Random Restarts with an older machine

[Wuzup101]

Alright, a friend of mine gave me this machine to work on for her. Since then I've been banging my head against a wall trying to get this machine to work for her. The initial problem was that the computer would randomly reboot and just power cycle. I figured that it might be overheating (as it just randomly started happening). However, upon getting to her place and opening up the computer I realized that she had kept it fairly clean and all the fans were running.

The problem: the computer will randomly turn off and try to reboot. Sometimes it will reboot and get back into windows, sometimes it will fail to post and just power cycle. If I kill the power and start it up again, it may get to windows, it may just go right to power cycling. Once in windows, it may be fine (and plenty workable) for a few days until it craps out again.

What I have done: I've brought it to my house so it's not simply a power issue (she did have it plugged into a surge protector though). I also swapped in a known working power supply. I've reseated everything and cleaned it out best I could. I still am having the same problems. I'm not really sure where to go from here.... and it's especially frustrating because it does work occasionally. I'm going to try to throw it into another case to see if it works (perhaps there is a bad connection in the power button). Any suggestions would be helpful!

 

[redbeard1]

You might check if the capacitors are bulging on the motherboard. The symptoms you describe fit those where the caps are failing.

 

[Wuzup101]

I did check out the MB after reading your post red. All the caps look fine (though that doesn't mean that they aren't starting to go!). I did remove the assembly from the case and just did a basic startup (jumping it with a screw driver) with the mobo + HDD and a PSU seated on a table... same problem... so I'm chalking it up to motherboard failure. I'm in the process of backing up her photos and such now. If anyone else has anything that they think I should try... please let me know! I'm perfectly comfortable with calling it a lost cause as of right now though!

 

[redbeard1]

Another thing that can cause crashes is old heatsink compound. I have seen it a handfull of times that cleaning the CPU and heatsink to get rid of the dried out old stuff, and then applying new compound and the system stabilized. These systems though, ran for what sounds like a longer period of time before they would crash compared to what you are describing.

Have you tried to run memory test on it? Memtest86+ is free and does a good job.

 

[NoelS]

Wuzup101,

I agree with redbeard about the CPU paste, just told somebody else to pull the HSF and CPU, clean off the old paste and re-do it. Another suggestion could be bad RAM. Take all RAM out but one stick, try it and see what happens. If no-go, rotate RAM and try again.

Good luck,

Noel