Machine reboots unexpectedly -help.

[half_pint]

Sometimes my machine reboots unexpectedly maybe once
or twice a day.
I am at a loss to no why, could be hardware or software?

I must add it reboots as if you had pressed the power button
off, ie there is no warning or error message prior to reboot.

Sometime it reboots immediately other times I have to press
the power button.

I am thinking a hardware problem perhaps?
It is as if it 'trips out' ie it draws too much power and trips
an electro magnetic 'off' switch.(Do PC's have one?)
Maybe my on/off button is faulty?

I have added an extra drive and memory recently, as well as
a different (*cheap*) mouse/ mouse driver, also have a cdrom and a cdrw
which may be less likely causes (seemed to predate problem).

I also have problems with OE freezing sometimes and I have
to reboot manually, could this be related?

Sounds a bit of a messs doesn't it? Any ideas?
I don't know that much about PC hardware so thats why I am
asking here, I assume some of you are more familiar with its
funcction than I am.

Basically can software cause such a reboot or is it only hardware
probs which would cause this?


Any advice appreciated.

PS the prob tends to occur when using OE but not always,
it happens as I am booting up sometimes too ( to add to the
confusion (LOL)). I can never remember it occuring when I
am playing yahoo pool or chattting online for instance?

Once again thanks in advance for any ideas?
I could put my old memory back and remove the exra drive if it helps,
but I am not that keen on messing with the hardware as it
doesn't happen *that* often, just a few minutes to reboot basically
but I would like to know the cause.

I am 50/50 as to whether it is hardware of software, but I don't
know really.

Thanks half_pint.

 

[Onideus Mad Hatter]

Sometimes my machine reboots unexpectedly maybe once
or twice a day.
I am at a loss to no why, could be hardware or software?

I must add it reboots as if you had pressed the power button
off, ie there is no warning or error message prior to reboot.

Sometime it reboots immediately other times I have to press
the power button.

I am thinking a hardware problem perhaps?
It is as if it 'trips out' ie it draws too much power and trips
an electro magnetic 'off' switch.(Do PC's have one?)
Maybe my on/off button is faulty?

I have added an extra drive and memory recently, as well as
a different (*cheap*) mouse/ mouse driver, also have a cdrom and a cdrw
which may be less likely causes (seemed to predate problem).

I also have problems with OE freezing sometimes and I have
to reboot manually, could this be related?

Sounds a bit of a messs doesn't it? Any ideas?
I don't know that much about PC hardware so thats why I am
asking here, I assume some of you are more familiar with its
funcction than I am.

Basically can software cause such a reboot or is it only hardware
probs which would cause this?


Any advice appreciated.

PS the prob tends to occur when using OE but not always,
it happens as I am booting up sometimes too ( to add to the
confusion (LOL)). I can never remember it occuring when I
am playing yahoo pool or chattting online for instance?

Once again thanks in advance for any ideas?
I could put my old memory back and remove the exra drive if it helps,
but I am not that keen on messing with the hardware as it
doesn't happen *that* often, just a few minutes to reboot basically
but I would like to know the cause.

I am 50/50 as to whether it is hardware of software, but I don't
know really.

Thanks half_pint.

Your computer hates you, that's why it's rebooting...or you know, you bought cheap ass ****ing
consumer grade shit memory...yeah I'm votin on the later. ^_^

 

[half_pint]

Your computer hates you, that's why it's rebooting...or you know, you bought cheap ass ****ing
consumer grade shit memory...yeah I'm votin on the later. ^_^

Well thanks for that.
I expect you have more money than sense,
You can pay a fortune for computer products and it can still
turn out to be a load of wank.
It would be quite hard to make memory which worked for hours and then failed
but not impossible.
I will try putting the old memory back and see what happens, I did get
it at a good price on ebay(£10 for 128), which made me slightly suspicious.
(It had memory schips on both sides of the PCB).
You could well be wrong though, I will let you know.
I doubt it will fix all the probs though.

It just rebooted when playing yahoo pool! so hardware seems more likely
I guess, but I have run memory test progs, put not for all day.

