PC keeps re-setting during start up

  • Thread starter Thread starter 405 TD Estate
  • Start date Start date
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405 TD Estate

I was hoping some-one may be able to point me in the right direction
about this...

When I start my PC sometimes the screen goes blank (black) - the
monitor says it is recieving no signal. It does this during start up at
different points - sometimes the monitor never comes on at all,
sometimes it never happens and I can load windows.

Yesterday it took 2-3 attamps to load before it got all the way to
windows, today it took 20+ attempts. Now I do not want to turn my PC
off for the fear it will never start again.

When the screen goes blank I can hear a clicking, I think it's the
reset relay, sometimes during start up you can see that it has re-set
itself so i think this is the problem.

Once windows is running it's fine (so far) - I dont know why it only
does it during start up.

The reset switch on the case works fine.

I tries changing the graphics card - that made no difference.

Any ideas?
 
"405 said:
I was hoping some-one may be able to point me in the right direction
about this...

When I start my PC sometimes the screen goes blank (black) - the
monitor says it is recieving no signal. It does this during start up at
different points - sometimes the monitor never comes on at all,
sometimes it never happens and I can load windows.

Yesterday it took 2-3 attamps to load before it got all the way to
windows, today it took 20+ attempts. Now I do not want to turn my PC
off for the fear it will never start again.

When the screen goes blank I can hear a clicking, I think it's the
reset relay, sometimes during start up you can see that it has re-set
itself so i think this is the problem.

Once windows is running it's fine (so far) - I dont know why it only
does it during start up.

The reset switch on the case works fine.

I tries changing the graphics card - that made no difference.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Get a copy of Prime95 from www.mersenne.org .
When the system is running in Windows, execute Prime95, then
look for an option called "torture test". That will run your
CPU at 100% computing load. If you hear a click and it shuts
off just after the torture test starts to run, I would suspect
the power supply.

Power consumption sitting idle in Windows can be a bit lower
than consumption while in the BIOS. I think my measurements in
the past showed the BIOS presented about a 50% loading to the
computer. If you use Prime95, that should load it about as
well as any other application you might use (to 100%).

You might also do a visual inspection of the motherboard.
There are some tall aluminum cylinders with a plastic
sleeve on them. A bunch of them will be near the processor.
If the top of the cylinder is bulging (i.e. it is no longer
flat), or if you see a dried brown stain near the base of the
cylinders, then you have leaking capacitors. When caps leak
and bulge, they are failing, and can eventually short and
draw more than the normal current from the power supply.
So, I would take the side off the computer and have a look
at their condition.

The guy who runs this site, does nothing but repair
bad caps. A large number of bad caps were used to build
electronics for a while, and there is constantly fallout
from those failing components. Some motherboard brands were
affected more than others - you didn't mention the motherboard
brand, but the more frequent failing brands are listed here:

http://www.motherboardrepair.com/
http://www.motherboardrepair.com/images/BE6II_bad_caps_1.jpg
http://www.motherboardrepair.com/images/PICT0064.jpg

HTH,
Paul
 
I'll try running the test - yes i did notice a brown 'stain' on several
caps near the CPU - i thought it was rust, all the caps I saw were
bulging a bit. Motherboard is a Abit KA7 athlon 700 - one of the
'affected makes'. I'm in the UK - dont know if I can be bothered to
pull out and replace loads of cap's (10-30) and replace them! I was
thinking about upgrading the PC so perhaps this is the big nudge.
Nothing like built in redundancy to sell more new stuff... Of course it
may not be that...

I've never noticed the PC switch off during long periods of CPU
activity...

I'll check the rest of the PCI cards - the graphics card was well
pushed in

I'm guessing power supply is 300W - whatever was recommended for athlon
700's (it was quite high) but generic one only (cheap). Old card was a
geforce1 32mb new card was a geforce 4 (440mx I think) 64mb.
 
the brown stain is acid from within the capacitors. It's your motherboard;
time to replace it.


I'll try running the test - yes i did notice a brown 'stain' on several
caps near the CPU - i thought it was rust, all the caps I saw were
bulging a bit. Motherboard is a Abit KA7 athlon 700 - one of the
'affected makes'. I'm in the UK - dont know if I can be bothered to
pull out and replace loads of cap's (10-30) and replace them! I was
thinking about upgrading the PC so perhaps this is the big nudge.
Nothing like built in redundancy to sell more new stuff... Of course it
may not be that...

I've never noticed the PC switch off during long periods of CPU
activity...

I'll check the rest of the PCI cards - the graphics card was well
pushed in

I'm guessing power supply is 300W - whatever was recommended for athlon
700's (it was quite high) but generic one only (cheap). Old card was a
geforce1 32mb new card was a geforce 4 (440mx I think) 64mb.
 
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