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From: Bradley Walker on 9 Feb 2006 00:46
A client called me earlier today regarding their office computer
sporatically shutting itself down. The lady at the office said the screen
would go blank, all the fans and everything would stop functioning inside
the tower. She could *not* power the system back on unless she unplugged
the powercable from the back of the system.

The problem started midafternoon and after troubleshoot all of the basic
items such as surge protector, snug cables, etc. I decided to get the tower
and bring it back to my office for a look over. Before I picked the tower
up, the system was shutting down on her every 45 seconds. She barely had
enough time to log into windows before the system would once again shut
down.

I brought the tower back to my office only to do windows updates, all the
anti-virus/spyware scans I normally do on systems as well as a stress tester
which ran for nearly for nearly 5 hours. I called the client back and
suggested they could have a faulty surge protector. However when I went to
my lab a few minutes ago, the tower was indeed turned off. I noticed the
power buttom light was a light yellowish-amber color and pushing or holding
that button did not do anything to turn the power off. Unfortunately I do
not have any voltmeters on hand so I can not test the output of the
powersupply. But before I run out and jump the gun on what to replace with
this... could the powersupply be flakey enough to work for long stretches
then die out like the symptoms above indicate?


From: Jay B on 9 Feb 2006 03:33
i doubt its a spyware /virus problem since the plug needs to be pulled
for it to reset.
it sounds like the acpi power management is kicking in and shutting it
down, the sign of incompatible or corupt bios or motherboard. i had this
problem recently. especially on old computers that were recently
reformatted with XP. also triggered by the idlesness of the cpu or heat.
It could also be a faulty power supply, but i'm not so sure it is.
what are the specs of the machine?
Jay

Bradley Walker wrote:

> A client called me earlier today regarding their office computer
> sporatically shutting itself down. The lady at the office said the screen
> would go blank, all the fans and everything would stop functioning inside
> the tower. She could *not* power the system back on unless she unplugged
> the powercable from the back of the system.
>
> The problem started midafternoon and after troubleshoot all of the basic
> items such as surge protector, snug cables, etc. I decided to get the tower
> and bring it back to my office for a look over. Before I picked the tower
> up, the system was shutting down on her every 45 seconds. She barely had
> enough time to log into windows before the system would once again shut
> down.
>
> I brought the tower back to my office only to do windows updates, all the
> anti-virus/spyware scans I normally do on systems as well as a stress tester
> which ran for nearly for nearly 5 hours. I called the client back and
> suggested they could have a faulty surge protector. However when I went to
> my lab a few minutes ago, the tower was indeed turned off. I noticed the
> power buttom light was a light yellowish-amber color and pushing or holding
> that button did not do anything to turn the power off. Unfortunately I do
> not have any voltmeters on hand so I can not test the output of the
> powersupply. But before I run out and jump the gun on what to replace with
> this... could the powersupply be flakey enough to work for long stretches
> then die out like the symptoms above indicate?
>
>
From: S.Lewis on 9 Feb 2006 06:40

"Jay B" <jayb(a)audiman.net> wrote in message
news:Q9DGf.1849$gA6.1845(a)fe10.lga...
>i doubt its a spyware /virus problem since the plug needs to be pulled for
>it to reset.
> it sounds like the acpi power management is kicking in and shutting it
> down, the sign of incompatible or corupt bios or motherboard. i had this
> problem recently. especially on old computers that were recently
> reformatted with XP. also triggered by the idlesness of the cpu or heat.
> It could also be a faulty power supply, but i'm not so sure it is.
> what are the specs of the machine?
> Jay
>
> Bradley Walker wrote:
>
>> A client called me earlier today regarding their office computer
>> sporatically shutting itself down. The lady at the office said the
>> screen would go blank, all the fans and everything would stop functioning
>> inside the tower. She could *not* power the system back on unless she
>> unplugged the powercable from the back of the system.
>>
>> The problem started midafternoon and after troubleshoot all of the basic
>> items such as surge protector, snug cables, etc. I decided to get the
>> tower and bring it back to my office for a look over. Before I picked
>> the tower up, the system was shutting down on her every 45 seconds. She
>> barely had enough time to log into windows before the system would once
>> again shut down.
>>
>> I brought the tower back to my office only to do windows updates, all the
>> anti-virus/spyware scans I normally do on systems as well as a stress
>> tester which ran for nearly for nearly 5 hours. I called the client back
>> and suggested they could have a faulty surge protector. However when I
>> went to my lab a few minutes ago, the tower was indeed turned off. I
>> noticed the power buttom light was a light yellowish-amber color and
>> pushing or holding that button did not do anything to turn the power off.
>> Unfortunately I do not have any voltmeters on hand so I can not test the
>> output of the powersupply. But before I run out and jump the gun on what
>> to replace with this... could the powersupply be flakey enough to work
>> for long stretches then die out like the symptoms above indicate?


That machine has a standard 250w ATX power supply, though purchasing a
retail PS may cause fit problems if the housing measurements don't match up,
or if there's an external (rear) power on/off switch on the PS.

That machine can use a PS from a Dimension (mini-tower form factor)
43xx/45xx/82xx/or 83xx as well.

A faulty UPS could also be causing this.

Once saw a pair of Dimension 4300's randomly dumping and rebooting in this
manner due to that reason.

