PC keeps powering off and restarting?

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Yorkie

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Jul 27, 2004
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Hi,
A friend has a Packard Bell I am trying to fix for them.

Problem is, the PC boots up, can stay up for any amount of time, then just the full power goes, the PC stays of for a second or two then just powers back on itself?

It can power off whilst in XP or just at the XP F8 menu so I do not think this is OS/Virus issue (AVG found nothing).

I thought it may be a PSU problem so tried a good spare I have, this worked fine for over an hour, then same symptoms!

I checked the CPU temp which is around the mid 30's (its a P4).

Had memory problems in other PC's before, but this just performed a reset, the fact this is actually cutting power to the board for a few seconds makes me think it is not memory.

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, it has me stumped at the moment :(
 
Flying-Q

Flying-Q

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Feb 20, 2006
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I had a very similar problem last year.

Possible causes investigated:

-loose memory, CPU, graphics (remove, re-seat)
-bad memory, CPU, graphics (memtest86, et al.)
-bad PSU (changeout)
-cable runs interfering with 'anything' (inspect, move - this one gave a clue but not definitive)
-overheating (MotherBoardMonitor with logging and stack dump)
-shorts on MB due to dust, mounts, etc. (inspect, vacuum etc.)
-virii (bootable virus check CD)
-BIOS (very risky re-flashing in this situation but tried anyway-phew)


The cause was finally traced, after many, many hair-pullings and blood/sweat/tears, to a dry joint (bad solder) on ATX power socket. Varying MB temp parted contact by micro amount - comp shuts down; cools fractionally - comp restarts.

My MB was still under g'tee so I RMA'd it.

The only difference with my situation is the frequency of shutdowns seems slightly more (once every 10-15 mins) than you have reported in yours, and reboot was not immediate - took about 5 secs to begin.

Good luck anyway.

Q.
 
Y

Yorkie

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(Is an old AT psu? maybe power switch on case is intermittent, and you could wire it on permanently?)
Click to expand...

Cheers - that was one of my next tests....don't like the power switch, seemed a bit unresponsive at times.

Will be something else to rule out if not ;-)

Thanks.
 
Y

Yorkie

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The cause was finally traced, after many, many hair-pullings and blood/sweat/tears, to a dry joint (bad solder) on ATX power socket. Varying MB temp parted contact by micro amount - comp shuts down; cools fractionally - comp restarts.


Q.
Click to expand...

You did well finding that :)

Will check it out also, cheers!
 
Y

Yorkie

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I've seen that exact problem and it was memory.
Click to expand...

I saw a similar problem, but resetting not powering off....if you have seen this same behaviour, will swap out the memory tonight....

Thanks!
 
Y

Yorkie

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I agree. It was most likely memory as the culprit. Have you set the latencies too low?
Click to expand...

No settings have been changed, it is a friends, whom would not a know a latancy if it bit him on the @rse ;-) Plus he would have more chance of driving to the moon than being able to change any such settings...

I will certainly look into the memory tonight tho, hope it is that.....thanks.
 
Y

Yorkie

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I did not have too much time last night for testing, so I just ran memtest and left it running for a few hours...no errors reported, also no power offs either :-(

Would this prove the memory is OK, or are the tests not good enough to highlight certain memory faults that may exist?

Cheers for any info.
 
M

mdd1963

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Jan 14, 2006
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I can't see anyway, beyond a severe short in a mem stick, that mem is going to cause a rig to completely power itself off for a second or two, then power itself back on...

blue screens, resets, of course can point to mem...

powering off in an older AT rig?

power switch, psu, cold solder joint, mainboard, a partial short somewhere?
 
CallumN

CallumN

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I have the same problem, used to be a Packard Bell aswell, i say used to, all thats left is the floppy and DVD-ROM from it. I have tracked it down to the hard drive. Had troubles reading data off bad sectors, froze, gave up, and rebooted. I am now awaiting a new hard drive. This supports why memtest86 was fine, as it doesnt give a damn if you have a hard drive attached or not.

Load up command prompt (Start > Run > cmd [enter]) then type in "chkdsk /f" with out the ""'s. This will check the hard drive for errors, and fix them. It may need to do it on boot. So you may have to restart. Hope this helps.
 
A

ak47is1337

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I can't see anyway, beyond a severe short in a mem stick, that mem is going to cause a rig to completely power itself off for a second or two, then power itself back on...

blue screens, resets, of course can point to mem...

powering off in an older AT rig?

power switch, psu, cold solder joint, mainboard, a partial short somewhere?
Click to expand...
Well, a bluescreen will sometimes do that. Also, I know I've had this problem in relevance to my own memory when trying to run 270@1.5-2-2-5. While playing a game, screen would go blank, and bam, after a second or so it would restart. I have learned not to try and push good memory 10mhz farther than it needs to be ;p
BTW, I might advise you that memtest86 is a piece of crap. Use Prime95 for 24 hours instead, it is far more comprehensive and will pick up problems memtest won't.
 
A

ak47is1337

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I have the same problem, used to be a Packard Bell aswell, i say used to, all thats left is the floppy and DVD-ROM from it. I have tracked it down to the hard drive. Had troubles reading data off bad sectors, froze, gave up, and rebooted. I am now awaiting a new hard drive. This supports why memtest86 was fine, as it doesnt give a damn if you have a hard drive attached or not.

Load up command prompt (Start > Run > cmd [enter]) then type in "chkdsk /f" with out the ""'s. This will check the hard drive for errors, and fix them. It may need to do it on boot. So you may have to restart. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Could very well be that too. I just had a few hard drives die on me; however, system would never restart. Things just took FOREVER to load or didn't at all, and if I wanted to restart, I had to do it manually.
 
CallumN

CallumN

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I just had a few hard drives die on me; however, system would never restart.
Click to expand...

Ah, mine would restart, until 2 days go that was. Playing UT2004, and would hang, sometimes for a sec or two, other times for nearly a min. Well sometimes after it had hung it will flash BSOD, and restart, but two days ago it would load XP and just before it would get to the welcome screen it would BSOD and restart. Left it trying for an hour, to no avail.


You could try testing it with a live CD, something like Knoppix, and see if it will handle stress like that, inwhich case it points towards the HDD.

What model Packard Bell is it?
 
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ak47is1337

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I just had a few hard drives die on me; however, system would never restart.
Click to expand...

Ah, mine would restart, until 2 days go that was. Playing UT2004, and would hang, sometimes for a sec or two, other times for nearly a min. Well sometimes after it had hung it will flash BSOD, and restart, but two days ago it would load XP and just before it would get to the welcome screen it would BSOD and restart. Left it trying for an hour, to no avail.
What mine would do is say "Windows is missing blahblahbullcrap.dll" instead of getting the Windows XP boot screen.
 
CallumN

CallumN

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Hal.dll, thats the one that i lost, along with half of the ststem32 folder. Thought it was the software, went through 3 different coppies of XP. Then thought, no this aint right, its gotta be hardware, a much as i didnt want it to be.
 
bluntside

bluntside

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Make sure that the cpu ins overheating, make shure the ram is in the correct slots as well. Make shur the psu is connected to the mobo completley :twisted:
 
gpfear

gpfear

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Take the hard drive out, get the data off and buy a new PC. Packard Bells are ancient. I havent seen one in years. If I did I would get out my shotgun for kicks. Those were the worst pcs I have ever had the misfortune of working on.
 
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