Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 35988	2003-07-27 11:02:00	random reseting.	bigred! (4320)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
163294	2003-07-27 11:02:00	lately i've been have a problem with my computer reseting randomly. it sometimes does this 10 seconds into the boot up sequence, after a few minutes, or sometimes after a few hours. the screen just goes black and it resets as if i hit the reset button. i can't think of any changes i've made recently, however i have a few completely unsupported hypothesis. in wellington, due to the bad weather, i've been noticing more power surges than usual, and think this may be related. my power supplys fan (i think, it could be a case fan tho.) sometimes slows down for about 4 seconds, or at least the whirring becomes lower pitched, so maybe it's a dedgey power supply. reading some posts on other forums, i've seen alot of talk of the cpu overheating being the cause, could this be the problem? oh, another thing which may help narrow it down is about the same time my machine started rebooting, it also started freezing for anywhere from 3 seconds to 45 seconds. both of these problem i believe to be increasing in frequency. i would appreciate any help as it took 3 tries to write this without my machine reseting. thanks heaps brendan	bigred! (4320)
163295	2003-07-27 11:37:00	Hi there Firstly i would flash the motherboard bios with the latest bios code available from the motherboards website. What motherboard do you have? Does your case sit on the carpet? it probably could do with a good vacuum. Regards	Robocop (4319)
163296	2003-07-27 12:05:00	A word of warning if flashing the bios and you are on a dodgy power supply you could stuff your mother board. Flashing the bios is not to be taken lightly and unless you are sure you are going to cure something it should not be done. Quite often random resets are more to do with dodgy ram but in your case it sounds a little like the power supply.	mikebartnz (21)
163297	2003-07-28 12:42:00	cheers for the help, any tips on narrowing it down though? is there any way to rule some possibilities out. thanks	bigred! (4320)
163298	2003-07-28 12:51:00	To test your memory download DocMemory (sorry I can't remember the URL) and it will do a thorough test of the memory. Funny thing is I recently bought another 512mb and when installed with the 256mb stick they would not cooperate but DocMemory found no problems and yet both Win 2000 and RH9 did not like it.:(	mikebartnz (21)
163299	2003-07-28 22:03:00	try starting in safe mode, if it works it is definately something on start up, start removing newly added programs.	Scotty D (491)
163300	2003-08-02 10:34:00	i think i've found something which should narrow it down. i asked a friend about it and he said check the voltages in my cmos. so i check them and they all stayed constant except for the 12v which continually flucuated from as low as 11.7 to 12.18, but that may or may not have anything to do with it. anyway while i was watching, it reset, then about 3 more times within 5 seconds. this happened a few time, but it seems to have died down a bit now. any help would be greatly appreciated	bigred! (4320)
163301	2003-08-04 11:38:00	It sounds like a hardware problem to me . You may have to realistically assess whether you are capable of undertaking troubleshooting as some knowledge of hardware and the availability of substitutes will be required . At least the problem is so frequent that you will likely know when it is fixed! Over-heating could be the problem . I don't know how old your computer is but if the pwr supply fan is faltering I would guess that the machine is a 'few' yrs old . What I would do is check the cpu and pwr supply fans . How much dust and crap? Are they both turning?!! Older machines usually develop fan bearing problems requiring them to be replaced (or, at least, oiled) . So clean the system up and make sure all fans are working well . Also, re-seat all plugs etc and check the CPU heatsink is seated properly . If no change is apparent, I would remove one memory module and check result . If no go, swap memory module and try again . Else, try another memory module . Either way, make sure the mem gets re-seated . If still faulty, it would be useful to eliminate the pwr supply by substituting another one . You might also need to check the inserted cards . Remove all non-necessary ones such as modem and network cards . Substitute the video card as well . After this it points more to the motherboard . This is difficult to swap and test! Hope the above is helpful .	linw (53)
1