PC halts randomly, i'm at a loss!

[Wizard]

Hi!
I own a Pentium III 400Mhz, 128mb ram, onboad vga, onboard soundcard
and Windows 2000.
My pc halts with no response randomly and these are the symptoms:
1) Sometimes I press the power button, I can hear the cpu and power
fans, but then it does nothing, the monitor doesn't start, the hard
disk doesn't start, it just stays there. After a couple of reboots, it
starts normally.
2) Sometimes the monitor starts, but the "detecting drives" stage
doesn't come at all, it just stays there.
3) Sometimes it halts during the windows loading logo screen.
4) Sometimes it halts while I'm using windows and when I restart it,
it gives me the first symptom.

There's nothing in the event viewer, I tried changing the power
supply, the power cord but still nothing.
Could it be a memory problem, bad onboard vga or the cpu
overheating???

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Richard Brooks]

Wizard said the following on 28/03/07 12:08:

Hi!
I own a Pentium III 400Mhz, 128mb ram, onboad vga, onboard soundcard
and Windows 2000.
My pc halts with no response randomly and these are the symptoms:
1) Sometimes I press the power button, I can hear the cpu and power
fans, but then it does nothing, the monitor doesn't start, the hard
disk doesn't start, it just stays there. After a couple of reboots, it
starts normally.
2) Sometimes the monitor starts, but the "detecting drives" stage
doesn't come at all, it just stays there.
3) Sometimes it halts during the windows loading logo screen.
4) Sometimes it halts while I'm using windows and when I restart it,
it gives me the first symptom.

There's nothing in the event viewer, I tried changing the power
supply, the power cord but still nothing.
Could it be a memory problem, bad onboard vga or the cpu
overheating???

Any help would be appreciated!

The one problem I know of from experience and if it happened only once
or so in the recent past then became progressively worse was because of
an aging board which is usually the capacitors.

<http://www.kdbanglia.com/motherboard.htm>

If not, then I'm sure others in this newsgroup will have answers for you.


Richard.

 

[Brian Cryer]

Hi!
I own a Pentium III 400Mhz, 128mb ram, onboad vga, onboard soundcard
and Windows 2000.
My pc halts with no response randomly and these are the symptoms:
1) Sometimes I press the power button, I can hear the cpu and power
fans, but then it does nothing, the monitor doesn't start, the hard
disk doesn't start, it just stays there. After a couple of reboots, it
starts normally.

It sounds to me like the power supply. I know you said you'd tried changing
the power supply. Are you sure the power supply you tried was okay?

2) Sometimes the monitor starts, but the "detecting drives" stage
doesn't come at all, it just stays there.
3) Sometimes it halts during the windows loading logo screen.
4) Sometimes it halts while I'm using windows and when I restart it,
it gives me the first symptom.

There's nothing in the event viewer, I tried changing the power
supply, the power cord but still nothing.
Could it be a memory problem, bad onboard vga or the cpu
overheating???

Any help would be appreciated!

If its not the power supply then do you get a similar problem if you boot
from a floppy (to DOS say)? If you do then that rules out the operating
system.

Otherwise, following Richard's post and consider replacing the motherboard.
Given the age of the machine you could probably pick up a working machine of
a similar or better spec from ebay for the cost of a replacement
motherboard.

 

[kony]

Hi!
I own a Pentium III 400Mhz, 128mb ram, onboad vga, onboard soundcard
and Windows 2000.

What motherboard make & model?

My pc halts with no response randomly and these are the symptoms:
1) Sometimes I press the power button, I can hear the cpu and power
fans, but then it does nothing, the monitor doesn't start, the hard
disk doesn't start, it just stays there. After a couple of reboots, it
starts normally.

Could you clarify? You write halts but then the above seems
more like it is not halting it is turning it on from being
off. What does after a couple of reboots mean then?

2) Sometimes the monitor starts, but the "detecting drives" stage
doesn't come at all, it just stays there.

Check PSU voltages with a multimeter, or if the bios has a
hardware/health monitor page, see if it lists temps and/or
voltages. Check all fans, that they're spinning normally.
If the system has a lot of dust buildup at this age, it
might be a good time to clean it out.

3) Sometimes it halts during the windows loading logo screen.
4) Sometimes it halts while I'm using windows and when I restart it,
it gives me the first symptom.

There's nothing in the event viewer, I tried changing the power
supply, the power cord but still nothing.

Just to be thorough, you are sure the replacement PSU is
working properly and adequate for the system? It wouldn't
take much of a PSU to run a P400 era system with modest
hardware that you list, but then there were also some quite
anemic PSU back in that era too, like ~100-150W from
Compaq/etc.

Could it be a memory problem, bad onboard vga or the cpu
overheating???

Unless something *new* has happened to the CPU, like fan
failure, it shouldn't be overheating. I doubt the vga too
since it worked up to a point. If the replacement PSU is
good it is probably the board itself - inspect it for bad
capacitors. You might also disconnect all nonessential
things (towards merely posting the system, then reconnect
only enough to boot the OS) to see if it makes any
difference, but since it is a pretty basic configuration
already, it might only mean temporarily unplugging the
drives and anything USB.

 

[DaveW]

RAM and CPU's rarely fail. It sounds like your older vintage motherboard is
giving up the ghost.

 

[w_tom]

My pc halts with no response randomly and these are the symptoms:
1) Sometimes I press the power button, I can hear the cpu and power
fans, but then it does nothing, the monitor doesn't start, the hard
disk doesn't start, it just stays there. After a couple of reboots, it
starts normally.
2) Sometimes the monitor starts, but the "detecting drives" stage
doesn't come at all, it just stays there.
3) Sometimes it halts during the windows loading logo screen.
4) Sometimes it halts while I'm using windows and when I restart it,
it gives me the first symptom.

Notice a long list of 'could be's. This post is about where to
start eliminating the 'could be's. One item that can make
everything else look defective is the power supply 'system' - more
than just a power supply. Two minutes with a 3.5 digit multimeter
will exonerate or identify the suspect. Without disconnecting or
changing anything, and in two minutes, the procedure is in "When your
computer dies without warning....." starting 6 Feb 2007 in the
newsgroup alt.windows-xp at:
http://tinyurl.com/yvf9vh

Voltage could have been defective for a long time; but only just now
causing failures. See the failure decisively or confirm its
integrity. Then don't look back. Move on to other suspects or
confirm a new power supply solves the problem, again, in two minutes
with the meter. Get decisive answers as each suspect is accused or
exonerated.

 

[Wizard]

Hi everyone!
Thanks for your answers!
My mobo is Jetway(?) 630CN/CF
By "halts", I mean my system freezes randomly, even before POST
begins.
No sign so far of bad capacitors.
psu is 270W.
I'll try to switch to a power supply that I know is good and see what
happens.
No dust, fans are spinning properly, no temperature problem.