Computer unstable - power issues, or USB problems?

[Guest]

Hello,

My computer has become unstable. I recently installed a USB PCI hub card
which seemed to have triggered the instability, but the computer is unstable
even without the card plugged in. I had not noticed stability issues until
now. The nature of the problem is that the computer resets itself at random
and reboots without any kind of error message. One moment its working, the
next I get a black screen and its back to booting through the BIOS.
Occasionally it hangs too, though this is far less frequent.

The times when the computer is most likely to reset itself (though not
exclusively) is when I plug something into the PCI USB card I have just
installed. At first I thought the card was the problem, but the computer has
also crashed with this card removed as well, which suggests the card cannot
be purely to blame.

I also seem to be having issues with my inbuilt USB hub (round the back of
the computer). While it works for most devices, I have a Pinnacle DVC90
analogue to digital converter that I use to transfer VHS recordings to DVD
disks. When this is plugged in to a USB port I get massive frame drops. On
the USB PCI card I get no frame drops, but the computer is almost guaranteed
to reset itself before the recording is completed. The computer even resets
itself with this DVC90 plugged in but not recording.

My best guess is that this is a power supply issue. The DVC90 card draws
its power from the USB hub, and if it is taking a great deal of power it
might explain the computer resets. I have a Tagan 480W power supply which is
an excellent device, but the power drawn by my machine is a great deal. I
have three hard drives, three RAM cards, two DVD/CD drives, a powered
graphics card, a sound card and a TV tuner card. Could it be that the
insertion of a PCI USB hub is just sending the whole thing over the edge?

If it is a power supply issue, how can I test for this? I have tried
unplugging the CDs and the TV tuner, and there is an improvement in the
length of time the machine will run for without crashing, but it will still
crash. Could it be the power supply is not adequate? How can I find out?

If it is not the power supply, what could it be? The motherboard? It seems
to affect the whole system, as I have been unable to trace it to a single
device causing the problem. Could it be a problem with the USB slots on the
motherboard?

I have an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium board with an Athlon64 dual core processor.
I have 2 gigs RAM, running windows XP.

I would really, really appreciate any help you can give,

Daniel

 

[DatabaseBen]

it sounds reasonable that
it could be a mechanical issue
with power.

but the system may also be
shutting down as a result of
bad drivers or poor memory as well.

there is simply too much to cover
and the problem may be a simple one
or a compilation of several issues.

what i would easily suggest is to use
the process of elimination the drill down
to the source of the problem.

firstly, i would disconnect everything from the
pc and remove any pc boards that you added
to the system. Then see if the basic setup
of a pc with only a monitor, mouse and keyboard
functions with stability over the course
of a few days and long hours.

If it works fine, then you have eliminated a cause.

If not then the cause has been localized. In this
case i would then see if the pc functions in safe mode
for several days without problems,

If it works fine, then the problem is a third party
driver crashing the system.

If the pc continues to crash, then it could
be a mechanical problem

 

[mikeyhsd]

under Advanced tab of System Properties, startup section, uncheck the box for RESTART on error.and reboot.

this should give you some information on the error next time it fails.



(e-mail address removed)



Hello,

My computer has become unstable. I recently installed a USB PCI hub card
which seemed to have triggered the instability, but the computer is unstable
even without the card plugged in. I had not noticed stability issues until
now. The nature of the problem is that the computer resets itself at random
and reboots without any kind of error message. One moment its working, the
next I get a black screen and its back to booting through the BIOS.
Occasionally it hangs too, though this is far less frequent.

The times when the computer is most likely to reset itself (though not
exclusively) is when I plug something into the PCI USB card I have just
installed. At first I thought the card was the problem, but the computer has
also crashed with this card removed as well, which suggests the card cannot
be purely to blame.

I also seem to be having issues with my inbuilt USB hub (round the back of
the computer). While it works for most devices, I have a Pinnacle DVC90
analogue to digital converter that I use to transfer VHS recordings to DVD
disks. When this is plugged in to a USB port I get massive frame drops. On
the USB PCI card I get no frame drops, but the computer is almost guaranteed
to reset itself before the recording is completed. The computer even resets
itself with this DVC90 plugged in but not recording.

My best guess is that this is a power supply issue. The DVC90 card draws
its power from the USB hub, and if it is taking a great deal of power it
might explain the computer resets. I have a Tagan 480W power supply which is
an excellent device, but the power drawn by my machine is a great deal. I
have three hard drives, three RAM cards, two DVD/CD drives, a powered
graphics card, a sound card and a TV tuner card. Could it be that the
insertion of a PCI USB hub is just sending the whole thing over the edge?

If it is a power supply issue, how can I test for this? I have tried
unplugging the CDs and the TV tuner, and there is an improvement in the
length of time the machine will run for without crashing, but it will still
crash. Could it be the power supply is not adequate? How can I find out?

If it is not the power supply, what could it be? The motherboard? It seems
to affect the whole system, as I have been unable to trace it to a single
device causing the problem. Could it be a problem with the USB slots on the
motherboard?

I have an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium board with an Athlon64 dual core processor.
I have 2 gigs RAM, running windows XP.

I would really, really appreciate any help you can give,

Daniel

 

[DL]

To add, this may be usefull - power calc
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys - according to that power supply chart, I'm a little under
powered for my power supply, but not by much. Could be i'm on the very
limit, which might explain the problem.

I'll start by disconnecting everything and seeing what happens. I'll let
you know how it goes.

Daniel