[pellis]

XP random restarts

I'd love to agree that Memory is to blame , but I have suffered the same restart problems ever since I got my new PC with XP, (back in Feb 03). After waiting for Broadband so I could download all windows patches (so the vendor couldn't blame the OS) I took the kit back to the store I got it from.
They tested all the h/w - only found that the fan sometimes stopped.. they replaced it under warranty.

Got it back home to find it STILL restarted 4-5 times an hour. The second visit back to the vendor ; they had it running over night for days without finding ANY fault. Did all manner of tests.

Conclusion ? They only had the tower unit to play with ; no peripherals that I have .... yeah, like that *should* make a difference.

I have now had the machine back at home for over a week and (Shhh) it's been stable - I only have the keyboard/mouse/adsl modem and monitor plugged in.

What's not plugged in yet ?
Smartmedia USB reader
USB hub
old 56k modem (not connected to the phone line)

It must be one of these....I'll plug 'em in one by one and report back...

 

[pellis]

Knight44 - what led you to the CPU !? How do you check to solder ?

Look back up the list - my PC was running fine for weeks until just recently; started rebooting again.

Everything but the USB hub has been in for ages (never got around to the hub) and no bad effects... the differences ?

Well a batch of MS hotfixes,
AV updates (yes I've been running AV & firewall all the time).

It's been gradually getting worse over about two weeks and yesterday it booted three time while closing down.

I'm wondering (hoping!) loose boards of some kind, or loose wires inside.

 

[pellis]

BTW - my M/B isn't an ASUS - it's a Gigabyte

 

[pellis]

So, it gets more interesting....

Booted today and no CD-ROM recognised...no CDRW recognised..
Had this once before (rebooted and all okay). Rebooted today, and still no IDE drives other than main drive....
Entered BIOS - no IDE drives found,

Rebooted again, and the bios found the IDE drives but then all hell breaks loose - system keeps rebooting ; won't get past the checking IDE drives...

humph.


Took it apart and pushed a few cables etc. The only cable that is less than really tight is the power cable to the cdrom.

Connected back up and it powered up okay - it's running right now and sounds v. stable (normally the fan which is noisy varies speed a LOT). But its running with the side panel off.

Any comments/suggestions/thoughts anyone ?

 

[pellis]

Random restarts - solved

Problem FINALLY (I hope) resolved....it was the fan.

I found that the voltage readings for the 12v was going up & down between 11.8v and down as far as 9.5v...

Took the machine back to the shop (AGAIN) and asked them to check the PSU which I was sure was faulty.

Two days later - I get a call and they've put in a much bigger/quieter fan (Spire FalconRock II) which gets the CPU running far cooler and for some reason the voltage exceeds 12v (although today its back around 11.8v).

Could be that the old fan was sucking too much voltage which dropped the fan speed (cos less juice) and this spiralled the cpu heat....

 

[pellis]

Windows restarting - MY solution

Okay, earlier I stated that it was the fan at fault...not so !! The problem came back shortly after they replaced the fan.,,,,,,

It was actually a faulty PSU - it was replaced with a same-spec unit and the system has been rock-steady (not a good analogy if you live on a fault-line of course) ever since.