The other day, i switched my computer on, and everythig seemed normal. The cpu fan started up, the cd rom light was on and hdd sounded like it powered up. However, nothing on the screen. After pressing reset a few times, it eventually worked.

I think its a pripheral thing, since my optical mouse light doesn't go on when i start up the computer. If i wait long enough and then press reset, it generally works, and then runs fine until i switch it off.

The problem has persisted and now it takes more than 1:30hrs before it actually works.

I have a celeron tualatin 1.3Ghz. not sure what motherboard.... I figure it is probably the motherboard, since everything else seems to be operating, on startup except the peripherals. any thoughts?

Remove as much a you can, change the mouse for a standard one too. See at what point it (if at all) fires up OK. Then start adding bits back.

Is it a USB mouse?

I've taken out all the cards and tried, nothing works. I've checked the psu and all good there. Its a usb mouse with at ps2 converted. I think its some motherboard caps that are slightly faulty. The annoying thing is, they user 1200uF caps, which aren't cheap