Stew


From: Bradley Walker on 9 Feb 2006 17:22
The machine is only 2-3 years old at tops. It's got a Pentium 4, SDRAM,
came factory preinstalled with Windows XP. The system has been running
unformatted, unmodified since the day it was purchased. These power dumps
just started happening yesterday afternoon for no reason (so the client
says).


"Jay B" <jayb(a)audiman.net> wrote in message
news:Q9DGf.1849$gA6.1845(a)fe10.lga...
>i doubt its a spyware /virus problem since the plug needs to be pulled for
>it to reset.
> it sounds like the acpi power management is kicking in and shutting it
> down, the sign of incompatible or corupt bios or motherboard. i had this
> problem recently. especially on old computers that were recently
> reformatted with XP. also triggered by the idlesness of the cpu or heat.
> It could also be a faulty power supply, but i'm not so sure it is.
> what are the specs of the machine?
> Jay
>
> Bradley Walker wrote:
>
>> A client called me earlier today regarding their office computer
>> sporatically shutting itself down. The lady at the office said the
>> screen would go blank, all the fans and everything would stop functioning
>> inside the tower. She could *not* power the system back on unless she
>> unplugged the powercable from the back of the system.
>>
>> The problem started midafternoon and after troubleshoot all of the basic
>> items such as surge protector, snug cables, etc. I decided to get the
>> tower and bring it back to my office for a look over. Before I picked
>> the tower up, the system was shutting down on her every 45 seconds. She
>> barely had enough time to log into windows before the system would once
>> again shut down.
>>
>> I brought the tower back to my office only to do windows updates, all the
>> anti-virus/spyware scans I normally do on systems as well as a stress
>> tester which ran for nearly for nearly 5 hours. I called the client back
>> and suggested they could have a faulty surge protector. However when I
>> went to my lab a few minutes ago, the tower was indeed turned off. I
>> noticed the power buttom light was a light yellowish-amber color and
>> pushing or holding that button did not do anything to turn the power off.
>> Unfortunately I do not have any voltmeters on hand so I can not test the
>> output of the powersupply. But before I run out and jump the gun on what
>> to replace with this... could the powersupply be flakey enough to work
>> for long stretches then die out like the symptoms above indicate?



From: Ben Myers <ben_myers_spam_me_not @ on 9 Feb 2006 18:29
FWIW, the form factor of a standard ATX12 power supply is fine in Dell P4
systems (excluding SFF and the multi-processor Precisions), but the presence of
an external switch is a problem with fitting the PS in the Dell case.

I, myself, do not like the idea of hacking the PS opening on the back of a Dell
case with a nibbling tool, Dremel, or saw to make room for an external
switch.... Ben Myers

On Thu, 9 Feb 2006 05:40:19 -0600, "S.Lewis" <stew1960(a)mail.com> wrote:

>
>"Jay B" <jayb(a)audiman.net> wrote in message
>news:Q9DGf.1849$gA6.1845(a)fe10.lga...
>>i doubt its a spyware /virus problem since the plug needs to be pulled for
>>it to reset.
>> it sounds like the acpi power management is kicking in and shutting it
>> down, the sign of incompatible or corupt bios or motherboard. i had this
>> problem recently. especially on old computers that were recently
>> reformatted with XP. also triggered by the idlesness of the cpu or heat.
>> It could also be a faulty power supply, but i'm not so sure it is.
>> what are the specs of the machine?
>> Jay
>>
>> Bradley Walker wrote:
>>
>>> A client called me earlier today regarding their office computer
>>> sporatically shutting itself down. The lady at the office said the
>>> screen would go blank, all the fans and everything would stop functioning
>>> inside the tower. She could *not* power the system back on unless she
>>> unplugged the powercable from the back of the system.
>>>
>>> The problem started midafternoon and after troubleshoot all of the basic
>>> items such as surge protector, snug cables, etc. I decided to get the
>>> tower and bring it back to my office for a look over. Before I picked
>>> the tower up, the system was shutting down on her every 45 seconds. She
>>> barely had enough time to log into windows before the system would once
>>> again shut down.
>>>
>>> I brought the tower back to my office only to do windows updates, all the
>>> anti-virus/spyware scans I normally do on systems as well as a stress
>>> tester which ran for nearly for nearly 5 hours. I called the client back
>>> and suggested they could have a faulty surge protector. However when I
>>> went to my lab a few minutes ago, the tower was indeed turned off. I
>>> noticed the power buttom light was a light yellowish-amber color and
>>> pushing or holding that button did not do anything to turn the power off.
>>> Unfortunately I do not have any voltmeters on hand so I can not test the
>>> output of the powersupply. But before I run out and jump the gun on what
>>> to replace with this... could the powersupply be flakey enough to work
>>> for long stretches then die out like the symptoms above indicate?
>
>
>That machine has a standard 250w ATX power supply, though purchasing a
>retail PS may cause fit problems if the housing measurements don't match up,
>or if there's an external (rear) power on/off switch on the PS.
>
>That machine can use a PS from a Dimension (mini-tower form factor)
>43xx/45xx/82xx/or 83xx as well.
>
>A faulty UPS could also be causing this.
>
>Once saw a pair of Dimension 4300's randomly dumping and rebooting in this
>manner due to that reason.
>
>Stew
>

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