Spontaneous reboot

[Leachim Sredna]

Hi,
The computer I put together for a friend about three years ago has started
spontaneously rebooting, and the problem is getting worse.
I don't think it is overheating, all the fans are working as they should,
and the PSU is only about a year old.
It's an Epox 8K7A+ motherboard with an AMD XP 2400 which had, until this
problem arose in recent weeks, performed excellently.
It's running Win 98 SE.
The reboot seems to occur while online and browsing under IE 6 or mail
reading under OE 6 but I can't make a direct cause-and-effect connection
between any operation and the reboot.
Can anyone suggest a procedure to try to locate/eliminate the problem?
Thanks in advance

 

[Smoker]

Hi,
The computer I put together for a friend about three years ago has started
spontaneously rebooting, and the problem is getting worse.
I don't think it is overheating, all the fans are working as they should,
and the PSU is only about a year old.
It's an Epox 8K7A+ motherboard with an AMD XP 2400 which had, until this
problem arose in recent weeks, performed excellently.
It's running Win 98 SE.
The reboot seems to occur while online and browsing under IE 6 or mail
reading under OE 6 but I can't make a direct cause-and-effect connection
between any operation and the reboot.
Can anyone suggest a procedure to try to locate/eliminate the problem?
Thanks in advance

Is there a lot of dust in the case?

First thing to do is swap power supplies. If new hardware was added recently
and then it started rebooting I'd suspect the PSU is too weak for the
hardware its running. Age doesn't have much to do with it.

 

[Rob]

Hi,
The computer I put together for a friend about three years ago has started
spontaneously rebooting, and the problem is getting worse.
I don't think it is overheating, all the fans are working as they should,
and the PSU is only about a year old.
It's an Epox 8K7A+ motherboard with an AMD XP 2400 which had, until this
problem arose in recent weeks, performed excellently.
It's running Win 98 SE.
The reboot seems to occur while online and browsing under IE 6 or mail
reading under OE 6 but I can't make a direct cause-and-effect connection
between any operation and the reboot.
Can anyone suggest a procedure to try to locate/eliminate the problem?
Thanks in advance

The last Epox (think it was that exact model) that came in with
similar symptoms turned out to have defective electrolytic capacitors.
Look for any that are leaking or have buldging tops.
A google for "epox bad caps" will be an eye-opener!
HTH,

 

[Richard Brooks]

Rob said the following on 24/01/07 13:59:

Hi,
The computer I put together for a friend about three years ago has started
spontaneously rebooting, and the problem is getting worse.

[snipped]
The last Epox (think it was that exact model) that came in with
similar symptoms turned out to have defective electrolytic capacitors.
Look for any that are leaking or have buldging tops.
A google for "epox bad caps" will be an eye-opener!
HTH,

I photographed this on a motherboard that had the exact same thing
happening to. It seems that five working years is the usual time given
to a motherboard.

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


Richard.

 

[Phill Cahill]

I would say that if the rebooting only occurs while you are using IE6
and outlook exchange and never any other time you can suume that a
common component used in both ie6 and oe is causing your reboot
problem. Have you done any windows updates recently. If so the poblem
may lie within.

 

[Phill Cahill]

I too have seen this all too comon problem but mostley on Soltek board
rather than the normaly better Epox kit.

Rob said the following on 24/01/07 13:59:

Hi,
The computer I put together for a friend about three years ago has started
spontaneously rebooting, and the problem is getting worse.

[snipped]
The last Epox (think it was that exact model) that came in with
similar symptoms turned out to have defective electrolytic capacitors.
Look for any that are leaking or have buldging tops.
A google for "epox bad caps" will be an eye-opener!
HTH,I photographed this on a motherboard that had the exact same thing

happening to. It seems that five working years is the usual time given
to a motherboard.

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

Richard.

 

[Leachim Sredna]

Thanx, chaps. Had a look at the capacitors and fear it may well be that,
though PSU may be culprit also. What a bummer, I really liked this board
too. Dunno if I'll be able to get Epox to replace them, without a receipt,
or if it is even worth the trouble now.
Funny that it only seems to happen under IE6/OE6, and after the thing has
warmed up a bit. But some of those capacitors look real bad!
Ho-hum!

Rob said the following on 24/01/07 13:59:

Hi,
The computer I put together for a friend about three years ago has started
spontaneously rebooting, and the problem is getting worse.

