Intermittant blackscreen lock-up, cant reset

[Tetor]

Im trying to fix a problem on a friends PC and Im having a lot of
difficulty, done a lot of searching and tried a lot of things without
any luck so far. Im not sure where to start really, if it is an xp
problem, a software problem or a hardware problem.

What Im getting is an intermittant black screen lockup which doesnt
usually have a pattern to it - it happens at any time - sometimes
during bootup, sometimes immediately after booting up, sometimes after
running for a couple of hours. Sometimes it happens often, sometimes
not for a few days. The power and hard-drive activity light always
remain on after the lockup, and the reset and power switch no longer
work - the machine has to be switched off at the power to be
restarted. When it is restarted, xp is none the wiser - no error
messages saying it has recovered from a serious error or it has been
shut down improperly or it failed to start properly the first time.
When it is running, it runs well.

Its running XP Home, which has been patched and updated to everything
but SP2. I did put SP2 on, but it didnt fix the problem and it caused
new ones so I took it off again (a drama in itself). The lockup also
occurred occasionally during the recovery console procedure. Ive done
Adaware and Spybot scans and come up with nothing. The one time I got
the problem to repeat itself was using LiveUpdate in Norton AntiVirus
2002. Manually starting LiveUpdate triggered it. Checking options
showed that it was trying to connect via dialup on an internal modem
which was not connected, rather than using ethernet card/ADSl
connection.

Correcting that option allowed LiveUpdate to connect without crashing
the system, but it crashed a couple of hours later anyway. I tried
removing the internal modem, and it crashed a little while later too.
I have now uninstalled Norton Antivirus and Firewall and am waiting
for the next crash..

As Im writing this Im thinking its got to be a hardware problem, but
just which bit of hardware? Ive reseated the memory, swapped video
cards, cleaned heatsinks and fans, and removed PCI cards to no avail
so far. It has a Biostar M7TDB motherboard, P4 1.7Gz, 256MB, and some
of the capacitors(?) bunched around the processor have a brownish
discharge on the top of them - it doesnt look fresh but Im reluctant
to poke or scratch at it to find out more (argh - it burns, it
burns!). Im reluctant to recommend a new motherboard unless Im sure
its definitely the culprit. Any help, thoughts or recommendations?
Cheer

 

[Boozy]

Leaking electrolyte is a *bad* sign. Bulged or leaking caps must be
replaced. Easier to replace the whole board than it is to mess about
replacing caps

 

[Paul]

Im trying to fix a problem on a friends PC and Im having a lot of
difficulty, done a lot of searching and tried a lot of things without
any luck so far. Im not sure where to start really, if it is an xp
problem, a software problem or a hardware problem.

What Im getting is an intermittant black screen lockup which doesnt
usually have a pattern to it - it happens at any time - sometimes
during bootup, sometimes immediately after booting up, sometimes after
running for a couple of hours. Sometimes it happens often, sometimes
not for a few days. The power and hard-drive activity light always
remain on after the lockup, and the reset and power switch no longer
work - the machine has to be switched off at the power to be
restarted. When it is restarted, xp is none the wiser - no error
messages saying it has recovered from a serious error or it has been
shut down improperly or it failed to start properly the first time.
When it is running, it runs well.

Its running XP Home, which has been patched and updated to everything
but SP2. I did put SP2 on, but it didnt fix the problem and it caused
new ones so I took it off again (a drama in itself). The lockup also
occurred occasionally during the recovery console procedure. Ive done
Adaware and Spybot scans and come up with nothing. The one time I got
the problem to repeat itself was using LiveUpdate in Norton AntiVirus
2002. Manually starting LiveUpdate triggered it. Checking options
showed that it was trying to connect via dialup on an internal modem
which was not connected, rather than using ethernet card/ADSl
connection.

Correcting that option allowed LiveUpdate to connect without crashing
the system, but it crashed a couple of hours later anyway. I tried
removing the internal modem, and it crashed a little while later too.
I have now uninstalled Norton Antivirus and Firewall and am waiting
for the next crash..

As Im writing this Im thinking its got to be a hardware problem, but
just which bit of hardware? Ive reseated the memory, swapped video
cards, cleaned heatsinks and fans, and removed PCI cards to no avail
so far. It has a Biostar M7TDB motherboard, P4 1.7Gz, 256MB, and some
of the capacitors(?) bunched around the processor have a brownish
discharge on the top of them - it doesnt look fresh but Im reluctant
to poke or scratch at it to find out more (argh - it burns, it
burns!). Im reluctant to recommend a new motherboard unless Im sure
its definitely the culprit. Any help, thoughts or recommendations?
Cheers

A "brownish discharge" is a death sentence for a motherboard. Either
heat up your soldering iron, and replace all the caps (that is called
"recapping" a motherboard), or better yet, buy a replacement motherboard.
The "brownish discharge" is like liver cancer -- only weeks to live.

When one cap fails, it puts more stress on its buddies who are working
in parallel (i.e. when you see five caps next to each other, they are
working as a team). Which accelerates their demise. Which is why there
should be a nice "clustering" of their passing away.

If you're curious, more info here:

http://www.badcaps.net/

They sell kits of replacement capacitors, but the kit should be
formulated exactly for the motherboard. While you can find plenty
of electrolytic caps on sites like Digikey, Mouser, Newark and the
like, it is surprisingly difficult to find the good ones. For
the price of the caps, and the labor time to replace them, you
could get a replacement motherboard instead. All depends on how
valuable your time is -- if you are the owner of a motherboard,
you may consider the soldering time to be "free". Getting the caps
out without damaging the motherboard, is a PITA.

http://www.badcaps.net/kits/

Paul