OS-specific capacitor problem?

[goldberri]

Hi there! We have an almost 3yr old pc (built ourselves). A few months ago it started randomly powering down and also sending us bluescreens. Recently the frequency of this stepped up. Additionally now after it shuts down, on restart the cpu heat alarm goes off. Going through bios, the cpu appears to be functioning fine at about 41 deg cel. We cleaned out all the dust, checked that all fans were working. Still the shutdowns are almost constant and the cpu alarm still goes off. That was when we discovered the bad capacitor issue. Quick inspection doesn't show any obviously bad capacitors yet, but we're still checking.

The complication. We have both win98 and linux on this pc. We discovered last night that the shutdown issue doesn't seem to happen at all when linux is up. I have no idea how windows could be affecting the mainboard cpu heat alarm... but at the same time wouldn't the non-problemmatic operation of linux suggest that this isn't a capacitor issue?

Any thoughts? We have an intel d865gbf motherboard. Thanks!!

[arneson]

Re: OS-specific capacitor problem?

I would agree to say, yes no maybe, (should of been politician).
You are lucky enough that one operating system will boot up.
Can you find and run some diagnostics with it.

[willawake]

Re: OS-specific capacitor problem?

i suppose you have nichicon HN series on that board? if so interesting to see that it shows the same thermal error as the dell gx270s with the same badcaps did. the d865gbf was on intel's list for the bad nichicons on at least part of the production run.

are you sure you have no bulging of those caps, i am suprised? post a pic. if you have nichicon HN check the date codes written on the caps (they are like 0311 etc)

you could try running http://www.memtest.org/ to test the memory and if you get errors verify the memory in another machine also. if it tests bad only on the d865gbf then that is one indication of badcaps.

regarding win98 vs linux, i have actually never seen that comparison before so cant advise. if you make a clean reinistall of win98 it should be stable if not then something wrong with the board/ram etc probably badcaps.

[gonzo0815]

Re: OS-specific capacitor problem?

Linux always sending the HLT signal to the proc if idle, so it is running mutch cooler as it don`t need that mutch power. This could cool down the vrm unit too. Windows 9x and Me don`t have this feature yet. This was introduced with Wndows 2000 first. You can try rain or similar programs, wich will do the same for win98-me. If that will reduce your issues, it is probably an badcap problem.