Sudden Power Off [Fingers Crossed!]
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Sudden Power Off [Fingers Crossed!]
25-07-2012 9:41 PM
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Then at about 17:50, it suddenly powered off without warning. Nothing connected to it lost power.
I powered it straight back on OK. I thought it might have been overheating, but I ran Speedfan on the CPU and it stayed steady at 43 degrees.
Then at about 19:40 the same thing happened again.
I took the covers off to get a good look. Nothing seemed to be untoward, but I gave it a bit of a clean anyway.
When I went to power it back up, the fans (PSU, case, CPU and graphics card) powered up fine; the lights on the multi-card reader came on, and the HDD seemed to be OK too...but there was no POST and no signal to the monitor.
I checked the connections from the PSU to the MB and HDD, cleaning and reseating.
I just powered it up again, and it booted into XP fine. I was just about to go back online when it powered off again.
Any thoughts about what's doing it? PSU on the way out? The machine is about 4.5 years old. XP Pro SP3. Athlon 64x2 dual-core chip.
TIA
Re: Sudden Power Off
25-07-2012 9:59 PM
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You should also check the event log to see if anything has been reported in there that may give a clue, but it's rare to find anything useful.
Another check worth doing, when powering up, go into the BIOS and check the hardware (health) status, that should show a few temperatures and also the voltages from the PSU.
However, my main inclination would be a failing PSU, as ever, it'll be worth swapping it with a spare (if available) to be sure.
I've also had a case where the graphics card failed, in that instance the machine would not POST with the card connected; it's possible yours may be on the way out.
Re: Sudden Power Off
26-07-2012 6:54 AM
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Here's an oddity: after I posted last night, I booted the machine up again and left it at the login screen for about 10-15 minutes. No power-off.
I logged into my second account and browsed for a bit on that. No power-off.
This morning (i.e., now), I left it at the login screen for about 15 minutes before logging in to the second account. 25 minutes so far and no issues (yeah, I know, Famous Last Words!).
Could my main profile have become corrupted, and that's what might be causing the problem? I haven't tried the main profile again this morning (don't have the time), but is this possible?
Re: Sudden Power Off
26-07-2012 2:52 PM
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You'll want to check the various user specific places to see what's loading at login, Autoruns is a good tool for the job.
Re: Sudden Power Off
26-07-2012 5:33 PM
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Maybe.
"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."
Re: Sudden Power Off [Solved!...I Hope]
27-07-2012 8:19 PM
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Finally, set up a whole new profile, and copied all of the dodgy one across except the 'ntuser' files (i.e., the registry).
Two hours running on that last night, about four hours today, and so far no issues at all.
Re: Sudden Power Off [Solved!...I Hope]
28-07-2012 5:05 PM
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Came to switch it on this morning - fans powered up, etc. etc., but wouldn't POST.
Got back on my backup rig and did some research. Tried one of the ideas I found - disconnected everything from the case, held the power button in for 30 seconds, then powered it up with nothing connected. Went to POST and booted up fine. Powered off, reconnected everything and powered up again - fine.
That was about 5 hours agp. So far, so good. But I'm going to buy a new PSU this week just to be ready...
Re: Sudden Power Off [Stiil Not Solved!]
30-07-2012 5:17 PM
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Everything was OK all day Saturday. Machine POSTed and booted fine Sunday and worked OK. Same thing this morning before I went to work.
Tried it just now, and it wouldn't POST again. HDD spins, fans spin, but no light on the multi-card reader and nothing more going on.
I said some naughty words...again.
I unplugged the power from the back and left it while I fired up my old Win98 rig to do some research. After about 20 minutes, came back to my problem child, held the power button in for 30 seconds again, then put the power cord back in and fired it up. This time it went to POST and booted up normally.
Am I looking at a dying PSU here, do you think?
Re: Sudden Power Off [Stiil Not Solved!]
30-07-2012 7:01 PM
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Since there was a spare motherboard + CPU + RAM available (a similar Athlon64 but in a different socket and DDR2 instead of DDR ram), that lot got replaced, and it currently works.
Re: Sudden Power Off [Stiil Not Solved!]
30-07-2012 7:11 PM
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Systematic swapping of components is the only way to be 100% sure of the culprit though sometimes just disconnecting all power connectors (especially to the MotherBoard) and re-connecting them can solve the problem.
I don't suppose the PSU from your old W98 rig has all the correct connectors required to test on the suspect one?
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
Re: Sudden Power Off [Stiil Not Solved!]
30-07-2012 7:45 PM
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After a number of tests the specialist found that the graphics card was fried so he put a new one in - and it fried that as well.
As the replacement cost of the motherboard was unreasonable he fitted a modern motherboard with modern memory and integral graphics for a lower cost.
The point of all this rambling was that the motherboard seems to have been creating a short somewhere which tripped the over current protection of one of the outputs of the PSU and eventually fried the graphics card when the current trip didn't come in fast enough
Re: Sudden Power Off [Stiil Not Solved!]
30-07-2012 8:46 PM
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What I'll do tomorrow evening is open it up, disconnect and reconnect whatever I can and then see what happens.
Re: Sudden Power Off [Stiil Not Solved!]
31-07-2012 6:56 AM
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Re: Sudden Power Off [Stiil Not Solved!]
31-07-2012 2:00 PM
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"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."
Re: Sudden Power Off [Stiil Not Solved!]
31-07-2012 7:36 PM
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