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Community Newsletter: Q&A: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts
- 4/27/06 6:13 PM
random restarts
by dldelanoy - 4/28/06 3:20 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
i'm not really familiar with dell but you might like to check your bios settings i had a similar problem i'd switch off go away and find the little beast had restarted ''all by itself''
my bios had a setting ''WOL'' (wake on lan'' enabled and so whenever the phone rang up she fired up. the bios in your dell may support this or a similar operation designed to wake up / switch on your system in the event of an incoming call ( i think mine has 3 such nominated events0 but all are now ''disabled''
randomly restarts
by auntieclara - 4/28/06 3:23 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I had the same thing with my Asua a8v mother board with a AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor and 1gig memory running win xp that was only 2 mos, old .. I changed the video card and power supply nothing worked until I reformated the hard drive and reinstalled windows xp that was in March so far so good
heat problem
by crpsy - 4/28/06 3:41 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
my pc uses the asus mobo A7n8x-deluxe and I had this problem of random rebooting, particularly when a heavy cpu activity commences (such as video compression). What i have done is to open the pc and keep a table fan directed into it providing an auxillary air circulation mechanism. There is no rebooting as long as the table fan is on and well directed into the mobo. The moment it is not the case, soon enough there is a reboot.
good luck
Those four winning answers are so right.
by wmarr - 4/28/06 4:09 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First let me tell you that I have worked on many different computer systems(brands)including dell.
I have seen this type of problem on other computers as well as dell.
I believe that the power supply, dirt etc, and reseating of components is the first thing that I would check and do. As far aa malware, and viruses, most of them will not cause this unless it is a trojan horse with an uploader. Meaning that it plants itself onto a free spot on the hard drive (formatting won't remove it) and will execute (upload itself) into memory and infect your computer at startup.
Note: you can clean the dust out of the powersupply, by first removing the P/S unit, (unplug it from everything inside the case -remember where and how it was plugged in) remove the tiny screws, cut the tape seal(warranty is now void-sorry)pull off cover, blow out dust with compressed air, remove screws that hold the fan in place (don't bother unplugging it) just pull the fan out (enough to get a tooth brush at the blades etc and clean it up and make sure it moves freely. Once done, put it back together same way you took it apart, only in reverse. (end of note)
If the hardware part is done and no defects,(swollen capacitors are found etc) are seen, plug the basics back into the machine (mouse, keyboard, video, and power cord) start it up with the case cover still open and look to see that everything is working ok. (fans spin etc.) If it reboots again, I would then wipe the drive with Killdisk. Active killdisk will overwrite the whole hard disk and also remove the partition.
Once done, boot with dos boot disk (win 98 startup disk will do), at the dos prompt, type FDisk.exe, create the partition, type Y for yes. Once the partition is created, restart the computer and format it using the Win 98 startup disk, Now install windows leaving the file system intack.
This may not be the total solution, but will guarantee, that you don't have a virus or anything else for that matter on your pc causing problems.
With what was said about power spikes, a power supply problem, (not enough juice to board etc,) can affect the bios chip. You may have to (I said MAY) flash the bios with a new bois program which can only com from the manufacturer of the mother board. This process is not for the timid and possibly not solve the problem, and usually is not the problem. Bios's are usually quite durable when it comes to power issues. Once the O/S is up and running, get online, go to DEll support and get every driver that they have that goes with your computer model. Install them one by one (get AVG anti virus- its free from Grisoft.com).
Hoepfully, after all this is done, your problem will be cured. If not, send your computer to me, I will fix it.
Warning! Watch out, this is DANGEROUS
by nikl1 - 4/28/06 4:47 AM In reply to: Those four winning answers are so right. by wmarrHi Folks,
a previous posting warned about taking precautions if you open a PC power unit. You REALLY DON NEED TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS!!! If you just happily open your power unit and stick your finger in, you may wake up on the other side of the room - or in your local hospital emergency room. Take the advice of an electronic engineer of 50 years experience (ME - I had my first experience of touching a charged high voltage capacitor in 1955) and avoid the capacitors in any 'switched mode' power unit - in the UK, they are charged up to around 350 VOLTS DC!! I would personally rather touch the 5000 volt supply of the high voltage units I used to work on - really (been there, done that & got the scars!)!
