Solve : Computer restarting without warning?

1.	Solve : Computer restarting without warning?
Answer» Flakey PSU ? ?It looks like a possibility, but with that you'll have to visit computer shop.Oh, I didn't see your reply, patio I'm not sure what the term "Flakey" means. I assume it means faulty. I have a spare plug for a disk drive. On this plug the 5V rail measures 5.13V and the 12V rail measures 12.3V. These appear o/k to me. Unless it is intermittent. I will leave the voltmeter on one of them to see if there is any variation. I attached the voltmeter to the 5V rail and waited for a crash then attached it to the 12V rail and again waited for a crash. In each case, I was sitting at the computer when the crashes occurred. The voltmeter needle didn't move or drift in any way on either rail. I understand there are other supply rails from the power supply, but I can't get to those. Back to the mother board. How do I test this? I'm not sure if you're having the same problem but I USED to experience the SAMETHING with my PC when I STARTED playing CS:S. In my case it was the video card that failed once out of so many times while trying to launch the game. Try a different video card if you have one (that is if you're using external video card) see if that helps. In the end my video card just fried eventually and I had to buy a new one.I had a video card to drive my LCD screen. That was the first thing I suspected so removed it some time ago. Now using the motherboard video. Crashing the same as before. Still on the mother board. Is there a way to check it?Quote from: Frank on February 06, 2009, 10:27:21 PM I'm not sure what the term "Flakey" means. I assume it means faulty. I have a spare plug for a disk drive. On this plug the 5V rail measures 5.13V and the 12V rail measures 12.3V. These appear o/k to me. Unless it is intermittent. I will leave the voltmeter on one of them to see if there is any variation. The only reason these measurements mean nothing is because it's not under load at the time... Borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there.The computer was running at the time I was measuring the 5V and 12V rails. So these rails were under load. However, I am not sure if these rails are the same as those on the mother board itself. Therefore, I agree, the only sure way to prove or disprove that the power supply is faulty is to replace it. I will try to do that tomorrow and get back with the result. ThanksI have some news to report. As stated before, I run this machine 24/7 so the power supply, HDDS and mother boards were always warm. Yesterday, I turned the machine off and got sidetracked for an hour. Then I tried to REBOOT the computer to find that it would continually reboot at around 3 to 5 second intervals. As I pondered as to what was happening, for about 5 - 10 mins, slowly it would boot into windows further and further before rebooting each time. In the end, after about 10 mins it booted fully and stayed running as used to, rebooting at random. I turned the machine off for one hour again to see if the above action repeated. Yes, it did. I picked up the machine, took it to the computer shop and told them the story. They replaced the power supply and booted fully straight away. Took it home turned it on and worked o/k. It has run overnight without rebooting, so, I am pretty sure it's fixed. Glad it wasn't the mother board after all that. Thank you all for your help.Good News...stop by anytime !

Answer»

Flakey PSU ? ?It looks like a possibility, but with that you'll have to visit computer shop.Oh, I didn't see your reply, patio I'm not sure what the term "Flakey" means. I assume it means faulty.

I have a spare plug for a disk drive. On this plug the 5V rail measures 5.13V and the 12V rail measures 12.3V. These appear o/k to me. Unless it is intermittent. I will leave the voltmeter on one of them to see if there is any variation.

I attached the voltmeter to the 5V rail and waited for a crash then attached it to the 12V rail and again waited for a crash.

In each case, I was sitting at the computer when the crashes occurred. The voltmeter needle didn't move or drift in any way on either rail. I understand there are other supply rails from the power supply, but I can't get to those.

Back to the mother board. How do I test this?
I'm not sure if you're having the same problem but I USED to experience the SAMETHING with my PC when I STARTED playing CS:S. In my case it was the video card that failed once out of so many times while trying to launch the game. Try a different video card if you have one (that is if you're using external video card) see if that helps. In the end my video card just fried eventually and I had to buy a new one.I had a video card to drive my LCD screen. That was the first thing I suspected so removed it some time ago. Now using the motherboard video. Crashing the same as before.

Still on the mother board. Is there a way to check it?Quote from: Frank on February 06, 2009, 10:27:21 PM

I'm not sure what the term "Flakey" means. I assume it means faulty.

I have a spare plug for a disk drive. On this plug the 5V rail measures 5.13V and the 12V rail measures 12.3V. These appear o/k to me. Unless it is intermittent. I will leave the voltmeter on one of them to see if there is any variation.

The only reason these measurements mean nothing is because it's not under load at the time...
Borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there.The computer was running at the time I was measuring the 5V and 12V rails. So these rails were under load. However, I am not sure if these rails are the same as those on the mother board itself.

Therefore, I agree, the only sure way to prove or disprove that the power supply is faulty is to replace it. I will try to do that tomorrow and get back with the result.
ThanksI have some news to report.

As stated before, I run this machine 24/7 so the power supply, HDDS and mother boards were always warm. Yesterday, I turned the machine off and got sidetracked for an hour. Then I tried to REBOOT the computer to find that it would continually reboot at around 3 to 5 second intervals. As I pondered as to what was happening, for about 5 - 10 mins, slowly it would boot into windows further and further before rebooting each time. In the end, after about 10 mins it booted fully and stayed running as used to, rebooting at random. I turned the machine off for one hour again to see if the above action repeated. Yes, it did.

I picked up the machine, took it to the computer shop and told them the story. They replaced the power supply and booted fully straight away. Took it home turned it on and worked o/k. It has run overnight without rebooting, so, I am pretty sure it's fixed.

Glad it wasn't the mother board after all that.
Thank you all for your help.Good News...stop by anytime !

Solve : Computer restarting without warning?

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