 

[Chris Martin]

Sometimes my machine reboots unexpectedly maybe once
or twice a day.
I am at a loss to no why, could be hardware or software?

I must add it reboots as if you had pressed the power button
off, ie there is no warning or error message prior to reboot.

Sometime it reboots immediately other times I have to press
the power button.

I am thinking a hardware problem perhaps?
It is as if it 'trips out' ie it draws too much power and trips
an electro magnetic 'off' switch.(Do PC's have one?)
Maybe my on/off button is faulty?

I have added an extra drive and memory recently, as well as
a different (*cheap*) mouse/ mouse driver, also have a cdrom and a cdrw
which may be less likely causes (seemed to predate problem).

I also have problems with OE freezing sometimes and I have
to reboot manually, could this be related?

Sounds a bit of a messs doesn't it? Any ideas?
I don't know that much about PC hardware so thats why I am
asking here, I assume some of you are more familiar with its
funcction than I am.

Basically can software cause such a reboot or is it only hardware
probs which would cause this?


Any advice appreciated.

PS the prob tends to occur when using OE but not always,
it happens as I am booting up sometimes too ( to add to the
confusion (LOL)). I can never remember it occuring when I
am playing yahoo pool or chattting online for instance?

Once again thanks in advance for any ideas?
I could put my old memory back and remove the exra drive if it helps,
but I am not that keen on messing with the hardware as it
doesn't happen *that* often, just a few minutes to reboot basically
but I would like to know the cause.

I am 50/50 as to whether it is hardware of software, but I don't
know really.

Thanks half_pint.

Do you have any temperature montoring software? When I computer overheats,
reboot/shutdown is usually what happens.

~Chris

 

[Onideus Mad Hatter]

Well thanks for that.

Your welcome, any time you need 8 shades of ass blistering reality, hey, I'm yer guy!

I expect you have more money than sense,

No, quite the opposite in fact, although not having much money has given me more sense, like you're
learning, I found out the hard way that it's not good to buy cheap crap.

You can pay a fortune for computer products and it can still
turn out to be a load of wank.

Depends on what you're buying and from who. Obviously it's not just a matter of more expensive
equates to better, because there are lots of people who try and sell craptastic hardware at
expensive prices to n00b jobs.

It would be quite hard to make memory which worked for hours and then failed
but not impossible.
I will try putting the old memory back and see what happens,

There, now ya see, there's you thinkin. *golf clap* Common sense probably would have told you to
do that before you EVER even got on here and asked your question. But, like I said, you're
learning, have fun with it! If it ain't broke, ya didn't learn nothin!

I did get it at a good price on ebay(£10 for 128), which made me slightly suspicious.

A yup, the kinds of cheap memory you can find on eBay are usually all crap, 90% of the time
refurbished crap, so it has an even LESS chance of working correctly. o_O

And again, I speak from experience, I've got about a half dozen lil 128mb DIMMs, all of which work
great if all you want to do is play solitaire, use Word and you don't mind things occasionally
freezing and resetting. ^_^

(It had memory schips on both sides of the PCB).
You could well be wrong though, I will let you know.

I could very well be, but I'm goin with my instincts on this one and they're screamin MEMORY!

BTW, if you think it's a software problem, just reformat the drive, just install Windows and then
play around in there for a good week without installing any other software, if it doesn't have any
problem, BOOM, ya know it's software. If it does, ya know it's hardware.

I doubt it will fix all the probs though.

Oh I am quite sure that like most people your system is probably molested in about 8 different ways
with adware and spyware, and you've probably loaded reams and reams of shit software that you don't
even use and it's choking up your system, etc, etc, etc...yeah, like most...well practically
everyone I know who owns a computer, you've probably got a whole variety of problems.

It just rebooted when playing yahoo pool! so hardware seems more likely
I guess, but I have run memory test progs, put not for all day.

Just out of curiosity, you did make sure that the color of the connectors on the memory matched the
ones on the board? In other words you went from gold to gold or silver to silver, but didn't mix,
right?

 

[Onideus Mad Hatter]

Do you have any temperature montoring software? When I computer overheats,
reboot/shutdown is usually what happens.

