Another broken PC.

Hello people,
I have a PC that is about 3 years old and has suddenly started
re-booting itself at random times. Sometimes this occurs during boot-up,
but mostly when just using the PC (usually a bit of hardcore
freecelling). A couple of times it has crashed leaving the screen blank
and hasn't bothered rebooting. It is a vendor supplied machine which I
opened a couple of years ago to slot in the graphics card and that's it.

I've virus checked the machine and no problems found. So I am
guessing there is a loose wire somewhere inside, or maybe the graphics
card needs pushing in a bit harder. Any thoughts/suggestions?

Cheers
James.

Look for failing capacitors... Google should be helpful here.


"Jimbo" <jimbo@notexist.domain.com> wrote in message
news:dbhbvo$36o$1@nwrdmz02.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com...
> Hello people,
> I have a PC that is about 3 years old and has suddenly started
> re-booting itself at random times. Sometimes this occurs during boot-up,
> but mostly when just using the PC (usually a bit of hardcore freecelling).
> A couple of times it has crashed leaving the screen blank and hasn't
> bothered rebooting. It is a vendor supplied machine which I opened a
> couple of years ago to slot in the graphics card and that's it.
>
> I've virus checked the machine and no problems found. So I am guessing
> there is a loose wire somewhere inside, or maybe the graphics card needs
> pushing in a bit harder. Any thoughts/suggestions?
>
> Cheers
> James.

Jimbo wrote:

> Hello people,
> I have a PC that is about 3 years old and has suddenly started
> re-booting itself at random times. Sometimes this occurs during boot-up,
> but mostly when just using the PC (usually a bit of hardcore
> freecelling). A couple of times it has crashed leaving the screen blank
> and hasn't bothered rebooting. It is a vendor supplied machine which I
> opened a couple of years ago to slot in the graphics card and that's it.
>
> I've virus checked the machine and no problems found. So I am
> guessing there is a loose wire somewhere inside, or maybe the graphics
> card needs pushing in a bit harder. Any thoughts/suggestions?
>
> Cheers
> James.

If you've only opened it once in 3 years it is probably just loaded with
dust. Open it up and use a can of the compressed dust spray to get the dust
off the cpu heatsink, power supply, and the rest of the inside. Dust acts as
an insulator and holds heat in, therefore causing components to overheat and
cause problems like you are experiencing.

HTH
Bob

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 22:54:48 +0000 (UTC), Jimbo
<jimbo@notexist.domain.com> wrote:

>Hello people,
> I have a PC that is about 3 years old and has suddenly started
>re-booting itself at random times. Sometimes this occurs during boot-up,
>but mostly when just using the PC (usually a bit of hardcore
>freecelling). A couple of times it has crashed leaving the screen blank
>and hasn't bothered rebooting. It is a vendor supplied machine which I
>opened a couple of years ago to slot in the graphics card and that's it.
>
> I've virus checked the machine and no problems found. So I am
>guessing there is a loose wire somewhere inside, or maybe the graphics
>card needs pushing in a bit harder. Any thoughts/suggestions?
>
>Cheers
>James.


As Bob mentioned, check for dust buildup.

Mentioning the system might be helpful, some parts being
more prone to problems than others. Decription of major
components would include make and model, and include the
power supply.

Check that fans are spinning and system voltage levels- if
it has a bios health monitor page that is a start but
voltage readings with a multimeter are better.

You should certainly look over the wiring and cards,
adjusting the video card if you feel it isn't seated good.
Likewise for other cards, memory, etc, as working in a
system can disturb unrelated parts or it's even possible the
system wasn't built "perfect" initially and only over time
some marginal connections are getting worse. Be sure to
disconnect AC power to the system prior to physically
working inside the system, though obviously you'll still
need AC connected and it running with the side panel off to
see if the fans are working.

Check Windows Event Viewer if it's running Win2k or XP. Try
disabling the reboot-on-error ("automatically reboot")
setting in windows- Google for details on doing it, example:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...tically+reboot

Could be faulty power supply ... have it checked out.