OT FOAK PC random reboots.

My Sony PCV-RZ504 desktop just spontaneously rebooted for the fourth
time in three days. At first I thought it might be some weird software
glitch as it seemed to coincide with IE use after a recent update, but
I'm pretty sure that wasn't even running when it did it just now.

So next most likely candidate is presumably the PSU? It gets left on
24/7 but the case doesn't feel particularly hot. The time interval
between reboots also seems to be random and a matter of several hours.

I have been thinking of replacing it now that it is 5 years old and
showing its lack of power by today's standards, but I was hoping to
pension it off to light duties rather than scrap it. Not much good as a
torrent box to replace the ancient but indestructible Dell Dimension PII
if it's going to reboot when it feels like it though.

Worth having a look inside to see if a generic PSU might fit or am I
barking up the wrong tree? On two occasions it started up with a
'recovered from serious error' message and a system dump, but not just
now - just behaved as if doing a controlled Restart.

Oh, it's running XP - SP2 BTW.


--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Couple of things to try without replacing hardware yet.

Check Event Viewer to see if anything was logged.

Run memtest86 to see if it's related to bad RAM.

(you can get memtest86 by downloading this: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/)

 

Check the CPU temperature. I have a little applet which does this for me
when I'm rendering porn ^W videos.

 

Have you cleaned the heat sink? They clog up easily and then the board
might be shutting itself down 'cause the chip's too hot.

 

It's unlikely he'd be getting the "recovered from a serious error"
message in that case.

 

The blighter just did it again. Shortest time interval yet (AFAIK!).

Hmm. A pattern emerges. It is consistently giving System error:

Error code 100000c5, parameter1 00000004, parameter2 00000002,
parameter3 00000001, parameter4 80550a62.

And a System dump:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x100000c5
(0x00000000, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x8055059a). A dump was saved in:
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini012910-02.dmp.

I'll try that thanks.



--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

After finally finding something that works with a P4 it seems to running
at 56 degrees.


--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Ah, it ain't that, then.

 

You make your own pron? I was reading an article about some Italian porn
directory who's going to make his next flick in 3D. That's not you is it?

 

Nothing showed up on Memtest after 10 minutes but I guess I have to wait
longer than that.

I now suspect software. The only other significant change recently has
been an upgrade to Avast 5.0 (which reported a clean machine on a full
scan just after being installed - though it was before anyway AFAIK).

I did also defrag C: not long ago, for what use that was. The old nail
is getting a bit constipated TBF and is running on only 15% free space
on both partitions. Time to uninstall those free IDEs I don't actually
have a use for.

I'm killing a few background jobbies (Folding at Home etc.) and I've
switched automatic-restart off for now and will await developments.


--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Fraid not, no.

 

I would still try reseating the memory modules, even if memtest doesn't
show anything.

 

A proper reinstall is the only way to be sure. In fact, I'd say it's a
good idea in any case: you'll make sure anything important is backed up,
it'll run a little faster and even if it doesn't solve the problem
you'll have proved it's not software-related.

 

ITYF that taking off and nuking the site from orbit is the only way to
be sure.

But that's now (apparently) illegal.

 

It sounds to me like it might be a capicitor issue. It's the right age
bracket.
Whip the cover off and have a good squint at the caps on the main board, if
any are bulging or leaking, that will be you problem.
HTH

Oh, we have been known to succesfully repair these boards ;o)

--
Greybeard

FLHR -03 UK (95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy 2!)

Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

I rescued a Dell someone had thrown out with that problem -- ended
up buying a capacitor kit from the US. It was a bit tedious until I
realised that _both_ the Weller soldering irons I had available were
defective. Another one fetched from storage worked a charm with a 700 F
tip and Soderwick.

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Hmmm, check your system disk.

I've just recently replaced mine. I was getting random reboots and
(especially from cold) boot failures. Disk checks kept reporting that drive
was A OK, but I had noticed in recent months it had become noisier and that
the windows performance score that Vista assigns had dropped by a point due
to the disk drive.

Replaced with a nice new Western digital unit and all is hunkydory once
more.

 

You need a really good hot iron for those pesky multi layer boards.
Some of the caps can be a real bugger to get hold of though, especially the
correct sizes. Sometimes we have to _improvise!_

--
Greybeard

FLHR -03 UK (95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy 2!)

Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

This^^ My via itx board was being a horrid unstable lump, memtest ran
fine for a day+ whipped out the ram, blasted the slot with air, clicked
back in, it's not rebooted since, except when the toaster flipped the
RCD. 2 mins to do, and it might work!

 

They all do that, Sir.

Or at least certain era Dells do.

We used to have to get a Dell engineer (1) in to swap at least three
motherboards a week at the site I was working at in 2008, all due to
capacitors going pop.

Given we had about 200 of the offending model of desktop on site in
total, that's a pretty high / consistent fail rate.

(1) All covered under warranty, so rude not to.