I'm doubtin that's the problem, if it was it'd be a lot easier to figure out cause it'd be formulaic
rather than random. In other words after leaving the machine off and letting it cool down, it would
run just fine for an average of X number of hours and then would start to have problems, regardless
of any programs being used (programs which utilize memory).

If they wanted to find out for sure, just turn the system on, walk away, come back in 6 hours and if
it hasn't crashed, not a heat problem, most likely memory.

 

[Bobby]

Sounds like heat to me. But could be memory.

 

[half_pint]

Your welcome, any time you need 8 shades of ass blistering reality, hey, I'm yer guy!


No, quite the opposite in fact, although not having much money has given me more sense, like you're
learning, I found out the hard way that it's not good to buy cheap crap.


Depends on what you're buying and from who. Obviously it's not just a matter of more expensive
equates to better, because there are lots of people who try and sell craptastic hardware at
expensive prices to n00b jobs.

The older memory 64meg was also of ebay and that was perfect and only cost
me £3 ish IIRC

There, now ya see, there's you thinkin. *golf clap* Common sense

probably would have told you to

do that before you EVER even got on here and asked your question. But, like I said, you're
learning, have fun with it! If it ain't broke, ya didn't learn nothin!

Well I probably should havw tried that some time ago but I never did, I am
not
sure why. Maybe it the hassle of changing it or maybe it's the fact that
even if it was the memory I would probably put the faulty memory back in,
perfering 128 of slightly faulty to 64meg of good, I guess it depends how
many problems it solved. Hopefuly I will get round to doing it today,
it will be interesting to see if I notice any difference with 64 meg.

Also there are 4 matched pairs of 32meg total and maybe only 1 pair is
faulty?

suspicious.

A yup, the kinds of cheap memory you can find on eBay are usually all crap, 90% of the time
refurbished crap, so it has an even LESS chance of working correctly. o_O

And again, I speak from experience, I've got about a half dozen lil 128mb DIMMs, all of which work
great if all you want to do is play solitaire, use Word and you don't mind things occasionally
freezing and resetting. ^_^


I could very well be, but I'm goin with my instincts on this one and they're screamin MEMORY!

BTW, if you think it's a software problem, just reformat the drive, just install Windows and then
play around in there for a good week without installing any other

software, if it doesn't have any

problem, BOOM, ya know it's software. If it does, ya know it's hardware.

I have actually had an old drive on as slave which should not have the
problem,
maybe I will switch that to master, decisions decisions.

Oh I am quite sure that like most people your system is probably molested in about 8 different ways
with adware and spyware, and you've probably loaded reams and reams of shit software that you don't
even use and it's choking up your system, etc, etc, etc...yeah, like most...well practically
everyone I know who owns a computer, you've probably got a whole variety

of problems.


I seem remember the problem starting after I installed Ares file sharing
software,
certaintly the complete powerdowns seemed to.
It seemed very closely related.

Just out of curiosity, you did make sure that the color of the connectors on the memory matched the
ones on the board? In other words you went from gold to gold or silver to silver, but didn't mix,
right?

No I didn't but I will have a look when I get round to pulling my PC to
pieces.

 

[Chris Martin]

I'm doubtin that's the problem, if it was it'd be a lot easier to figure out cause it'd be formulaic
rather than random. In other words after leaving the machine off and letting it cool down, it would
run just fine for an average of X number of hours and then would start to have problems, regardless
of any programs being used (programs which utilize memory).

If they wanted to find out for sure, just turn the system on, walk away, come back in 6 hours and if
it hasn't crashed, not a heat problem, most likely memory.

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net

Running different software does indeed change the temperature of your
system, though.. temperature in the house might change from day to day a few
degrees (especially if you are in the weird weather system I'm in right
now), humidity levels have a small effect. If you've got a graphics
intensive game up for 4 hours it's gonna be a different temp then if you
were running Word for the last 4 hours, etc. I certainly agree with you
that is a bit more random than I would think it would be in a temperature
situation, but I wouldn't rule it out.

