Xp reboots by itself--PSU problem?

[ABC]

Xp pro on an Abit SE6 and 512M ram, Celeron 850M-- all very old except
the OS

It can work well for the whole day and it can also suddenly turn
itself off and reboots----and then usually got stuck at the BIOS
screen. Serveral resets may solve the problem--for a while.

Power supply? Half dead Celeron?.......

any help appreciated
ABC

 

[kony]

Xp pro on an Abit SE6 and 512M ram, Celeron 850M-- all very old except
the OS

Examine the motherboard for vented capacitors- that era of
Abit board was succeptible to this moreso than newer boards.

It can work well for the whole day and it can also suddenly turn
itself off and reboots----and then usually got stuck at the BIOS
screen. Serveral resets may solve the problem--for a while.

Power supply? Half dead Celeron?.......

No the odds are overwhelmingly against there being anything
wrong with the CPU.

Could be the power supply, could be the board.
Since it's XP, could even be the OS if you haven't yet
disabled the reboot-on-error setting in XP (do that).

If the board's capacitors look OK, the odds are it's the
power supply (IMO, assuming you've checked things like
cables, cards, wires for good connections and the
fans/case-vents are all working and not clogged with dust).

 

[ABC]

Could be the power supply, could be the board.
Since it's XP, could even be the OS if you haven't yet
disabled the reboot-on-error setting in XP (do that).

Where is that?

If the board's capacitors look OK, the odds are it's the
power supply (IMO, assuming you've checked things like
cables, cards, wires for good connections and the
fans/case-vents are all working and not clogged with dust).

I have in fact replaced all capacitors as this board would not boot
through BIOS previously. After replacement , it works well normally
but now got this new "vanishing XP" syndrome.


ABC

 

[kony]

Where is that?

Google is your friend,
http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=XP+Startup+and+recovery+reboot

It's in System->Advanced->Startup&Recovery->Reboot

I have in fact replaced all capacitors as this board would not boot
through BIOS previously. After replacement , it works well normally
but now got this new "vanishing XP" syndrome.

Did you use known viable replacement caps, something with
good/low ESR?

Run memtest86 for a few hours, same for Prime95's Torture
Test. Take a look at the XP Event Viewer, or the bluescreen
after having disabled the "reboot" setting referred to
above.