"Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:u6adnaAQLJhFNkjbnZ2dnUVZ_rCtnZ2d@giganews.com ...
>
> "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
>
P.S. Try replacing your keyboard, if you have another on
hand; especially if you are using a keyboard with a lot of
added function keys. ( I know, it sounds odd; but I have
one system that had very similar odd power up problems
and after much hair loss it seems to have been keyboard
related.)