Computer Woes

[dazzler]

Hey

My PC has a mind of its own. Every now and then why working away it just decides to reboot itself.:mad:

He is running windows XP and normally behaves 'imself.

Its too big to throw through the window so he may have to stay a little longer. I thought he may have been gettting hot but this is tassie after all and i chip the ice off the keyboard anyway. I cleaned the dust from inside the finned thing and fan with low pressure compressed air.

A loooooong shot...........would this be a software or hardware problem.

Cliff????

Anyone:o

cheers

dazzler

[Gumby]

Do you get a message saying it's rebooting or does it just turn off ?

[bennylaird]

Had a similar problem, tried just about everything, changed the power supply, reloaded XP, etc etc.

In the end it was the hard drive itself, had to replace it.

It would just reboot itself at random intervals.

[goat]

do you get a little pop up window telling you that the system is going to shut down in 60 seconds to save your work??? if so mate you have the "sasser worm". i hope it's some thing else simple

[journeyman Mick]

..................Its too big to throw through the window so he may have to stay a little longer......................

You haven't tried hard enough:D (or eaten enough weetbix for brekkie;) )
Frustrating piles of junk that they are, I hate 'em, I hope you can get it sorted.

Mick the luddite

[Ianab]

If it's just rebooting at random then it's probably hardware.

First suspect is a dead cooling fan, PC probably has at least 3. Run it with the covers off and ensure they are all working, especially the one in the power supply.

If all looks OK there you are really down to a process of elimination. A faulty power supply would be the next suspect, around this time you need an organ donor PC and start swapping out parts. Hard disk / ram / motherboard or CPU are also remote possibilities. But check the fans and power supply first. It will be fixable, but it may be a process of elimination, starting with the most likely suspects.:rolleyes:

Cheers

Ian

[Cliff Rogers]

Hardware, suspect M/Board, how old is it & what brand of M/Board?

We are having a VERY high number of Gigabyte motherboards in the 1 to 2 year old range failing at present.

You may be lucky as it could just be a crook power supply.
You should be able to get an ATX PSU for about $40, try that first.

[mudgutts]

I find they make great anchors lol

[dazzler]

"thanks, it just goes click and then restarts as if nothing is wrong. Its a pentium 1100 with a 20gig HD with windows xp and another 20gig for storage.

Its ummmmm 4.5 yrs old which is what, 110 in dog years, "

Maybe he needs a rocking chair and a rest perhaps"

[Ianab]

We are having a VERY high number of Gigabyte motherboards in the 1 to 2 year old range failing at present.


Yup.. I seen some of them too.

Have a look at the power capacitors on the board, around the CPU socket. If there is gunge leaking out of them.. the board is on it's way out :(

Ian

[bennylaird]

[SIZE=2]
Its ummmmm 4.5 yrs old which is what, 110 in dog years,

110 dog years and 4000 computer years, was around when they built the Pyramids....

A new hard drive will give you better speed and more space and not be to costly. I have been down the motherboard RAM power supply road, getting more and more pussed off. Borrow another hard drive, or change to your other 20G and your worries may dissappear.

[Daddles]

Just take it to your local PC repair shop and have a long chat with the sorcerer behind the counter. If it's obvious, he'll fix it in a jiff. If it's not, you'll need his resources to fix it anyway.

And remember, in this day and age, sometimes just trading it on a new box is sometimes the quickest and best fix. Computers these days are more disposable than many razor blades (no, I don't think that's good ... unless you're selling the rotten things)

Richard

[Bob38S]

:D Would this be a good time to say "I love my Mac?" :D


Sorry to hear of your woes :(:(
Bob

[Cliff Rogers]

.... Borrow another hard drive, or change to your other 20G and your worries may dissappear.

I don't agree. A faulty HDD usually doesn't cause intermittent restarts.
A faulty HDD causes things to go slow & speed up & go slow & then certain aps will close with an error.
Reboots without warning are usually the M/B or the PSU.

[namtrak]

Possibly overheating?

Although I think it may tend to freeze rather then reboot.

You could download a CPU temperature clock - small and free.

When in doubt Google is your friend.

[Groggy]

A HDD error would tend to send some indicator of failure, like a sector error etc. I reckon Cliff is on the right track and it would be useful to know the mobo manufacturer. If the thing is making 'sick' noises it could be a CPU fan failing and an overheat problem, though these mostly cause a lockup.

So, what's the motherboard?

[Gumby]

I don't agree. A faulty HDD usually doesn't cause intermittent restarts.
A faulty HDD causes things to go slow & speed up & go slow & then certain aps will close with an error.
Reboots without warning are usually the M/B or the PSU.

That's why I asked the initial question and now I'd agree with Cliff. I'd be hoping it's the power supply though.

[RufflyRustic]

have you backed up your data recently? the Power Supply gets my vote

Cheers
Wendy
(who sometimes is a computer nerd)

[Cliff Rogers]

Possibly overheating?

Although I think it may tend to freeze rather then reboot.

......


In Tassie in winter???? It'd be frozen alright. :D

[ernknot]

Be kind to it and put it out of it's misery. Don't let it suffer any longer otherwise I will have to report this to the RSPCC.

[Sturdee]

One of our computers did the same. Rebooted without warning.

Turned out to be the temperature of the CPU chip. The fan wasn't cooling it enough and the chip reboots automatically.

Installed a case fan onto the back of the unit ( cost $ 10 ) and it hasn't done it since.


Peter.

[chrisb691]

I agree with all comments. The last pc that I had this happening on, turned out to have a bad stick of RAM. Also, check all your internal connections.

[Auld Bassoon]

Hardware, suspect M/Board, how old is it & what brand of M/Board?

