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Computer keeps randomly rebooting.

btcomm1

Senior member
I have a celeron 2.66 ghz computer that keeps crashing. It will just randomly reboot. I figure it could be the ram, could be power supply or maybe the motherboard. What is most likely the problem and would there be any way to tell if the PSU is causing this issue either through software or hardware? If the PSU was the problem would it for sure show on a multimeter? Oh yeah by the way it's an Emachine T2862.
 
Originally posted by: wpshooter
Have you scanned for spyware and/or viruses ?

Before you start messing with components check for spyware. You should run Adaware, Spybot Search & Destroy, CWShredder all this are free software. Also check for viruses, I use Avast but everybody has their choice.
 
Well, I honestly don't see how spyware would cause the system to reboot. I would suspect a hardware failure for this kind of thing to happen. Anyway, I checked it for spyware and there doesn't seem to be any kind of malicious programs in startup, AVG is installed. I tested the ram and it was bad so hopefully the new ram will keep this thing up and running.
 
You would need an O'scope to pick up dips in voltage that cause reboots.

Lots of old emachines are showing up with bad caps on boards or PSUs. You must register
to view attachments but do start here http://www.badcaps.net/ident/ Look at the pics,
then read this page in total.


...Galvanized
 
i had a PC that did this for years. i thought it was a bug with a soundblaster card and windows 2000. then i got rid of the generic RAM and bought some crucial RAM and it went away.
 
Thanks for your reply's. I feel that it very well still could be the power supply or bad capacitors on the board I looked at the board but I didn't look very closely. One thing is for sure that it did have some bad ram and the ram that is currently in it tests fine with memtest86. So hopefully it's fixed if not I will definitely look for bad caps. I'll probably change out the power supply also as long as it will fit in this emachine if this problem keeps happening.

Oh yeah, is there a good deal on an oscope that is designed to find these dips in voltages? Also I get the feeling that the reboots on this thing maybe happen once a day would an O scope be able to pick up an issue like that fairly quickly? Or would it just be easier to swap power supplies and see if the issue continues to happen.

Also, what causes a capacitor to start bulging and is bulging enough to cause errors with rebooting?
 
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