~Chris

 

[half_pint]

to
have problems, regardless

Running different software does indeed change the temperature of your
system, though.. temperature in the house might change from day to day a few
degrees (especially if you are in the weird weather system I'm in right
now), humidity levels have a small effect. If you've got a graphics
intensive game up for 4 hours it's gonna be a different temp then if you
were running Word for the last 4 hours, etc. I certainly agree with you
that is a bit more random than I would think it would be in a temperature
situation, but I wouldn't rule it out.

I have mixed feelings, the problem seems fairly random, and I tend
to get more problems just after booting up (or rebooting perhaps?).Often
for instance the machine will reboot itself and than run happilly for
many hours, sometimes however when I press the start button it
does not come on straight away, but maybe I did not press it in properly.
Last night for instance it rebooted whilst I was playing pool online
(unusual for it to do that) but it came straight back up and I was
able to carrying on playing or surfing.
Mind you that was a reboot, not a power-off where I had to press the
start button.
I also had a 'blue screen' where some of the characters were corrupted
which looks like memory?

There have been very few occasions where letting the machine cool
down appears to make any difference, although sometimes I do do
this.

Any ways I will put my old memory back for a while and see what differnce
that makes. (I keep saying this but I never get round to it!).

One thing I would say is that it allways seems to reboot when I am using
it!!!!
I dont ever remember it rebooting when it is standing idle.
I guess my machine really does just hate me!

 

[DaveW]

It sounds like your power supply is too small/unstable to drive all the new
components that you added to the computer. I would try replacing your power
supply unit with a higher power HIGH QUALITY brand unit (Antec, etc.) I'll
bet that fixes it.

 

[~misfit~]

Your welcome, any time you need 8 shades of ass blistering reality,
hey, I'm yer guy!


No, quite the opposite in fact, although not having much money has
given me more sense, like you're learning, I found out the hard way
that it's not good to buy cheap crap.


Depends on what you're buying and from who. Obviously it's not just
a matter of more expensive equates to better, because there are lots
of people who try and sell craptastic hardware at expensive prices to
n00b jobs.


There, now ya see, there's you thinkin. *golf clap* Common sense
probably would have told you to do that before you EVER even got on
here and asked your question. But, like I said, you're learning,
have fun with it! If it ain't broke, ya didn't learn nothin!


A yup, the kinds of cheap memory you can find on eBay are usually all
crap, 90% of the time refurbished crap, so it has an even LESS chance
of working correctly. o_O

And again, I speak from experience, I've got about a half dozen lil
128mb DIMMs, all of which work great if all you want to do is play
solitaire, use Word and you don't mind things occasionally freezing
and resetting. ^_^


I could very well be, but I'm goin with my instincts on this one and
they're screamin MEMORY!

BTW, if you think it's a software problem, just reformat the drive,
just install Windows and then play around in there for a good week
without installing any other software, if it doesn't have any
problem, BOOM, ya know it's software. If it does, ya know it's
hardware.


Oh I am quite sure that like most people your system is probably
molested in about 8 different ways with adware and spyware, and
you've probably loaded reams and reams of shit software that you
don't even use and it's choking up your system, etc, etc, etc...yeah,
like most...well practically everyone I know who owns a computer,
you've probably got a whole variety of problems.


Just out of curiosity, you did make sure that the color of the
connectors on the memory matched the ones on the board? In other
words you went from gold to gold or silver to silver, but didn't mix,
right?

I like you. I'm also pleased you're not crossposting anymore.

Welcome.

 

[half_pint]

Your welcome, any time you need 8 shades of ass blistering reality, hey, I'm yer guy!


No, quite the opposite in fact, although not having much money has given me more sense, like you're
learning, I found out the hard way that it's not good to buy cheap crap.


Depends on what you're buying and from who. Obviously it's not just a matter of more expensive
equates to better, because there are lots of people who try and sell craptastic hardware at
expensive prices to n00b jobs.


There, now ya see, there's you thinkin. *golf clap* Common sense

probably would have told you to

do that before you EVER even got on here and asked your question. But, like I said, you're
learning, have fun with it! If it ain't broke, ya didn't learn nothin!
suspicious.

