seasonic s12g-450 PSU that has been working fine for 2 years. I have WOL set up on it and had no problems until about a month ago when I had a power failure and it wouldn't start with WOL. It seemed somewhat possible that the power failure was to blame and that it needed a manual start, so I did it and forgot about it.
Yesterday I remembered and decided to test WOL again. I shut down the machine, then tried WOL and it didn't work. I then tried to start it from the power button and that didn't work either. I took the PSU out, shorted the 15 and 16 pins and still nothing. After about an hour, I tried to short out the pins again and the PSU would start for a few seconds then stop. I left it for a few more hours and it seemed to start up fine. All the voltages seemed fine as well. I stopped and started it a few times to make sure, then put it back in the NAS, which also started up just fine.
Finally, today I decided to see what the WOL thing was all about, so I shut down the NAS and sent it a few WOL signals. Nothing. Then tried the power button and again nothing.
I already made an order for a new PSU, but thinking about it I'm starting to suspect the motherboard. Maybe it overloads the PSU somehow on WOL and the PSU needs a few hours to empty its capacitors before it works again? If that's the case, I'd like to cancel the order for the PSU because returns are a bit of a hassle over here. I'd rather not take apart another PC to test components one by one.
Anyone have any ideas about what might be going on?