Let's play "what part is failing?"

[vsp]

This should be simple...

Athlon 1300
256MB RAM
60GB WD HD
not sure on make and model of the case or power supply (local computer company built it for me a couple of years ago)

Lately, the system's seemed to make a bit more noise on startup, as if something was running sluggishly. It'd go away once the system was running for a minute or so.

Tonight, I plug everything in after a weekend absence, hit Power, and the system is on... on... on... shut off after about three seconds, with a blinking light under the light-bulb icon and no other noise or movement. I shut it all the way down, waited a minute, tried it again... same behavior.

On about the eighth attempt, it did finally come on and stay on, which is how I'm typing this now.

It did this once before, a few months ago, but it only "misfired" once.

I would really like to fix this before I _can't_ get it to come back on. First impulse is the power supply -- am I likely wrong?

(Ironically, I have a second fixer-upper right now; I hijacked my niece's malfunctioning Dell 450 with the intentions of wiping the HD and installing a fresh coat of 98SE. I would really love to have at least one functioning computer in the house, though.)