Having random reboots.

[Logistics]

Note: This doesn't happen often. This is only the second time it's happened in the last month or two. Last time I shut the system all the way down, inspected the video card for bad caps, all looks fine. My motherboard is an Asus P4PE and all the caps look fine. I can't tell what the manufacturers are at the moment... except one which is OST. heh! Maybe it's just time to recap the mobo? Anyway...

I was just be sitting here, reading the forums. Media Player was open, though not playing. A folder open containing MP3's, two or three seperate Firefox windows running, suddenly the system reboots.

I recently recapped the Antec SL350 in this system cause it blew some caps. IIRC, the symptoms before were instances of Firefox crashing more and more often and then maybe a reboot, I can't remember and I'm too lazy to check my old threads right now. Anyway, I've been having instances of Firefox crash again, always due to Flash.

When I recapped the SL350, there were two 1uF capacitors, but I neglected to notice that one of them was non-polarized when I took them out so I followed a friends suggestion and put polarized caps back in both locations. I also had to put back a 330uF Fuhjyyu because it was a 6mm and I can't get a 330uF 6mm from BadCaps nor Digikey... or at least not in the voltage it called for. Every other electrolytic in the supply was replaced, including the 200V bigguns', with Panasonic caps if they weren't available in Samxon.

[starfury1]

Re: Having random reboots.

well no expert but yeah flash firefox.....might be more likely considering the amount of recapping you have done.

Flash I have notice it the past seem to cause probs, but not the SW guru here.

firefox has been updated to 2.0.0.6
(usual story I suppose, fix some bugs and security holes then create others....)

Sure HW fault is a possibly but I am thinking more SW glitch

On the HW side, how is the power in your area?
are you using an ups line filter etc?

I have notice when there is a phase change here it will reboot or possibly BOSD
(power company switching phases to keep it all balanced, equal load across 3 phases, lights usually dim or go off for a split second from what I understand)

although large I/P caps (and depending on the load on the psu) may hold thorugh a small mains power glitch.

just another possibility since you say it happens rarely (at this point).

I guess the only way to be sure its the PSU is to monitor/log the psu supply rails... humm now thats got me thinking.

Anyway no real help here, just possibilities

Further thoughts, you could be right.... maybe the MB is up for a recap

Cheers

[bgavin]

Re: Having random reboots.

First, determine if hardware or software. Boot up DOS or the Memtest86 .iso image which runs on a Linux kernel.

If software, FDISK and FORMAT usually cures that problem.

If hardware, swap in a spare power supply and continue the diagnosis with minimal hardware installed. Remove all but the video card during testing.

If you come down to hardware, and the system board, recap if you feel it is worth it.

[Logistics]

Re: Having random reboots.

starfury1: I appreciate it, in any case. Maybe I'll finally let Firefox update itself. Hehe! That's interesting about the phase switching. Although, the only thing I've ever seen cause a brown-out in our house is my brothers air-conditioning coming on. When my mothers' is on as well and lots of other things are going in the house, the brown-out has been bad enough to reset the router in my room, possibly even the DSL modem. Grrr!

bgavin: I did a fresh partition/format and install of XP not too long ago, but maybe I'll see about giving it another go. I think I'll also try to locate a cap to replace that 330uF 6mm and since my brother has an SL350 in his system, I'll open it up and see where that bipolar electrolytic was suppose to go and perhaps install the one I got in my PSU. Means this is my main system I may as well recap the motherboard, soon as well. I'm not a gamer, anymore so I have no need of upgrading... although, it would be nice to have a bit more power for Photoshop. Heh!

[willawake]

Re: Having random reboots.

dunno about firefox, i have been completely stable here for a while.

i would run a memtest86+ to check the ram. firefox can grab a whole bunch of ram, they said they are fixing this in ver3.

anything interesting in event viewer?

difficult to eliminate mains power issues if you dont have ups. i think mains power is gonna get worse all over with current consumption rising

[Paul S]

Re: Having random reboots.

If it is software related, have you recently installed new drivers for anything?

XP has a program that will restore itself to a previous configuration (before an update or software install). If you haven't disabled it, you can do a rollback and see if the problem still exists.

It's called System Restore, and it is under the System Tools menu.

[Spacedye69]

Re: Having random reboots.

Asus will also use Elite caps on the VRM i/p. I would recap the board. Get the Ultimate Boot CD. It has memtest and mobo burn in software to check hardware. Use the hard drive tools also to check your hd.

[kc8adu]

Re: Having random reboots.

if it has elite or ost at the vrm o/p they are bad.replace and run it.
see this often.the elite sizzle when you desolder and stink badly.

[willawake]

Re: Having random reboots.

the elite sizzle when you desolder

those skinny blue/purple ost do that also

[starfury1]

Re: Having random reboots.

figured logistics had been round long enough to have done a recap but if not yeah it could be the start of the down wood spiral.

Especially if does have crappy caps

just to expend on the power thing

the old Enermax has 820 uf I/P caps and only drives the old gigabyte 7zxe 1600 Amd MB
It will hold for nearly a second when it happens
(I've know the monitor to go black and the box hold)

This when it was on the channel well crap would die reboot in no time.
(dont think it fairs much better on the Liberty 620W)
So thats why I mentioned it as a possibly since you said it only happen a couple of times (so far)

If you do crack open the other psu
Please Post a photo of it and were that bipolar cap is for reference.
I found that interesting not that I look too hard at PSU's or see a lot of them but I haven't noticed one of them before in a psu...well from memory anyway.

goodluck with it and hope a recap fixes it
(SW issues...now where's the nearest wall)

Cheers

[Logistics]

Re: Having random reboots.

Well, I guess I can rule out software. I had gotten a couple more reboots since last posting. And tonight, all I was doing was opening a folder full of jpg's and the screen froze for a couple seconds, then came back (I kept moving the mouse) then froze again and then went black. It didn't reboot, though! So I reset it and it showed the video card information, but didn't make it to the post screen where it counts RAM; it just went black again and stayed that way.

Yes, my P4PE has OST all over it. I can't tell what the big ones near the CPU are atm, but they are obviously someone elses because they have K-Vent instead of the cross-hair. The only other culprits I could think of were: The 330uF Fuhjyyu I had to put back in the PSU because I couldn't get ANYTHING but a smaller value in a 6mm and an 8mm absolutely will not fit, a 1uF 50V Fuhjyyu I put back because I was impatient and didn't have the replacement from Digi-Key OR the two G-Luxon's on my GeForce FX.

Naturally, there are no bulging caps or electrolyte visible.

[starfury1]

Re: Having random reboots.

Well suppose if you haven't logistics the simple short answer is recap the MB
it probably wont hurt anyway, and hopefully will be the prob.

The freezing and random reboots are are typical symptoms of badcaps
(just not the only cause badcaps thats is)
Caps can fail without popping too

As to the Psu ok yeah possible maybe but doubt it, but if you can source what you need then way not...again it wont hurt and at lest you have cleared those caps.
(you said I think you had done a fairly extensive recap of it, so barring any issue you may have created there or any that may have been pre existing it should be ok.)
of course it would have been better if you had checked them before you re used them but if you don't have the test equipment then not much you can do.

The ones most likely on the MB are the VRM caps, so if you cant get all the caps you need Id concentrate on replacing them first.
(especially if you got size issues between slots etc with the other caps, not to say you may not have size issues with the VRM ones thought)

Of course if you do have an ESR and capacitance meter then check them to see if they are out of spec, but if not just ripped em and replace them.

Cheers and really hope a recap solves it for you

[Badcappy]

Re: Having random reboots.

Try to recap the board, it might help or solve the problem.