Rant Over.
While I'm commenting, I agree completely with the winning answers, but have one thing to add.
There is a basic design fault in most PC cases. The air that is blown out by the PSU fan has to come in somewhere and often the only way is via a small slot at the bottom of the front panel of the case. If you stand your PC on the floor, it becomes a very effective carpet cleaner and the dust sucked out of the carpet blocks up everything inside the case - causing overheating. My solution is to add a case fan (if there is room to do so) at the rear, just below the power unit on a tower case, blowing IN. This blows in cleaner air, just where it is needed for the processor and graphics card and if the fan is big enough, any air not blown out by the power unit fan, comes OUT of the slot at the front!
Try it & see if you get less dust buildup.
Nicl
Why not mention RAM?
by kooby - 4/28/06 4:26 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hello,
I'm Kooby and I've seen computers randomly reboot, not just read about them and in all these cases it has either come down to either the RAM being partially damaged (when the particular part of the physical chip is accessed it causes it to crash) or even the IDE cable (im assuming you are using ide) could be slightly damaged from heat or bad man-handling by a computer service person. In my case I concluded that the IDE cable those Asus people gave me was a dud. I went and found the most old and ruddy IDE cable and used it as a replacement. Worked like a charm.
Also the power supply could be on the way out. I once serviced one of those pcs with a small case (about the size of a DVD player from 1999) and had its power supply gone. I've seen these things happen with my own eyes.
I know this issue ...
by warlock_ba - 4/28/06 4:31 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
But i didn't see it ever mentioned above.
I'll write my quickstart guide for this issue, it might help ...
PLEASE DO ALL FOLLOWING OPPERATIONS WITH PC SHUT DOWN AND SUPPLY CABLE FROM MAIN UNIT REMOVED (the cable thing, only for ATX cases needed)!
1. Check that the PC Case is correctly ventilated (more exactly, check system temprature (not CPU temperature) and check that the IDE/or other data transferring cables are not near the Processor, or close by it), since they heat up, reset the PC, which then cools down enough to run for a while, but then another reset will come for sure.
2. Check that RAM chips are correctly in place, and that no dust has entered between the RAM contacts (eventually clean the RAM slot).
Same for AGP cards.
3. REMOVE SYSTEM BATTERY for 3-5 minutes (eventually while battery removed, do a Short Circuit between the two pins of the battery slot, this fastens up the discharge process)! This is the major thing that fixes this issue. Windows XP in combo with the NVRam of the Motherboard do very weird stuff. That can even lead to not beeing able to start the PC until removing the battery and waiting for a while.
4. Check that the plug where you plug in the PC has GROUNDING connected right (not -, not +, but GROUNDING, at least for european plugs). Do not use for grounding improvisations. <= THIS FOR ATX IS MANDATORY
5. Check that in the PC plug you don't have also connected a wash mashine or other high load equipment.
Then we go to more PC oriented issues:
6. Try getting a good monitor, or bad one, which shuts down slowly or just enable minidump to disc of the system blue screen/system crash (you might have a blue screen, that goes over to fast, so that you see just a plain reset, but in fact it's MS Windows XP dying). If you are sure it's no blue screen change the Power Supply, then RAM, then Motherboard, and in the end CPU.
7. If you have a blue screen, first suggestion is to check which file caused it (see a minidump file log). Usually a sys or dll generates it. It usually belongs to a driver from your system. Update / remove it. That might help (other cause can be the component itself that is driven by the driver; but usually it's just a bad driver from the manufacturer).
EVEN CODECS, which most of them are driver like built (since they do directly integrate with direct X) can cause this behaviour.
Example: Real Player resets Windows XP 64 ALLWAYS!
The last software reason, indeed can be malware. But i didn't encounter any, that really does this.
