OT: Intermittent PC Rebooting Problem

"Jim Thompson"

It's something to try, but be careful and make sure that you have your Product Key handy. If you can, make backup copies of your documents in case the repair pukes (due to hardware problems) and then leaves you with an unbootable machine.

I'd try swapping in a different PS first, but that's just me. :-)

Does the machine run ok in safe mode? If so, I'd really look at any device drivers or hardware changes you've made recently.

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 16:12:06 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

qualified

than anyone else that can put screws in and plug together connectors?

It's X2, dipshit. They are stacked and in a single package.

I thought you were up on all this "stuff". Hahahahahaa!

What makes you more qualified than a freshly laid turd? NOTHING! Bwuahahahahaha!

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Wrong again. So in the interest of truth, I will explain why your theory is wrong later.

Did it ever occur to you that the PS may have killed the CPU and you just happened to see the caps _after_ the PS failure? Again, IME it takes the failure of a cheap supply to kill a CPU. In fact, it's the very nature of cheap/junk power supplies to take out the board, memory and CPU when they croak. Well made power supplies tend not to do this.

I've yet to see bad caps harm anything but the mother board. Even then, the board is usually repairable (probably not worth it, but possible). Think about it, it's not like caps are capable of generating high voltages by themselves. Maybe in the extreme case of having a cap short - open - short .... in rapid enough succession to throw the PS regulation way out of kilter, but I'd still tend to believe that a decent supply wouldn't be phased and would just detach itself from the circuitry. Anybody else here ever see bad caps kill anything? I'm not saying it absolutely can't happen, just that I've never seen it.

Why didn't you just replace the caps? Now you've pretty much guaranteed yourself a repeat performance in about a year or so.

You obviously haven't researched the bad caps problems of late. Dell is reeling in RMA losses right now due to them. There was the corporate espionage version of the problem a few years ago. The problem now seems to be from over filling them with electrolyte.

Funny that I have three boards in here that I accumulated over the last few months. They all have leaking/bulging caps and they all booted (or tried anyway). One quit powering up only after I touched the cap when showing the customer. IME, most of these caps apparently go high ESR or open, NOT short circuit. I also know of two other machines that have leaking caps and the customers don't want to replace them because they work perfectly. Now where does that leave your "theory"?

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:43:04 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

The repair option NEVER asks the user for the product key.

Jeez what a retard you are.

More left field CRAP.

your

sigh....

Now who is bother who? If you want to have a discussion about the legitmacy of that statement then fine, but if you just want to toss insults find someone else.

Make your stand now Roy Boy, is it hardware or software? If it's sick hardware, it usually won't run in safe mode either. If it works in safe mode, then it's probably a software problem.

As to your great computer achievements, tell us about them. Remember it can't be something that you copied from someone else, like loading Linux on a router for example. Now if you ported Linux to the processor in your coffee maker, then we'll be impressed. Or better yet, just show us some code or even some hardware you reverse engineered into something useful.

How about showing us some pics of your hot rod Harley, or don't you have one? ;-)

snip

I can confirm that high impedance is the normal failure mode for low voltage electrolytics, and the normal life-span determining factor at all voltages.

RL

"drunktard" is English?

The capacitors fail due to drying out. As they dry out the ESR rises, which causes more heat, and accelerates the failure. I have piles of bad motherboards with open low ESR electrolytics in the CPU power supply. First the ESR goes up, then the capacitance goes down. When the DC to DC converter can no longer supply clean DC, the CPU becomes unstable, or won't boot at all. I use the Dick Smith ESR meter, designed by Bob Parker, who is a regular contributor to some of the sci.electronics newsgroups.

I'd suggest you set some Arctic Silver thermal paste (about $10 and worth every penny) and put it on your chip.

I had lockups/freezes on my celeron too - couldn't keep the computer on overnight without it locking up. (Win2k) Then I realized, when I swapped hard drives and removed the heatsink/fan, I didn't put any more thermal paste. Looked at it, looked like white silicone based crap, and it wasn't spread evenly over my chip. Got some arctic silver, never crashed again, also running so cool I can overclock it 15%.

Also helps to add a case fan: it's like $10 at CompUSA. Make sure you get the right size for your case: measure carefully.

sounds to me you have a virus running. boot up in safe mode and check out the registry in the local machine key. software\\microsoft\\windows\\currentversion\\run\\.... there you will see programs that start up in the normal mode. you mite want to remark all of those except you virus scanning files and then try to reboot normally.. also there are services you may want to turn offf that don't belong there.

