"Maurice Batey" <maurice@bcs.removethis.org.uk> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.08.29.15.17.14.78894@bcs.removethis. org.uk...
> On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:45:13 +0000, Grinder wrote:
>
>> I've having trouble reconciling "always locks up within 4 minutes of
>> cold power up" and "no problem if keep PC switch on permanently."
>> Perhaps you can elaborate on the second statement, as it seems to
>> conflict with the first.
>
> Prior to starting to use broadband on July 25th there was no lockup
> problem.
>
> (The Realtek ethernet Gigabit controller had been BIOS disabled for over
> 2
> years.)
>
> From Day 1 of using broadband (i.e. ethernet controller enabled) the PC
> locked up, in a quite variable way and in various situations (the most
> surprising being during entry of the BIOS password, and the most bizarre
> when
> the screen blanked out, and the only action was continual attempts to
> access
> the (empty) floppy disk drive).
>
> Suspicion naturally fell on the ethernet controller (BIOS chip), so I
> disabled it; no lockups occurred.. SO - putting 2 and 2 together (making 5
> in
> this case...) I kept it disabled and added an Intel Gigabit ethernet PCI
> card.
>
> For 2 days (powering down overnight) I had no lockups, but on the 3rd day
> I
> had it in spades, resulting in my Linux kernel being corrupted.
> (Fortuitously I
> had taken a complete disk image backup the evening before, so was soon
> back in
> business!)
>
> Because the lockups always occurred within 5 minutes of cold power up, I
> assumed there was some kind of cold-start problem - the opposite of
> overheating.
>
> So I left the m/c running WinXP when not in use (e.g. overnight), with
> all
> other gear powered off (including router).
>
> It has now been continusously running for 6 days, wuth no sign of lockup.
>
> It having been suggested by a friend (and having powered the PC down
> overnight) today I unplugged and replugged all the power connections in
> the PC
> (apart from the big one plugged into the motherboard, which I simply could
> not
> get out).
>
> After powering up from cold it has been running normally (WinXP, Kubuntu,
> Mandriva) - but then it did for 2 days after installing the ethernet PCI
> card!
>
> The strange thing about the cold power-up lockups is that - on rebooting,
> the
> system then runs perfectly - for days.
>
> So I don't see how it can be an overheating or battery problem.
>
> (The variable symptoms remind me of buffer overruns in the old days.)
>
> PC details:
>
> Intel Pentium 4.3Ghz with twin 120Gb Maxtor IDE drives
> Intel 865PE chipset motherboard with dual-channel DDR
> 1 GB ultra fast DDR RAM
> Radeon 9600 128Mb VGA/DVI-I/TV-out
>
> Many thanks for various responses - much appreciated...
>
> --
> Maurice
> (Remove 'removethis.' to reply by email)
>

This may be a long shot, but try cleaning up any startup
related software/OS drivers. Especially keyboard related,
and in your case anything that might be connected to,
wake on LAN, or such.

Luck;
Ken