Usually it's issues 1-5 that solve 98% of this issues, 1.5% is the driver/codec issue (7), and (6) is last thing you should do, since it's another 0.5% (but if you bought the whole system in one piece, this should never be the case for you; heapens only in poor countries - like mine - where you assemble your own PC from God knows what parts, from what friend ).
And last but not least.
by warlock_ba - 4/28/06 4:35 AM In reply to: I know this issue ... by warlock_baAlso while checking for Software (6. i think in my previous post). Try to disable/remove any "so called" System Aiding tools from the motherboard/videocard supplier.
Example on ASUS:
SmartDoctor - for videocards (since it's an overclocking tool, that might mess up the system).
Or ASUS AI Smart Monitor or something like that (again automatic overclocking tool).
Oddly Timed Re-Booting...an "Outside The Box" Possibility
by driftking_muniz - 4/28/06 9:44 AM In reply to: I know this issue ... by warlock_baI have a strange answer to the odd rebooting issue.
Once I had a computer that did the exact same thing and no matter what I did the problem persisted until I replaced the keyboard.
You wouldn't think something so simple could have such a drastic effect, but just as soon as the keyboard was gone so was the problem!
XP Services
by Tra(k B0i - 4/28/06 5:22 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I had a similar problem with my self built AMD machine - I would check the services that are running on the machine - some of them are set to reboot the machine if they encoiunter an error - The one that got me was the RPC service - every time it failed, it would restart the machine. If cleaning the system does not work, then I would go through all your services and find out which ones are set to restsart the machine (I changed them all to 'restart the service'). I have had no problems since then...
Reply to 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts
by gwohler - 4/28/06 5:50 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have the same problem before, a new build machine was always restart, eventually I found a series problem cause it happen
1. CPU too hot, need to add addition fans to cool it down
2. normal unpair-memory used on dual channel memory function mainboard - replaced by certified paired memory for dual channel
3. over heat cpu cause one of the paired memory which close to the cpu iccured faulty secter - replaced by another paired-memory and add addition fan for the memory.
just remember, more additional fans added in, you might need to increase the power capacity.
Dell Dimension 4500 Restarts
by Carl Rasnack - 4/28/06 6:07 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
As a service center for a university and with most of our equipment being Dell, we have seen this problem on a large number of units. There has been an issue with defective capacitors and this is not just isolated Dell equipment. What we have found to be the prime problem after checking to insure that the processor fan is working is the (1) capacitors on the system board then (2) second, capacitors in the power supply. A good tell tail sign is look at the capacitors that are between the processor and the plugs and you might see some of them with a bulge in the top. This is not always evident but if you do see any, you know that the system board is your issue. These capacitors provide filtering of the different voltages used on the system board and it is possible that this will also at times affect your system clock.
COMPUTER RESTART SOLUTION
by inmyopinion - 4/28/06 6:08 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Derek, the reason your computer is restarting is because if a big mistake that YOU made. It is not because of viruses, malware, etc. It is because you bought a Dell. It is because Dell make a horrible product in general and covers it up with cute commercials. I have told so many people not to buy their products and even my mom ignored me and ended up having the problems I told her she would. Honestly, this restarting thing is because their products suck. Return it or sue them if they wont take it back and get an MPC (owned by Intel) or other good system. Dell is the worst and you are experienceing first hand why I tell everyone not to buy their computers.
There is an easy solution...
by cellphonejunkie - 4/28/06 6:10 AM In reply to: 4/28/06 Help, my computer randomly restarts by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There is a very easy solution to stop this problem... Rather than have to worry about re-loading Windows, reformatting hard drives, worrying about root kits, malware, spyware, etc, etc, etc... JUST BUY A MAC!!!
You'll get a MODERN OS where you won't need to worry about any of this stuff, and quality hardware instead of an ugly Dell box where the casing is made from recycled Cool Whip containers!
Get a Mac
by talon1812 - 5/30/06 10:07 PM In reply to: There is an easy solution... by cellphonejunkieYes, and don't forget all the money you'll save on software, because there are about 3 software programs written for MAC's anymore!!! Besides, Mac's are now using Intel Processors, so it looks like the Mac's are crossing over to the Dark Side!!
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