A yup, the kinds of cheap memory you can find on eBay are usually all crap, 90% of the time
refurbished crap, so it has an even LESS chance of working correctly. o_O

And again, I speak from experience, I've got about a half dozen lil 128mb DIMMs, all of which work
great if all you want to do is play solitaire, use Word and you don't mind things occasionally
freezing and resetting. ^_^


I could very well be, but I'm goin with my instincts on this one and they're screamin MEMORY!

BTW, if you think it's a software problem, just reformat the drive, just install Windows and then
play around in there for a good week without installing any other

software, if it doesn't have any

problem, BOOM, ya know it's software. If it does, ya know it's hardware.


Oh I am quite sure that like most people your system is probably molested in about 8 different ways
with adware and spyware, and you've probably loaded reams and reams of shit software that you don't
even use and it's choking up your system, etc, etc, etc...yeah, like most...well practically
everyone I know who owns a computer, you've probably got a whole variety of problems.


Just out of curiosity, you did make sure that the color of the connectors on the memory matched the
ones on the board? In other words you went from gold to gold or silver to silver, but didn't mix,
right?

Well I have bitten the bullet and put back my old 64 meg memory in the
machine,
no problems so far but I have only been up and running 30 minutes but so
far so good. It will take at least a day with out a 'powercut' to be sure
possibly 2-3 days to be absolutely sure.
I took the memory out immediatley after powering down the machine
which was running idle for several hours and the memory felt pretty
cool to touch so thats seems OK.

I know simms are meant to be matched pairs but am not sure how
you match them.
It might be a red herring but I noticed as I removed the memory
that 3 of the circuit boards were marked
lg1 9912 e71042

whilst one was
lg1 9910 e71042 ( so its 9910 not 9912)

also this odd one had 9214n whilst the others had 9211n
on a sticker on the first chip of each board (preceeded by
gmm7328110cs-6)

When I received the memory it was unclear which were the pairs,
I think I found two with identical numbers on and just assumed the other
two had the same numbers on too.


Just to add futher confusion each individual chip has
gm71c17403cj6 on it. (There are 16 chips on each board,
8 on each side)

There are other number on each chip too but they are hard to
read which I will list below for my record but you can ignore
them as they are of no help as it turns out as chips on each
same side have different numbers so it is of little help anyway.


So I have three 9912's and one 9910 as follows.
9912 (pair)
9918 ag2 front 9918 ag3 back
9917 ag6 front 9918 ag2 back

9912
9918 ag3&2 front 9918&7 ag2&6 back

9910
9908 ag6&5 front 9908 ag4&7 back

The &'s indicate there are chips with different numbers on each
board so it seems I am barking up the wrong tree anyway.
The top pair also have mixed numbers as I now notice
but its not worth listing them.

All my simm connectors appear silver, I think the slots were
silver too but it was not easy to see. The connectors on my
orriginal 32 meg supplied with the machine were silver.
No connectors appeared corroded.

According to what I read, to be matched, the simms must
be the same size(MB) speed(ns) and make(edo/fpm)
this would certaintly appear to be the case for each
of the four boards so I assume they are matched
in any combination.


Anyways I have been running for an hours or two (mainly
typing in this) with no problems, I have had several freezes
before whilst typing in a post which then is lost.


If the old memory proves ok I will try adding a pair of the
'faulty' memory with a pair of the old memory to give
96 meg to see if I can isolate it to a particular pair of simms.

I will post updates on how my machine is preforming to leave
a history for others who may have similar problems.

half_pint.

 

[half_pint]

Maybe, I did consider that as mine is a cheapo machine which I know
has a low rated power supply (but I forget how I found that out),
it doesnt even have a bay for the second hard drive which just lies
in the machine not fixed to anything!!!!!
It does have a second bay for a CDROM though.
Often it appears to reboot when nothing much is happening, but
some times it reboots when it is booting up though.

Anyway I have put my old 64meg memory back and I will see
if the problem disappears or not, so I will be able to rule memory
out one way or another.

Actually I notice that with 64meg as opposed to 128 that I can hear
my newer hard drive pageing more. I know this because it is very
noisy and irritating, it is one of the reasons I increased the ram so
it would be idle most of the time. I am also aware that a noisy drive
is a bad sign but maybe it was just 'born noisy' as it appeared to be
new (in a sealed bag anyway) it has no bad sectors.