We are having a VERY high number of Gigabyte motherboards in the 1 to 2 year old range failing at present.

You may be lucky as it could just be a crook power supply.
You should be able to get an ATX PSU for about $40, try that first.

Hi Cliff,

About three weeks ago I had the m/board and CPU fail simultaneously on a machine I use at work. The M/B was a Gigabyte GA-8ANXP-D and an intel CPU. The diagnostic guys reckon that the M/B failure caused the CPU to let go. Anyway, Gigabyte have replaced the M/B under warranty (even though it was nearly two years old), so I'm up for a few $ for a new CPU, but I can live with that. At least it didn't fry the RAM or anything else.

[bitingmidge]

:rolleyes:

P.

[dazzler]

Pulled the panel and the fan is working.

I put my pens in my top pocket, snapped my glasses in the middle and taped it back up, watched two hours of startrek and then looked again;

Here is what my machine has;

On the Fan thing;
INTEL A70178-001, 120105A, 109X7612H1166

On the square flat thing on the MB;
VT8601T, 2GA5406531

On the MB;
ASSEM, RTM8100L, GIGABYTE - GA6VEML

Power unit;
Model ATX-250GT
VT82C686B

Now to some of you non computer people this doesnt make much sense.
Not wanting to sound too clever I thought I could let someone else have the glory of telling everyone what this means:p

dazz-erkl

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Not wanting to sound too clever I thought I could let someone else have the glory of telling everyone what this means:p

It means that even though you broke your glasses, the repair is working fine. :D

[Groggy]

Dazzler - thanks for the giggles, well said.

I'd put the motherboard as the main suspect, my daughter has one doing the same thing every now and again. It also does something very weird - it starts itself up sometimes if I bump the cordless mouse :eek: (from a cold start).

Cliff may have some more specific info on that model mobo.

[Cliff Rogers]

GIGABYTE - GA6VEML :eek:

It has prob'ly got 'fat caps'.

Read this article, it will save me a bit of typing.
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_30328/article.html
& this one has more pictures to look at.
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195

If you were in Cairns, I'd offer to have a quick look & tell you for free. (do this for everyone)

If the M/B is stuffed, stop now, don't spend any more money one a 4 to 5 year old PC. Get a new one.

You won't be able to buy a new M/B that will take your current CPU, RAM & PSU. You may find one 2nd hand but HEAPS of M/Bs of that age have the same problem.

[dazzler]

Thanks Everyone.

I know what i gotta do........:o

[chrisb691]

Dazzler - thanks for the giggles, well said.

I'd put the motherboard as the main suspect, my daughter has one doing the same thing every now and again. It also does something very weird - it starts itself up sometimes if I bump the cordless mouse :eek: (from a cold start).

Cliff may have some more specific info on that model mobo.

Check your BIOS settings, and see if 'startup from mouse' (or something like that) is enabled. Or even 'startup from keyboard'.

[bennylaird]

I don't agree. A faulty HDD usually doesn't cause intermittent restarts.
A faulty HDD causes things to go slow & speed up & go slow & then certain aps will close with an error.
Reboots without warning are usually the M/B or the PSU.

In the past I would have said the same, but the problem was not related to the memory storage as I had fully checked it for bad sectors etc. Xp was reloaded 3 times. Same thing kept occuring with no real pattern. Put another drive in, problem fixed. Mind you power supply had been changed out at first, memory changed and then a new cooling fan, motherboard was next but I used an old drive to do diagnostics and everything was fine. I put the drive back in and it started random reboots again. Drive is now land fill.

Intermittant motherboard faults are also hard to find until you bite the bullet and change it out. The worst thing is suspecting a software error and wasting so much time trying to fix it. Usually resulting in reformatting, reloading etc.

[journeyman Mick]

Dazzler,
you've had all the technical/expert advise, now for the practical/fun advice:) .
1) Buy new box
2) Attach all your bits - screen, mouse, keyboard etc
3) Load all your software
4) Load all your data
5) Throw the other box out the window :D :D

Steps 1 -4 are pretty mundane but step 5 will go a long way to easing all the frustration and anger you've experienced due to its little tantrums.

Mick

[Ianab]

GIGABYTE - GA6VEML :eek:

It has prob'ly got 'fat caps'.


Yup.. got a few of those in the 'dead' box under the desk :o

The failing caps give the same symptoms as a dodgy power supply (hanging - rebooting). But a new PC, or at least the box may be the simplist option. The old machine is just a spare parts organ donor after that.

Cheers

Ian

[ivanavitch]

Pop the RAM out and clean the contacts with a soft cloth. Make sure you are earthed at the time (lean on the sink with your elbows). Refit and retry.

[felixe]

Hi Dazzler,
How is the power supply down in Tassie, has it improved since they changed the name of the HEC and privatised it? My memories are of fluctuating power, which leads me to recommending an uninteruptable power supply unit - UPS.
My current computer suffered a "brown out" in Brisbane last year, this caused the system to reboot while in the middle of a backup. Following this the computer became erratic and kept re-booting without warning (similar to yours) and also would freeze. Off to the local computer shop and it was found to have fried the MB and buggered the HD. So after discussions with the owner he recommended a UPS and we now have two powerware systems in place for the computers, at a cost less (per computer)than it was to replace the MB and Harddrive, the UPS costs $115 and the repairwork was a lot more. The best thing about the UPS is it connects by USB to the computer and if the power drops out completely it safely shuts the system down!
BTW, I was running a surge protector when it happened but this did not stop the drop in power and for the cost of not much more than a powerboard I now have better protection.

Regards,
Felixe.