Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Kaw1000 on May 08, 2006, 05:56:44 PM
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One of My co-workers computer shuts down totally after being on for 20 minutes.....We have to hit the power on the main frame to start it...then 20 minutes later it totally shuts down again! Its windows XP Professional and a newer computer
Thanks
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CPU overclocked? Memory being pushed too hard?
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Nope and nope............Thanks....... its never been fiddled with....Its was built by the owners friend....who knows what hes doing...could it be some kind of virus?
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Originally posted by Kaw1000
Nope and nope............Thanks....... its never been fiddled with....Its was built by the owners friend....who knows what hes doing...could it be some kind of virus?
yea I had a similar problem with the blaster worm virus but I actually got a message for it. If he has 20 minutes run antivirus, if nothing these gurus here could probably direct you to some cool programs that will test the memory and such.
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LOL....Im a mainframe/system operator at a bank. Seeing that your coworker has to "hit the power on the main frame to start it" really caught my eye ;)
Mainframe reloads are baaaad.
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It's possessed by evil spirits. Douse it in gasoline and light it on fire...flame is the only way to purge the evil.
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20 minutes happens to be the default time Windows XP Pro uses to shut off the monitor in its power control settings. Heck of a coinky-dink,..dunt' ya think?
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Does windows shut down or does the thing just power off like you pulled the plug out of the wall? Cause if its going off like the plug is being pulled, maybe the power supply is heating up and shuting off?
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Originally posted by Skuzzy
20 minutes happens to be the default time Windows XP Pro uses to shut off the monitor in its power control settings. Heck of a coinky-dink,..dunt' ya think?
I think you're in collusion with the evil spirits.
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You dunt have anything to worry about until they start colluding back. :D
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Check and make sure all the fans are working properly. Watch the CPU temp, could be overheating.
But if I were a betting man, I'd bet Skuzzy hit the nail on the head.
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I hate it when evil spirits get in my computer, takes an hour to run the antivirus and exorcise them.
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The CPU might need washing.
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If you have a skuzzy hard drive, take it over to the ram sink and rinse off any extra bits that may have collected on the magnetic disc surfaces during shipping. Don't use water from the heat sink 'cause it might melt the protective RAID coating.
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Originally posted by eagl
If you have a skuzzy hard drive, take it over to the ram sink and rinse off any extra bits that may have collected on the magnetic disc surfaces during shipping. Don't use water from the heat sink 'cause it might melt the protective RAID coating.
?????:confused:
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Sage advice. Listen well.
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Mayhap the computer desk is tilted and all the bits are sliding off to one side
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When I have these problems I usually run my system through the dishwasher, on pot scruber cycle, with hot water. that will remove the virus's and a defraged bits laying around
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You put your computer in a dishwasher?
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Laptop goes in the dishwasher. Desktop goes in the self-cleaning oven.
They just fit better that way.
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I smell blonde hair.
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I see dead computers.
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I see bored, frustrated customer service reps :D
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Originally posted by midnight Target
I smell blonde hair.
I resemble that remark
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Originally posted by Skuzzy
I see dead computers.
I see melted and waterloged computers :)
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LOL thanks for your replies...I knew I would get the good the bad and the ugly for answers!!:lol
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Originally posted by Gunslinger
yea I had a similar problem with the blaster worm virus but I actually got a message for it. If he has 20 minutes run antivirus, if nothing these gurus here could probably direct you to some cool programs that will test the memory and such.
I'm betting it is the blaster, I've seen an infected machine not report the infection. Download the free cleaner-tool and you'll know.
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i fixed a computer with a sledge hammer once. i didn't work, but, it made me feel better :rolleyes:
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Have you checked the temp of the CPU to see if its overheating.
Some motherboards such as tthe one I have will automatically shut down the machine once the temp reached the threshold level.
Same thing was happening to me a while back and we were blaming the dog for buming into the switch.
Then by chance I happened to run one of my routine checks of the machine and low and behold the temp was nearing max on the level I had set for it.
Opened the sucker up and. Well we have 3 cats and two dogs. Needless to say that adds up to alot of hair and dander flying around.
The fans...all of them were literally caked over with dog/Cat hair.
the inside looked like a dust bowl.
Cleaned her out and been running great again ever since
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Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Have you checked the temp of the CPU to see if its overheating.
