Random shut downs and reboots

[CERuppel]

Here is a rather long history of the problem.

It started seveal monthes back, my wifes (AC) computer would at random times just either reboot or completely shut down. It was very rare at first so we chalked it up to this or that, not really connecting the problems togather.

It was only about two weeks ago that the problem got to the point of "needs work". Nothing we did seemed to fix the problem, but a lot of things helped.

Then the problem moved...

Today we rearranged the office to make better use of the air conditioner. This of course meant moving both the desks and all of the computers and cables (except the printer stand). When all was ready we started the computers up...

Things went great for about an hour, then it happened. Out of the blue without any sign of trouble MY system rebooted. Just finished rebooting (password screen in WinXP) and rebooted again. This time it didn't even get that far, and just plain shut down.

After all the usual (hair pulling, cursing, jumping up and down on a mutilated corpse) I turned to my wife and said "...".

It was hours later that the thought occured to us that in rearranging the office I had switched the power bars so that I had her old power bar on my system. Voila! I thought. I went scoouring the house and found a spare power bar (but one with that pitiful short cord; that was why I had switched the bars to get the longer cord) and was ready to test.

But something was nagging at me, so I put it off long enough to finsh watching "Blade 2" with AC and kept thinking about the problem. No new thoughts, though.

So just a few minutes ago I set out to test the new power bar theory. Had to stretch the power lines to make it fit, but they did fit without to much tension.

I hit the power bar switch...

Nothing.

Looked again, cursed some more.

Shut down the power bar. Pluged the monitor back into the power bar... (had to fiddle to get it untangled just seconds earlier and forgot to replug...)

Sat and breathed.

Tried again with the power bar.

The monitor powered right up.

Turned on the computer...

Booted just fine.

Rebooted just fine too.

Shut down nice as could be as well.

")(^^$#$^&%*&^(&(^%$$^%&^*(&*)(&)*&%&^%*&" I said to myself.

As I sat and breathed a few random thoughts ran thru my head (murder, death, kill, age of house, state of wiring, burgers or chili?, flicker of overhead lights, location of light switch, blood, color of Betty Boops thighs, and the fact that the over head light swtch and the plug for my system were the same wireing) and it hit me!

One of those moments when a series of minor thoughts just comes together. Like magic.

I moved the power bars plug from the plug by the door to the plug by the window.

I sat and breathed. Thaought up a totally new and never before known to man curse beyond imagining.

I turned on the power bar.

The monitor powered up right away.

My cat walked right uner my chair, dragging his tail behind my knees. I jumped about a foot in the air. Cat ran away to live another day.

I turned on the computer.

The bios was my destination first. Checked the settings and the fans. Every thing was cool...

Then I exited and let the computer boot all the way.

"Go Computer Go" a whole stadium of imaginary cheerleaders sang out at the top of their lungs.

The pass word screen...

I reached for the keyboard. Looked back at the monitor, as if just taking my eyes off it for a second would mean the end of this miracle.

I typed "*******" (or something like that), and prayed that my touch typing was good. I'm not known as the typo king for nothing.

The desk top... I had an entire movie where I was Dorothy and the desktop was Kansas run thru my head waiting to get everything loaded. Must have been like nearly ten, twelve seconds.

I was certain that there was like all sorts of damage. Booting to the desktop had never taken this long, even with all that M$ junk running.

I ran everything. Checked everything. Then I did the unthinkable

I rebooted.

And I cheated.

I watched the clock.

It took seven seconds from password to desktop. Not ten or more. Just my nerves.

But do you blame me? I was without my computer for nearly an hour! It was all I could do not to go over and use AC's.

Well, thats my story, and I hope the moral of it isn't lost on all of you.

KISS. It does a body good.

(Keep It Simple, Stupid).

[VHockey86]

...... thats got to be about the most creative way of addressing a problem ive seen on this forum before (story naratives). Ne ways.. i guess im confused what you're acting asking...

[Rand Dusing]

Yah same here...But if your system just randomly shuts down it may be that your CPU isn't being cooled effiecntly.

[sharder8]

Couple things come to mind . . . . . .

If you are running an AMD cpu, pull the side off the box and watch the cpu fan. Is it slowwing down or stopping just before rebooting?

What is your cpu temp running? Try installing and running SpeedFan, and watch the cpu temps. Keep an eye on your HDD and System temps as well.

I suspect your cpu fan is starting to fail and is slowwing down. On many MoBo's, there is built in protection that will cause the system to shutdown or reboot if the cpu temp gets too high. The fan probably has been getting weaker and weaker an now is to the point of slowwing down more often or stopping. The fact that you moved your computer in regards to the AC unit, may have an effect on the air flow and type of air being pulled into the box. If moving it causes an increase in air turbulance, the problem would be pronounced then it was before.

Harder

[Omardeth]

i found that most the time a random rebooting problem is cause by a power issue . and if i read that right it was the power bar causeing the problem . glad to see it wasn't the power supply and just a power bar causeing the problem .

[CERuppel]

Sorry that the problem was not clearly stated, but the mood just sort of took me.

The problem was the random reboots and shut downs.

The cause was old wiring in the house.

The solution (temporary) is to move the power source to a different circuit.

Was meant more as a warning to others. The problem may be something so simple that it never gets checked...

[CERuppel]

Just re-read the last half of my post.

Oops. Left of the whole two paragraphs about the cause and solution...

My bad...

[VHockey86]

I dont think I'd feel safe living in a house with circuits that went screwy with only a 300W pc running of it .... =(

Might want to save up to get your house re-wired =)

[CERuppel]

VHockey: Just renting, and the owner won't even cough to save save the garage.

As for the wiring, it seems to be age and causing spikes and dips, not the 300watt power supply causing to much demand. The overhead lights here (same circuit) go up and down occasionally.

But see my new thread for more exciting news from the front...