I can only think of a BIOS rest or flash.
Did it power down and shut off or reboot? This could be bad memory or a bad CPU, but that’s unlikely as it was working before. I concur with a BIOS reset. Plus a check on the jumpers on the motherboard. Make sure that everything is set correctly.
In my professional opinion, Sailor just gave you good advice.
Reset the BIOS.
I’m hoping this is something my tech guy has already thought of, but…
When you say reset the BIOS, how exactly?
And what do you mean by flash?
Thanks for the help folks!
It powered off instantly with no warning. Pfft.
When I restarted the Windows install it did this in the same place each time. It happened quickly, but I did see a warning of some kind just before it happened. Wasn’t able to read it though.
I’m also skeptical about this being a hardware issue since everything was working before, but I’m also stumped and so is my tech guy.
Answer:
“If you can get into the BIOS, there should be an option to “Load Defaults”. Choose that and then “Save and Exit”.
If you cannot get into the BIOS because you do not know the password, look for a jumper on the motherboard marked “Pass”, “PWD”, “BIOS”, etc. Typically you schould move the jumper over one pin, or it may have just two pins, and they need a shorting jumper on them. Do that for a few seconds, and replace it as you found it. That should clear the password, and perhaps all other non-default settings, as well.”
Cite:
If it’s doing that then I would definitely suspect a hardware issue, regardless of how it was performing before.
Open the case and visually inspect the motherboard for bad capacitors. They’re not as common as they used to be, but they still turn up from time to time and can cause just this sort of problem.
Bad RAM is another likely culprit. You can test it with Memtest86+ or the Windows Memory Diagnostic, both of which are available (along with many other utilities) on the Ultimate Boot CD. Let a test run for at least an hour. If you get any errors then you’ve got a bad memory module.
I’m sure you know a lot more about these issues than I, and I appreciate your input very much. But this seems like an odd set of symptoms for a hardware issue.
If the computer always worked fine, only begins this behavior when I attempt a Windows reinstall, and exhibits the same behavior in same spot each time, does that really point to hardware? Wouldn’t that be a really selective hardware problem?
Again, you sound like you have a lot more experience than I, so please do educate me.
Well, computers always seem to work perfectly right up until they don’t. Bad caps or RAM can cause weird, intermittent problems that take a long time to become readily apparent. The hanging at startup could have been a symptom of that, though it’s hard to say.
At any rate, taking a look at the motherboard and running a memory test won’t hurt anything. The UBCD is free and good to have around, as it can be used to troubleshoot a variety of issues.
To the uninitiated, it does in fact seem very odd.
After 12 years in the game, I’ll vouch for the theory that this is a hardware problem.
You can use a computer for days and not actually test a given part of that computer… then, come time to actually use a certain memory space, the computer will consistently mess up for you.
It’s not that the hardware problem is selective, it’s that at other times the user is choosing to do things that DON’T require a particular element of the system to be 100% functional.
Have you tried a new power supply? I’ve had odd problems with USB peripherals when the power supply is dying or underpowered.
One computer I worked on would not reliably boot unless I unplugged the USB devices (including the keyboard). Ultimately it turned out to be a power supply issue. The computer would start to boot, then hang. If I then pulled out the USB stuff, it booted up just fine. Apparently, some systems are just on the cusp of not having enough power; USB devices without their own power source can be an issue on startup but not have significant effect on system stability afterward. Of note is that this system was used for at least a couple of years without issues before this started happening.
Since power supply issues could cause subtle software issues (including BIOS issues), perhaps there was some corruption causing the system to keep seeking the drive in the first place. But without enough power, it only knew the drive was was there. Pulling the drive’s USB connection allowed the computer to stop trying to talk sense with it. It had already done its believed due diligence in finding the drive at all, so it just carried on with the boot process. Afterward, the system is more stable and other devices are no longer going through boot checks. Plugging in the drive will work, because there’s just enough power at this point.
This is all speculation, of course. But it might explain the power-down during reinstall. If the point where it powered down was when the installation was talking to multiple hardware devices, and if USB devices were plugged in during that time, it may simply have shat itself due to lack of power.
This is the most cogent theory I’ve seen to explain my situation, and I’ve spent a lot of time Googling. I’ll try a bigger power supply. But would you have any suggestions on HOW big, and/or a method to find out just how much wattage is needed?
That does not seem to jibe with
This is what sounded something like my situation, prior to my attempting the Windows reinstall:
My tech guy found this situation still prevailed while attempting the reinstall, but he hasn’t made much progress after that.
Are there any other “nuclear options” that we could try? I have my information backed up, so we can run it over with a car if that would help.
Once again, thanks to everyone for their input. This has been one heck of a hard situation to diagnose.
Mach Tuck,
Because this persists through a reinstall, we’ve ruled out software.
Running over your data won’t help, unless we’re talking about the actual copy of the operation system. Since you’ve tried a reinstall, that won’t help either.
As far as your above query to BlackKnight re: the power supply size:
He’s not saying your power supply isn’t big enough (not enough wattage), he’s saying it’s broken. (At least that it might be… ). That is, it can’t deliver the wattage it could when it was new.
Some power supplies just get too old… others get hurt by poor electrical power coming in from the wall socket…
Have you done the BIOS reset yet?
If so, a this point, my next steps would be:
Run diagnostics from UBCD above
if no joy,
Replace power supply
and take it from there. If the power supply didn’t fix it, I’d turn a skeptical eye at your motherboard.
From the symptoms we have I would go in this order:
- Reset and/or flash BIOS
- Thoroughly check MOBO
- Check PSU
That is in order of suspicion. OTOH some very basic testing can be done on the PSU without even removing it. You can hook a scope to the outputs and make sure they are clean. You can even connect some capacitors to the outputs which may help if the outputs are not clean.
Power supplies often fail because the output capacitors fail and are quite easy to repair by just replacing them.