Some motherboards such as tthe one I have will automatically shut down the machine once the temp reached the threshold level.
Same thing was happening to me a while back and we were blaming the dog for buming into the switch.
Then by chance I happened to run one of my routine checks of the machine and low and behold the temp was nearing max on the level I had set for it.
Opened the sucker up and. Well we have 3 cats and two dogs. Needless to say that adds up to alot of hair and dander flying around.
The fans...all of them were literally caked over with dog/Cat hair.
the inside looked like a dust bowl.
Cleaned her out and been running great again ever since
thats probably whats going on with mine, caked up with cat hair, I think the dachshunds fur is too heavy and dense for this sort of thing, Either that Oblivion is too much of a strain for my pc.
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Simple test for the overheating theory...
Boot up and let it alone, see if it reboots. Without any programs running no PC should initiate a thermal shutdown.
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Your method is only valid in safe mode, Oddbert, b/c some resident (evil) progs can use up a lot of resource without any human interaction (i.e. the world community grid client - but, to be honest, that's what it's designed for....)
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Originally posted by eagl
Skuzzy needs a cold shower
:D
*drum roll*
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since you guys are so savy.... why would it take allmost ten minutes for a computer to restart? It shuts down ok but just a black screen with a blinking "_" for about 5 minutes or so... then XP comes up but nothing will start up for a few more minutes at which time everything works normally..
I even get good framerates in AH.
lazs
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Originally posted by lazs2
since you guys are so savy.... why would it take allmost ten minutes for a computer to restart? It shuts down ok but just a black screen with a blinking "_" for about 5 minutes or so... then XP comes up but nothing will start up for a few more minutes at which time everything works normally..
I even get good framerates in AH.
lazs
I've seen this happen on machines that were imaged. Even though the hardware appeared to be identical, it wasn't.
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How do you check computer for tempature?? is there a place in windows that tells how hot it is??...I can tell you that when I put my hand behind his computer fan its is alot hotter than mine...and we have the exact same computer.
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Originally posted by Kaw1000
How do you check computer for tempature?? is there a place in windows that tells how hot it is??...I can tell you that when I put my hand behind his computer fan its is alot hotter than mine...and we have the exact same computer.
There are 3rd pary apps that can display this in real-time. There are also hardware devices that you can plug into drive bays. Most BIOSes will show you this info too (free) but they cannot show you that while your system is running whatever app is causing the high CPU loads.
My rig runs hot (nowhere near a thermal shutdown) only during long game sessions, I've not found a "normal" desktop app that can peg the CPU for a long time other than games or the "SETI at Home" type of stuff.
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Problem solved!!!...It had a cooling fan that was'nt working!!
Thanks sooo much for all your help guys!! Nice to know I can come here and get so much help!!:aok
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Originally posted by Kaw1000
Problem solved!!!...It had a cooling fan that was'nt working!!
Thanks sooo much for all your help guys!! Nice to know I can come here and get so much help!!:aok
You're lucky. Similar was going on with my roommate's PC last night. I thought it was a heat problem since he picked a very, very budget case. Pulled off the side panel, setup 3 desk fans blowing directly on it, and made him play World of Warcraft. It shut itself off again. Had a faint smell of burning plastic... but I wanted to be sure before I started pulling it apart. Switched the PSU this morning, and it's been stable for a few hours now. Hopefully that got it :)
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Well Its not fixed:o the cooling fan was bad...replaced it and now....the guy hears a popping noise and it shuts off ...help again!!!:mad:
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Grab a power supply that you know works, swap it out, try it again.
Worked for me! PC repairs are mainly just a big list of trial & error. Experience lets you skip steps and narrow it down faster... but it's still the same plug & pray proccess for alot of components :)
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Popping? Hmmmmm,...popcorn. PATENT IT!
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Skuzzy...I think he's mistaken....not the PC that's broke it's the microwave oven!
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"I've seen this happen on machines that were imaged. Even though the hardware appeared to be identical, it wasn't."
I have no idea what that means... I am not very puter savy I am afraid.
Also.. edbert... what is a good program to check CPU temp?
lazs
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Lazs, you can only check your CPU temp if there is a sensor built-in on the motherboard.
If there is one, you'll find the monitoring program on the MB manufacturer website.
Or, as some have pointed, you can also check temps in the BIOS pages (the hit del or F2 at startup thing). Of course, no OS is running at this time but you would be able to see if there is a gross overheating.