[snipped]
The last Epox (think it was that exact model) that came in with
similar symptoms turned out to have defective electrolytic capacitors.
Look for any that are leaking or have buldging tops.
A google for "epox bad caps" will be an eye-opener!
HTH,

I photographed this on a motherboard that had the exact same thing
happening to. It seems that five working years is the usual time given
to a motherboard.

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


Richard.

 

[Rob]

Thanx, chaps. Had a look at the capacitors and fear it may well be that,
though PSU may be culprit also. What a bummer, I really liked this board
too. Dunno if I'll be able to get Epox to replace them, without a receipt,
or if it is even worth the trouble now.
Funny that it only seems to happen under IE6/OE6, and after the thing has
warmed up a bit. But some of those capacitors look real bad!
Ho-hum!

Yep, one the one I looked at, IE seemed to crash it more than anything
else, so wasted a lot of time trying to fix that instead. :-/ I guess IE is
just so badly written that it uses a lot of CPU/memory resources and
this highlights the problem..
If you can solder, it may be worth changing them yourself - if so, don't
bother trying to unsolder them properly, as you'll likely damage the
through-hole plating. Just pull the cans off using pliers and snip the
remaining leads so there's a few mm left to solder the new ones to.
HTH,

 

[John Jordan]

Yep, one the one I looked at, IE seemed to crash it more than anything
else, so wasted a lot of time trying to fix that instead. :-/ I guess IE is
just so badly written that it uses a lot of CPU/memory resources and
this highlights the problem..

That's a bit harsh on IE. Modern web browsers are naturally fault-prone
applications because of the range of dynamic content that they have to
process. A single-bit error in a static data array is much less likely
to cause a crash than a single-bit error in a pointer. You get the same
effect with Firefox or Opera on machines with flaky hardware.

 

[Oldish sod]

That's a bit harsh on IE. Modern web browsers are naturally fault-prone
applications because of the range of dynamic content that they have to
process. A single-bit error in a static data array is much less likely to
cause a crash than a single-bit error in a pointer. You get the same
effect with Firefox or Opera on machines with flaky hardware.

You're right, John. It's a little like blaming XP for crashing
during installation, when it actually does us a favour by
highlighting the fact that [the usual problem is] the currently
installed RAM is dodgy. Unfortunately, the error messages
given tend to lead many up the garden path! - How many
perfectly working installation CDs and optical drives have
been replaced because of that?!
Thank gawd for usenet and web search engines (but even
then, knowing how to phrase the search term and quickly
sift the results can only be gained by experience <sigh>.)
Best,

 

[Leachim Sredna]

Thanx again all the suggestions. I'm happy to report that changing the PSU
solved the problem, dodgy-looking caps notwithstanding !

 

[solesavior]

That's a bit harsh on IE. Modern web browsers are naturally fault-prone
applications because of the range of dynamic content that they have to
process. A single-bit error in a static data array is much less likely to
cause a crash than a single-bit error in a pointer. You get the same
effect with Firefox or Opera on machines with flaky hardware.

You're right, John. It's a little like blaming XP for crashing
during installation, when it actually does us a favour by
highlighting the fact that [the usual problem is] the currently
installed RAM is dodgy. Unfortunately, the error messages
given tend to lead many up the garden path! - How many
perfectly working installation CDs and optical drives have
been replaced because of that?!
Thank gawd for usenet and web search engines (but even
then, knowing how to phrase the search term and quickly
sift the results can only be gained by experience <sigh>.)
Best,

I installed IE6 a few years ago. My once stable and well working
computer became crash city. I tried to remove IE first manually, then
used IERADICATE. WIndows just never ran right after that, and was
crash prone. I finally formatted the drive and reinstalled Win98 and
just left IE 5.0 (that comes with Win98) as the browser. My problem
was solved. Eventually I upgraded to IE5.5 and thats what I still
use. IE6 has major bugs and eats up far too many resources.

I have a suggestion for the OP. Get a used small harddrive like a 10
gig or so. Unplug your present drive and plug in this spare drive.
Install Win98 on it. Leave the default browser and go online doing
whatever you have been doing. If you still crash, you likely have bad
hardware (memory is likely), if not. blame it all on IE6 and you'll
have to figure out what to do with your original drive. You can not
uninstall IE6 or go back to IE 5.x without completely formatting and
reinstalling Win98.

If this dont solve it, beg, borrow or steal some memory and replace
what you have. If the problem is still there, your mother is dying.

If Epox has such bad caps, I will be sure to avoid ever buying one.