Machine Restarts at 8 AM Every Morning

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bruce
  • Start date Start date
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Bruce

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out a mysterious problem for a friend. I know this
ng is for homebuilt machines, but you guys are the smartest I know.

She has a Gateway Win98 (first edition) machine. I'm going to do a clean
install of Win98 (still running the original install circa 1998) when I
can get up to her house, but for now she has the following problem, which
I'm not sure is software related.

First, I should say that the machine is plugged into an American Power
Conservation UPS. She has comcast cable. She leaves the machine running
24 x 7. The problem is that every morning, around 8 a.m., the machine
automatically reboots itself. I did all the easy maintenance chores like
scanning for viruses and spyware, deleting the temp. internet files, and
removing remants of no longer used programs. I checked the startup
configuration (msconfig) but didn't find anything suspicious.

I've asked her to unplug from the UPS, and plug directly into a wall
socket, and see if it still restarts in the morning.

In the meantime, I wanted to ask you all if you have any ideas.

Sincerely,
Bruce
 
Hi,

I'm trying to figure out a mysterious problem for a friend. I know this
ng is for homebuilt machines, but you guys are the smartest I know.

She has a Gateway Win98 (first edition) machine. I'm going to do a clean
install of Win98 (still running the original install circa 1998) when I
can get up to her house, but for now she has the following problem, which
I'm not sure is software related.

First, I should say that the machine is plugged into an American Power
Conservation UPS. She has comcast cable. She leaves the machine running
24 x 7. The problem is that every morning, around 8 a.m., the machine
automatically reboots itself. I did all the easy maintenance chores like
scanning for viruses and spyware, deleting the temp. internet files, and
removing remants of no longer used programs. I checked the startup
configuration (msconfig) but didn't find anything suspicious.

I've asked her to unplug from the UPS, and plug directly into a wall
socket, and see if it still restarts in the morning.

In the meantime, I wanted to ask you all if you have any ideas.

Sincerely,
Bruce
Click to expand...

If the UPS battery is old, a brownout event (like a nearby school or
business starting up lots of A/C) could easily do what you describe.
 
If the UPS battery is old, a brownout event (like a nearby school or
business starting up lots of A/C) could easily do what you describe.
Click to expand...

I know the battery has never been changed; that may be it. I'll post back
when we figure it out.

Thanks,
Bruce
 
Bruce said:
Hi,

I'm trying to figure out a mysterious problem for a friend. I know this
ng is for homebuilt machines, but you guys are the smartest I know.

She has a Gateway Win98 (first edition) machine. I'm going to do a clean
install of Win98 (still running the original install circa 1998) when I
can get up to her house, but for now she has the following problem, which
I'm not sure is software related.

First, I should say that the machine is plugged into an American Power
Conservation UPS. She has comcast cable. She leaves the machine running
24 x 7. The problem is that every morning, around 8 a.m., the machine
automatically reboots itself. I did all the easy maintenance chores like
scanning for viruses and spyware, deleting the temp. internet files, and
removing remants of no longer used programs. I checked the startup
configuration (msconfig) but didn't find anything suspicious.

I've asked her to unplug from the UPS, and plug directly into a wall
socket, and see if it still restarts in the morning.

In the meantime, I wanted to ask you all if you have any ideas.

Sincerely,
Bruce
Click to expand...


Some motherboards have built in Alarm features within the BIOS, maybe this
has been set and with the system already being on might envoke a reboot
instead ??
 
Bruce said:
First, I should say that the machine is plugged into an American Power
Conservation UPS. She has comcast cable. She leaves the machine running
24 x 7. The problem is that every morning, around 8 a.m., the machine
automatically reboots itself.
Click to expand...

