Random shutdowns and problematic startups

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doncaruana
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Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:39 pm

Random shutdowns and problematic startups

Post by doncaruana »

Got a BP6 here with dual celeron 400s that's been running pretty well for the last 5 years or so. Lately, though, I've started having this random shotdown problem. Initially, it would shutdown and reboot (I think successfully). Then it graduated to shutdown/restart, but on restart, it would either not start (no bios beep, no actual startup) or, if it made it past that, I would get a siren.

In order to get past the siren, I would have to completely turn off the power supply (power switch alone wouldn't do it) and then start it back up. Bios beep and everything okay.

Next we graduated to where, even on my manual restarts, it would get part way through loading the OS than shutdown (and/or reboot) until, once again, I'd have to do the PS cycle, etc and after a couple of attempts, it was good.

Than, I thought maybe I'd figured some software issue and made some changes and everything was cool for two weeks. Then it went to hell. Now I'm to where it won't stay on for more than an hour or so and it does a complete shutdown. Worse yet, when I try the PS cycle, sometimes it won't even spin up the drives (just the power light comes on) and even then sometimes it will power itself down again immediately (several seconds after getting the power on).

To me, this sounds like a PS issue, but this PS is maybe a year old and kinda beefy (500W I think). Can't remember why I had to replace the other one, but at one point, I think the system overheated because of it (fans died or something). But it was running fine for a while after that and before the freak out.

I should also mention that I ran MBM on this and some other stuff and the temps were never even approaching too hot (~43c). I haven't checked all the caps, but will. I did take a quick glance and everything looked alrightm though.

So --- anyone have ANY ideas on this? Did I just get a crappy PS and need a new one or is my board/cpu on the way out?

Any help would be VERY appreciated.

Thanks,
Don
Donald F Caruana
doncaruana
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Quick apology on multiple posts!!

Post by doncaruana »

Sorry all - I didn't receive any sort of indicator that my post was successful, so I accidentally posted the same message three times and I can't delete my own posts.
Donald F Caruana
Derek
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Post by Derek »

doncaruana wrote:Sorry all - I didn't receive any sort of indicator that my post was successful, so I accidentally posted the same message three times and I can't delete my own posts.
No problem :) All fixed!
-Derek
hyperspace
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Re: Random shutdowns and problematic startups

Post by hyperspace »

Weclome to BP6.Com, doncaruana !
doncaruana wrote: ...I haven't checked all the caps, but will. I did take a quick glance and everything looked alrightm though... Any help would be VERY appreciated.

Thanks,
Don
Sounds like bad capacitors. Even if they all look good, one or more of them could be "leaky" or failing.
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doncaruana
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Post by doncaruana »

I was just doing some more reading up on badcaps and symptoms and it sure does sound like a good fit. I still haven't checked though, but...I did have some progress.

On a whim, I yanked the sound card (don't use it anyway), and unplugged the cd drive and floppy drive. Then I was able to bring the machine up (after one go-round with the siren). I immediately went into bios and cranked my dual 400s down to operate at 300MHz. Saved changes and let'er rip.

About 18 hours later and no signs of an issue yet and no shutdown/reboots. Of course, I didn't necessarily have any *visible* signs before, but at least no shutdowns.

So far so good, and I went ahead and ordered a new PS for it. I figure at the worst case, I'll have an extra for an emergency and in the best case my problem goes away.

I'm going to try and check the caps today, but I'm hopeful that a new PS will do the trick.

Now to throw it out to the rest of you: Does what I did (unplugging extra stuff and turning down the CPU speed) sound like something that would help a bad cap problem or a PS problem, or could it be either?

Don
Donald F Caruana
doncaruana
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Update

Post by doncaruana »

After nearly two and a half days of running with no issues, I finally decided to power down and check the caps. All straight as an arrow and no leaks! And no bulges...except for C22 and C23. I don't know exactly what those do, but this board'll be heading off to abit as soon as I can. I already talked to them and they were megacool about it.

Anyone know exactly what those two do? Or should I just not care?

Anyway, looks like my "unplugging" and turning down the CPUs is just enough to keep things stable for the short term.
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doncaruana
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Post by doncaruana »

Okay - did some more surfing here and caught hyperspace's picture of the system temp sensor (RT3). When I took a close look, I notice that the two caps that I have an issue with (C22, C23) are just to the left of RT3 in the picture.

So, here's my thought, which I'm hoping someone can validate. The "siren" sound I hear on my machine is what it's supposed to do on an overheat. Could it be that the bad caps are falsely tripping the system temperature sensor and thus triggering the shutdowns/alarms. Does this make sense to anyone??

I know it's sort of academic, but I'm just hoping to understand this better (call it a "thirst for knowledge").

Thanks,
Don
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hyperspace
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Post by hyperspace »

doncaruana wrote: ...So, here's my thought, which I'm hoping someone can validate. The "siren" sound I hear on my machine is what it's supposed to do on an overheat. Could it be that the bad caps are falsely tripping the system temperature sensor and thus triggering the shutdowns/alarms. Does this make sense to anyone??
Thanks,
Don
The bad capacitors could cause a "false positive". One of my boards started acting like yours, with a "siren alarm" sometimes. Several capacitors were bad on the board.
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