How to diagnose this one ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Simon
  • Start date Start date
S

Simon

Hi there,
OK, last weekend collected a PC from a customer who says it's powering
down all on it's own and has finally corrupted the hard disk so it won't
boot again.
I did the usual repair stuff and got the system up and running again. I
suspected the power supply, cooling etc but all seem to be fine. Spent a
day trying to get it to fail but nothing. Customer has had the PC back 5
days and is on his way round to drop it off as it has started happening
again! ideas anyone ??
I've not tried a new psu, would this be worth a go, it's difficult
though as getting it to shutdown seems so intermitant.
thanks simon
 
Hi there,
OK, last weekend collected a PC from a customer who says it's powering
down all on it's own and has finally corrupted the hard disk so it won't
boot again.
I did the usual repair stuff and got the system up and running again. I
suspected the power supply, cooling etc but all seem to be fine. Spent a
day trying to get it to fail but nothing. Customer has had the PC back 5
days and is on his way round to drop it off as it has started happening
again! ideas anyone ??
Click to expand...

Yeah...he's got a faulty wall socket. If it works fine at yours but
packs up at his house then it's most likely a problem with his home
wiring.
 
Conor said:
Yeah...he's got a faulty wall socket. If it works fine at yours but
packs up at his house then it's most likely a problem with his home
wiring.
Click to expand...
That's occurred to me as well, hey ho I'll let it run for another 24
hours here I guess :)
cheers conor,
simon
 
Yeah...he's got a faulty wall socket. If it works fine at yours but
packs up at his house then it's most likely a problem with his home
wiring.
Click to expand...

Might be difficult to quantify that one, but a more forgiving PSU
would obviously be in order.

A_C
 
Simon said:
Hi there,
OK, last weekend collected a PC from a customer who says it's powering
down all on it's own and has finally corrupted the hard disk so it
won't boot again.
I did the usual repair stuff and got the system up and running again.
I suspected the power supply, cooling etc but all seem to be fine.
Spent a day trying to get it to fail but nothing. Customer has had
the PC back 5 days and is on his way round to drop it off as it has
started happening again! ideas anyone ??
I've not tried a new psu, would this be worth a go, it's difficult
though as getting it to shutdown seems so intermitant.
Click to expand...

Yeah, those intermittents can be a complete
pain in the arse, because they are intermittent.

Lot to be said for trying a new power supply, even tho
it may not be that, just to cut to the chase and eliminate
that possibility. Obviously easier to do if you have a spare.

The other obvious possibility is a problem with the
mains socket he is using, get him to try using a
different one on an extension cord if he can.
 
It is one of two things, and probably both ..
power supply and mobo electrolytics getting
weak. If the mobo is ASUS, you've got
another asus-rebooter .. a classic with
those mobos. A third probability is bad
spots on the hard drive are slowly getting
worse. If that drive is a Maxtor, that is
for sure, and the drive could be resetting.
When I get a machine like that, I look
at the overall picture. If the machine is
fairly old, crappy video, 40 gig drive,
no USB ports, I mope mouth it to the
user, and go for a new machine, or a
fairly extensive upgrade .. case, mobo,
ram, psupply, hard drive, dvdrw ... and
try to prevent this walking back in the
door with a mystery thing.

johns
 
johns said:
It is one of two things, and probably both ..
Click to expand...

Mindlessly silly on that last bit.
power supply and mobo electrolytics getting weak.
Click to expand...
If the mobo is ASUS, you've got another
asus-rebooter .. a classic with those mobos.
Bullshit.

A third probability is bad spots on the
hard drive are slowly getting worse.
Click to expand...

Mindlessly silly, that wont produce spontaneous shutdowns.
If that drive is a Maxtor, that is for
sure, and the drive could be resetting.
Click to expand...

Mindlessly silly, that wont produce spontaneous shutdowns.
 
johns said:
It is one of two things, and probably both ..
power supply and mobo electrolytics getting
weak. If the mobo is ASUS, you've got
another asus-rebooter .. a classic with
those mobos. A third probability is bad
spots on the hard drive are slowly getting
worse. If that drive is a Maxtor, that is
for sure, and the drive could be resetting.
When I get a machine like that, I look
at the overall picture. If the machine is
fairly old, crappy video, 40 gig drive,
no USB ports, I mope mouth it to the
user, and go for a new machine, or a
fairly extensive upgrade .. case, mobo,
ram, psupply, hard drive, dvdrw ... and
try to prevent this walking back in the
door with a mystery thing.

johns
Click to expand...
Do you actually make a good living from spouting rubbish?

SteveH
 
snipped Mindlessly silly stuff......... harddrives causing spontanious
reboots....its 'windows' that does reboots for debugging
 
turn off ' reboot on errors ' in windows management.
if he is plugging in a KB and mouse and usb devices in at home, and you are
not reproducing everything but the power source, your getting no where.
 
My bet is that it's probably a thermal fault in the PSU that intermitently
appears after it has been on for hours.
 
Hi Jad,
The problem is the machine doesn't restart but just turns off. Anyway
he's trying the extension lead from another wall socket at the moment.
I've not had a call so far :)
 
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