I actually moved my internet cache (temp files) onto the old
drive cos it was quiter. I also put my OE files there too.
I sometimes wonder if doing that could have caused a problem,
I know it should not, but it was one of the several changes I made
at about the time of the problem(s).

Any way I have had no problems in the past two hours on the
old memory but it is early days yet. 1 day with no problems
will be a good sign, two would be a better indication, if it goes
three days do you want to buy some cheap ram on ebay!! (lol).

half_pint.

 

[half_pint]

I would just like to thank all the people who have repiled.

I have found this group very useful and informative.


half_pint.

 

[half_pint]

I would just like to thank all the people who have repiled.

I have found this group very useful and informative.


half_pint.

 

[half_pint]

Well I have the old memory in for quite a while with no
problems, I have even rebooted.
I would normally expect at least a OE 'freeze' by now but I have
had none, its looking like the memory but I will give it
some more time.


I am going to try that Ares fileshare software which I suspected,
running that always seemed to cause probs.
It will be a good test.

 

[Onideus Mad Hatter]

I like you.

I like me too. ^_^

I'm also pleased you're not crossposting anymore.

Oh, oh, so ya don't like teh xpostin, huh? Yeah, I see how it is, not wanting to share with the
other groups...tsch, tsch, tsch...it can lead to stagnation of regs you know. Sometimes, a group
needs a lil xpostin, for promotion if nothing else.

Welcome.

WOW, ya know I think this is like the first group EVER that hasn't started pointing their grubby
little fingers and screaming TROLL the minute I started posting...you peeps got thick skin...I like
that. `, )

 

[Onideus Mad Hatter]

Running different software does indeed change the temperature of your
system, though.. temperature in the house might change from day to day a few
degrees (especially if you are in the weird weather system I'm in right
now), humidity levels have a small effect. If you've got a graphics
intensive game up for 4 hours it's gonna be a different temp then if you
were running Word for the last 4 hours, etc. I certainly agree with you
that is a bit more random than I would think it would be in a temperature
situation, but I wouldn't rule it out.

Look, this isn't that complicated. If it was a heat problem, one or both the fans would have to be
****ed and either it'd be makin a WHOLE LOT of nasty grinding noises or it'd be running silent.
Either way, it'd be easy to tell. I mean, take the cover off, turn it on, if the fans are moving,
it's ain't a heat problem. o_O

 

[Onideus Mad Hatter]

Well I have the old memory in for quite a while with no
problems, I have even rebooted.
I would normally expect at least a OE 'freeze' by now but I have
had none, its looking like the memory but I will give it
some more time.

Most likely. Don't pay attention to the people who are tellin ya it's a heat problem, cause uh, you
would know. I mean either it'd be makin like hella loud grinding noises or it wouldn't be making
any noise at all. And those people who were tellin ya yer system ain't gettin enough power, yeah
they're full of shit too. Keep in mind that a lot of the "advice" you're getting is from kiddie
gamers who overclock and burn their systems on a regular basis and buy components that actually DO
use up more power than what the PS is capable of outputting.

Unless you're tryin to put in a new Radeon graphics card, a CD or DVD burner, or some other huge
power suckin peripheral...yeah, it ain't a power issue. And again, you would know, the minute you
even try to burn a CD/DVD or play a game, BOOM, it'll reset/shutdown. It's not like it'd happen
randomly from any where from 2 to 20 minutes in.

Most people, when troubleshooting, tend to go with what they've experienced, rather than with common
sense.

Common sense tells us that the kind of memory you buy off eBay is a "pull", 90% of the time from a
refurbished market grade piecer, like an Emachine or a Dell and it simply isn't gonna work very
well. It's like buying a used Celeron processor, I mean a Celeron is a ****in beater to begin with,
so if you by a used beater...yeah, it's gonna have problems.

I am going to try that Ares fileshare software which I suspected,
running that always seemed to cause probs.
It will be a good test.

You know you might also wanna think about installing AdAware and scanning your system on a regular
basis (and of course making sure to update it).