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Random Rebooting! HELP PLEASE!

post #1 of 15
7/1/06 at 1:25am
Thread Starter 
Hi,

I'm currently trying to fix my friend's old desktop computer that he gave to me. however, right now i'm experiencing the "random reboot" problem in winxp.

it's a:
p4 2.66 socket 478
ECS mobo (I'm away from the comp right now, but i'll check later)
1GB 2700 DDR
ATI Radeon 9200
80GB WD HDD ATA 133
CD-RW + CD-ROM
3.5 Floppy

anyway, as i said before, it's having problems with "random reboot". So far, this is what i've tried with no effect.

1. CPU temps? 36 degree C at Idle. -ok
2. Memtest 86 for 6 passes - ok
3. install all updates for winxp
4. reformat + reinstall xp
5. CPU thermal paste removal and reaplication (AS5)
6. Reseat RAM

I've turned off the "restart automatically" function of winxp. however, it does not give me a blue screen of death, it just immediatly reboots seemingly @ random.

now, when i first opened up this case, i noticed that the cpu fan connector was loose!! however, i reconnected it, and it boots fine. Any chance it could have fried the CPU? (i thought that the P4s would shut them selves down to avoid heat damage) Could it have been damaged anyway? thus, giving way to random reboots?

or, i was thinking it could be the mobo? i remember he was having problems with is USB ports before... (sign of a bad mobo?)

I've been working on this all day, but no luck. If anyone here could give me some suggestions, I would really appreciate it!

thanks.
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post #2 of 15
7/1/06 at 3:45am
If you've set the machine to create a crash dump, and it still just randomly reboots, that suggests that the problem is hardware rather than software. That's significant, because it tends to rule out drivers and such.

When I've seen other random reboot kinds of issues, they have generally turned out to be thermal issues (like the CPU or chipset overheating) or a bad power supply. Unfortunately, it's hard to say for certain whether it's the CPU, chipset, motherboard, etc., without swapping some parts to see which combinations of parts work. That is, if you swap out the power supply for another and still see the same reboots, chances are that it wasn't the power supply. And you can then work your way through the system, component by component, until you isolate which one seemed to cause the problem.

Have any spare hardware to play with?

Even if you don't, one thing you can do is disconnect everything that's not necessary like CD-ROMs and such. This will have two effects: 1) It will tend to help rule those components out, and 2) it will reduce the draw on the power supply. If you remove some components and the problem goes away, then it's quite likely that it could be a power supply problem.
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post #3 of 15
7/1/06 at 4:19am
Thread Starter 
well i swapped psu, no effect. but there's really no way for me to swap cpus or mobos...

arg...
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post #4 of 15
7/1/06 at 12:50pm
tried running it with the case open and making sure all fans are running all the time??
Also, what temps is it running under full throttle? and is there any common denominator to the reboot??
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post #5 of 15
7/2/06 at 5:16am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman22
tried running it with the case open and making sure all fans are running all the time??
Also, what temps is it running under full throttle? and is there any common denominator to the reboot??

temps hit about 52C at load...i thought that was ok for a p4 2.66? no?
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post #6 of 15
7/2/06 at 6:10am
Processors are supposed to shut themselves down to prevent overheating, but that mechanism is designed to guard against a gradual build-up of heat. If the fan connector was loose, and the fan wasn't running consistently, it is possible that some damage could have been done. It's also possible that overheating can cause the CPU to start introducing errors into the operations that it performs, which might cause random lock-ups and reboots. (I've seen it before.)

Have you tried something like Prime95's burn-in test? On a machine I had that was showing failures like this not long ago, that test really exposed the problem. (You can get it from mersenne.org.)

Otherwise, swapping the CPU would help to be sure, but I realize that that might not be an option.
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post #7 of 15
7/2/06 at 3:57pm
52C = somewhere around 125F and that shouldn't be a problem. What is the idle temp?? and do you have a temp monitoring program that makes a graph of your temps?? If so, let it idle and let the temp program graph your temps for as long as the graph will last and see if there are any sharp spikes. that would lend some support to the fan idea.
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post #8 of 15
7/3/06 at 1:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DXGeek
Processors are supposed to shut themselves down to prevent overheating, but that mechanism is designed to guard against a gradual build-up of heat. If the fan connector was loose, and the fan wasn't running consistently, it is possible that some damage could have been done. It's also possible that overheating can cause the CPU to start introducing errors into the operations that it performs, which might cause random lock-ups and reboots. (I've seen it before.)

Have you tried something like Prime95's burn-in test? On a machine I had that was showing failures like this not long ago, that test really exposed the problem. (You can get it from mersenne.org.)

Otherwise, swapping the CPU would help to be sure, but I realize that that might not be an option.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been using prime95,(which is how i've been determining my load temps). It always reboots after passing 2 or 3 "small test" passes.

when it restarts, it hits about 54-56C... which i guess is an ok temp, so i'm not sure if it's heat, or not...
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post #9 of 15
7/3/06 at 1:43am
my suggestion. Crap the computer, its worth 200$ at most running, and just work on a different one.
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post #10 of 15
7/3/06 at 2:47pm
Sounds like a heat issue.

Could be a heat issue on the CPU or the GPU. I've had computers restart because both of them overheat (not at the same time, but...overheat none the less). It also could just be the hardware, but from your description it sounds unlikely. Try running a small desk fan into the side of the computer cooling everything to see if it prevents the restart. If it prevents the restart, you now know the cause. If it restarts you know its something more than just overheating.
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post #11 of 15
7/3/06 at 5:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by karizma
Sounds like a heat issue.

Could be a heat issue on the CPU or the GPU. I've had computers restart because both of them overheat (not at the same time, but...overheat none the less). It also could just be the hardware, but from your description it sounds unlikely. Try running a small desk fan into the side of the computer cooling everything to see if it prevents the restart. If it prevents the restart, you now know the cause. If it restarts you know its something more than just overheating.

i'll try that...
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post #12 of 15
7/7/06 at 2:53pm
Thread Starter 
ok, I think it's rude to just abandon my post so, i'll just give an epilogue.

I gave up. I tried the fan thing, no luck. And i actually posted this problem on a few other forums as well... however, i guess i'm just unlucky. I don't really have the time / energy to troubleshoot this one, so i gave it back to my friend....(he can give it to someone else who wants to play around w/ it).

just wanted to say thanks for helping me! I really appreciate it!
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post #13 of 15
7/7/06 at 7:06pm
cool, so where do we send the bill??
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post #14 of 15
7/7/06 at 7:14pm
if we couldnt help ya on this problem i would justtake it to a computer shop and let them know of the problem. maybe they could fix it.

they also have a policy on repair shops i go to is if they cant fix it they wont charge you.


hey s ninja i would like to that the computer off your hands how much? eh
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post #15 of 15
7/8/06 at 5:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman22
cool, so where do we send the bill??



Sorry to hear that it couldn't be fixed.
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