One question is, is it "around" 8:00, or exactly 8:00, to the second, by the
computer's clock? It might be helpful to know if it is some outside
influence (like power brown out like Michael mentioned), or some internal or
internet clock driven thing.
 
jeffc said:
One question is, is it "around" 8:00, or exactly 8:00, to the second,
by the computer's clock? It might be helpful to know if it is some
outside influence (like power brown out like Michael mentioned), or
some internal or internet clock driven thing.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, but the user is not able to sit in the room to
observe this. She has only reported to me that she hears the machine, in a
room down the hall, reboot "around" 8 a.m. I've asked her to use her AIM to
time how long the machine has been logged on when she gets up. AIM
restarts upon reboot, and indicates how long it's been on. I know it's not
precise, but...

Is there a log file on the machine that will tell me when the thing boots
up?

Thanks,
Bruce


BTW, she just called me and said she's plugging the machine directly into
the wall outlet.
 
How about changing the system clock to some other time, you should then be
able to determine if the problem is caused by something internal or
external.
 
Hi,

I'm trying to figure out a mysterious problem for a friend. I know this
ng is for homebuilt machines, but you guys are the smartest I know.

She has a Gateway Win98 (first edition) machine. I'm going to do a clean
install of Win98 (still running the original install circa 1998) when I
can get up to her house, but for now she has the following problem, which
I'm not sure is software related.

First, I should say that the machine is plugged into an American Power
Conservation UPS. She has comcast cable. She leaves the machine running
24 x 7. The problem is that every morning, around 8 a.m., the machine
automatically reboots itself. I did all the easy maintenance chores like
scanning for viruses and spyware, deleting the temp. internet files, and
removing remants of no longer used programs. I checked the startup
configuration (msconfig) but didn't find anything suspicious.

I've asked her to unplug from the UPS, and plug directly into a wall
socket, and see if it still restarts in the morning.

In the meantime, I wanted to ask you all if you have any ideas.

Sincerely,
Bruce
Click to expand...

Enter BIOS and disable the hardware APM and save on exit?



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
It's a G not a J in gmx for email
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
was thinking that but why would it reboot...I could see a wake up out of standby.... maybe a hiccup on the restart and forces a
reboot?
 
was thinking that but why would it reboot...I could see a wake up out of standby.... maybe a hiccup on the restart and forces a
reboot?
Click to expand...

Hardware APM/Windows APM conflict.Wake up on LAN etc.
Possible pulse from the cable connection.When I had DSL there was a
semi-hidden data pulse the ISP used to send.




--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
It's a G not a J in gmx for email
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 06:08:10 GMT, Knowing that it was a Hollywood
invention that lemmings jump off cliffs Bruce <[email protected]>
wrote :
snip
snip


Enter BIOS and disable the hardware APM and save on exit?
Click to expand...

Even though she has no APM settings enabled in Windows, I'd like to turn
off the APM in BIOS, as you suggest, but I can't walk her through this on
the phone. Yikes! For now, she's plugged the thing directly into the wall
outlet. I'll call her later tonight to check if there's anything going on
in the task scheduler as JAD suggested.

I won't know anything more until after "around" 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.

BTW, is there an event log in Win98?

Bruce
 
Michael Cecil <[email protected]> on 14 Oct 2003 had this to say

SNIP
If the UPS battery is old, a brownout event (like a nearby school or
business starting up lots of A/C) could easily do what you describe.
Click to expand...

Yep, Michael, it was the UPS. She plugged it directly into the wall
outlet yesterday mid-morning, and this morning she could tell it had not
automatically rebooted because her email tool stayed on overnight. She
used to have to restart her email every morning. Also, her IM said she
had been on for 1 day and 43 minutes.

We don't know what event was asking the UPS to kick in each morning,
though. After further conversation with my friend this morning, she told
me that the rebooting also happened at irregular times during the day,
too, but that she especially noticed the morning reboots, since she was
still at home around 8 a.m. I asked about her sprinkler system, pool
filter, a/c, but she didn't think so. It could be something in the
neighborhood.

Anyway, it's figured out.

Thanks to you and all that replied.

Sincerely,
Bruce and my friend
 
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