About the 10 min needed to reboot, I believe that Windows is slowly making a mess of itself after some time (12-24 months) and needs more time to startup and shutdown...it's probably a bad management of the registry database. The only cure that really works is a re-installation :(
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Originally posted by lazs2
Also.. edbert... what is a good program to check CPU temp?
There are many, hard to say which is the best but I prefer this (http://mbm.livewiredev.com/) one myself.
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Originally posted by lazs2
"I've seen this happen on machines that were imaged. Even though the hardware appeared to be identical, it wasn't."
I have no idea what that means... I am not very puter savy I am afraid.
Also.. edbert... what is a good program to check CPU temp?
lazs
By imaged I mean one hard was copied to another using a program like Ghost or Drive Image.
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Originally posted by Kaw1000
Well Its not fixed:o the cooling fan was bad...replaced it and now....the guy hears a popping noise and it shuts off ...help again!!!:mad:
1) Did you check for Blaster and other viruses? Yes/No
2) The fan was stopped. Did you change the fan only, or the whole cooler unit with a radiator? If you changed the whole unit - check if you installed it properly, cleaning CPU surface and applying thermal paste.
3) It's a good idea to get a new power-supply. It's not that expensive.
Popping noise? You mean it just says "Pop!" and then you hear the sound of stopping fans and hard-disks? Are you sure it isn't a power-save mode? I have a Russian Win2K, so it's hard to explain where to look for it in Control Panel :( doesn't it turn on if you hit space-bar or enter several times? Any sounds from inside the case after you press keys? Any lights on the front of the case? Is the LAN light in the back of the case lit after it "turns off"? Power on the mainframe = power switch on the front of the case? Or maybe a switch on the back? What is the exact CPU model, Pentium-IV? AMD? Pentium-III?
How is the system case positioned? Are you sure that he doesn't simply hit some switch with a foot, elbow, or turn the switch on the back with, for example, a mouse cord? Or maybe he has a power/suspend buttons on the keyboard and they get pressed by some folder/coffee cup/beer mug on the table?
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Long delays during startup or shutdown are usually driver problems. Windows is trying to initialize a peice of hardware which is not responding properly or in a timely fashion.
There is at least one imager, Acronis I think, that claims to be able to handle the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) if you're imaging to dissimiliar hardware.
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Hard drive recognition and boot precedence can cause boot delays. Make sure that unused drive controllers (raid controller, second unused drive controllers, etc) are disabled in bios and the drive boot order is set properly. Make sure drive cables are in good shape. Make sure hard drives have their own power supply cables.
Resetting ASPI hardware settings in bios can help. Setting "plug and play" on or off in bios may help (set it to opposite of what it's set to now and see what happens).
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yikes... I don't really understand much of that... I never had the hard drive copied over and don't really have a lot of hardware hooked up.
lazs
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Lazs, when your computer first turns on, it goes into post diagnostics. This is the little BIOS chip on your motherboard running self-tests and getting everything spun up and ready to run. It normally counts off the amount of ram you have on this screen. To access the menu, normally when you first turn on the PC, it's the F10 or Delete key. From there, anything you're not using, you can disable. On mine, I have the onboard sound & network card both disabled, in addition to some other features I'll never use.
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Oh... I forgot to say (or said badly) while this little cursor thing is working.... nothing else does. the keyboard is not funtional. The hard drive light doesn't even blink.
lazs
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I have seen some dhcp problems cause startup delays. You might try setting your network card to use a static ip address.
Do this:
start->run type cmd press enter
type ipconfig/all press enter
write down the following: (in paranthesis is likely what you'll see)
ip address (192.168.0.2)
deault gateway (192.168.0.1)
DNS Server (192.168.0.1)
If you don't see a 192.168.x.x address then you may be receiving a public ip address from your dsl/cable modem. In that case don't do what i'm about to suggest.
Right click my network places and choose properties. right click the connection you use to connect to the internet and choose properties. Click internet Protocol and click properties. Check the radio button that says use the following address and enter what you recorded earlier. here's an example:
ip address: 192.168.0.2
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
default gateway: 192.168.0.1
Check the use the following dns server address and enter the following in the preferred dns server box:
192.168.0.1 or whatever you recorded earlier
An alternate is not required.