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:15:12 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

Idiot! The CPU overheated and died, then took out the ON BOARD PS regulators and caps, which THEN took out the main PS. It is quite well documented by AMD. You're an idiot. Did that ever occur to you?

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:15:12 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

No, idiot. It takes excessive heat to kill a CPU in an otherwise perfectly functional system, which this one was. Again, it is WELL documented by AMD.

Well taught techs tend not to be as utterly retarded as you are.

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:15:12 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

Get it through your head, retard boy. The caps didn't take anything out, the CPU did. What it took out was the LV regulator that is right there on the MOBO, which SUBSEQUENTLY overvoltaged the caps, you clueless twit.

More stupidity. They are like watches. When they go bad, it is cheaper to replace the entire item than it is to spend expensive company man hours attempting to match and replace caps and regulators on the MOBO.

You make more stupid statements EVERY TIME YOU POST!

You're an idiot. A dead shorted cap means a HIGH load on the PS. YOU f****ng think about it.

Hahahahaha... You really don't know ANYTHING about electronics, boy.

Your brain is out of kilter.

A 500 Watt PS WILL supply 500 Watts, even if it is through traces or caps or bad regulators, dipshit. 500Watts is enough to fry traces and many other things.

My god, you're a retard.

That's because you are a mere experimenter that claims to be a professional.

Spend a couple decades in a lab, boy.

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:15:12 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

You're an idiot. Your logic is flawed. Your knowledge of electronics is seriously flawed. Your position in the industry is skewed and flawed.

It was a $50 MOBO replacement cost (as already stated). My time at the bench and on the phone getting the replacement caps would have cost the company much more than that, dipshit.

The new system will last years, just like the original one did (5 years idiot). Longer if the idiots keep the heat sink tines clean.

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:15:12 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

You're an idiot. I have worked in a lab for decades.

No. Dell bought a well documented bad batch from Japan. The electronics industry new about it as well. I guess you never read the EE Times. It is also a years old piece of news, little boy.

It had NOTHING to do with corporate espionage. It was a bad batch of electrolyte that ended up in several hundred thousand caps that subsequently got sold before the problem was discovered, dipshit.

Wrong again. The makers of electrolytic caps know what they are doing. The MOBO designers MAY have chosen the wrong cap for the application.

Just so you know, I have worked with commercial EL caps, as well as Hi REL as well as sealed metallic case MIL caps, and even HUGE Maxwell laser pulser caps. I have worked with voltages from 1.2 to 400kV, and caps up to the 40kV range. I have seen so many different cap failures and types of cap failures and diagnosed the reasons for the failure modes that a little uneducated dolt like you could never catch up.

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 21:15:12 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

You ain't real bright, boy.

You obviously know NOTHING about EL caps.

Obviously they do NOT work perfectly, or they wouldn't be "leaking"

Theory? I have direct experience, dipshit. You are the only one that makes guesses at every step along the way in your pathetic life.

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:03:19 GMT, "Anthony Fremont" Gave us:

Are you even able to construct a complete sentence, boy?

You'll do just fine. Particularly since you spread so much FUD around.

You're an idiot. BEFORE anyone goes in and willy nilly changes out power supplies (which he would have to buy, dipshit), they exhaust ALL avenues of test and diagnosis. Come back when you actually learn some basics, and can approach being a professional.

YOU are sick hardware.

Yet another baseless remark. EVEN if it is only OS based, it may STILL not run in safe mode.

That is retarded as well. In safe mode, the hard drives are in PIO mode ONLY. So if it had a hardware problem with the HD interface bus, safe mode would hide that fact.

You may get it right one day, but a fell it may only be in your next life, boy.

Fuck off.

Hahahaha... like all your home control CRAP is all from your embedded systems experience. You're a goddamned idiot on the basics. You would surely be a copytard in your coding practices.

You're an idiot. The only press you need would be an anvil falling on your head, son. (Foghorn Leghorn inflection)

Fuck off, reverse engineer boy.

Oh boy!

How about a Norton 750 from the sixties, or a Corvair with a corvette engine in the back seat.

Fuck you, you f****ng retard. You're toast as far as this thread goes.

On Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:47:37 GMT, "Michael A. Terrell" Gave us:

EL capacitors that have BULGED have been overvoltaged, and typically have a LOW ESR. As in SHORTED.

The key term here being LOW.

Oh boy. I use an HP bridge that runs about $40k.

So, you're telling us that you need a $40,000 toy to do what everyone else can do for $50? Big deal.