Just a last check on my Shut-Down issue. . .

[Guest Tony Sperling]

Before I throw myself on the phone - anybody think it possible, even by the

slimmest of chances, that the CMOS Battery could cause such a thing?

 

The machine is about 8 months of age, and the battery could in reality be

significantly older than that. I have not seen any other indications that

would make me suspect the battery, I succesfully flashed the BIOS a month

ago, but then BIOS's has been seen to have mysteriously severe impact on a

system's apparent sanity.

 

I intend to buy a second PCI-e Video Card and test that before I ship it

off!

 

 

Tony. . .

[Guest Dominic Payer]

Re: Just a last check on my Shut-Down issue. . .

 

If the CMOS data is retained the battery is good. It is possible the CMOS

data has been corrupted, but I don't think this would cause the machine to

shut down with no error report.

 

If there is a failing component, it would probably be making electronic

noise and this could either give misleading error reports or show up in

unusual behaviour, though this could be almost unnoticeable. Is there

anything even slightly unexpected about the way the machine has been

behaving?

 

Is the PSU fan running? Stalled or failed fans could lead to overheating.

 

Are there any thermal cutouts in the mains power supply to the machine?

These could be faulty or actually overloaded and resetting.

 

 

 

"Tony Sperling" <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote in message

news:OeprUoRfIHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> Before I throw myself on the phone - anybody think it possible, even by

> the

> slimmest of chances, that the CMOS Battery could cause such a thing?

>

> The machine is about 8 months of age, and the battery could in reality be

> significantly older than that. I have not seen any other indications that

> would make me suspect the battery, I succesfully flashed the BIOS a month

> ago, but then BIOS's has been seen to have mysteriously severe impact on a

> system's apparent sanity.

>

> I intend to buy a second PCI-e Video Card and test that before I ship it

> off!

>

>

> Tony. . .

>

>

>

>

[Guest Tony Sperling]

Re: Just a last check on my Shut-Down issue. . .

 

Thank you. The only surprising behavior really is that it is shutting down!

 

Fans are all running, but one fan has been building a rattle at start-up

lately, I think it's the Arctic Cooling CPU fan, but it could be the Video

Card - they are right next to each other and I cannot insert my ear close

enough to say definitely, and Video Card fans are notoriously BAD quality!

The rattle goes away completely after a few minutes and I cannot see that

temperatures has been affected in any way - and I have been watching this

for the same reason, obviously.

 

Beyond that, everything looks completely normal, and just like it did since

it was new!

 

No, I didn't think it would be the battery either - I'll get another

Graphics Card and shall see how that transpires. Like Charlie said earlier,

it's a nice thing to have in an emergency!

 

 

Tony. . .

 

 

"Dominic Payer" <dominic@dcp.fsv.co.uk> wrote in message

news:1E6BA55B-C653-499D-B6B8-D264FC74C2FE@microsoft.com...

> If the CMOS data is retained the battery is good. It is possible the CMOS

> data has been corrupted, but I don't think this would cause the machine to

> shut down with no error report.

>

> If there is a failing component, it would probably be making electronic

> noise and this could either give misleading error reports or show up in

> unusual behaviour, though this could be almost unnoticeable. Is there

> anything even slightly unexpected about the way the machine has been

> behaving?

>

> Is the PSU fan running? Stalled or failed fans could lead to overheating.

>

> Are there any thermal cutouts in the mains power supply to the machine?

> These could be faulty or actually overloaded and resetting.

>

>

>

> "Tony Sperling" <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote in message

> news:OeprUoRfIHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> > Before I throw myself on the phone - anybody think it possible, even by

> > the

> > slimmest of chances, that the CMOS Battery could cause such a thing?

> >

> > The machine is about 8 months of age, and the battery could in reality

be

> > significantly older than that. I have not seen any other indications

that

> > would make me suspect the battery, I succesfully flashed the BIOS a

month

> > ago, but then BIOS's has been seen to have mysteriously severe impact on

a

> > system's apparent sanity.

> >

> > I intend to buy a second PCI-e Video Card and test that before I ship it

> > off!

> >

> >

> > Tony. . .

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

[Guest Carlos]

Re: Just a last check on my Shut-Down issue. . .

 

Tony,

I would try an old trick for detecting components with marginal

soldering/contact.

Get one of those old wooden pencils with an eraser in the non-writing tip.

Boot your machine into DOS via floppy with the case open.

Hold your pencil from the writing tip (the one with carbon) and very gently

knock (using the eraser tip) on the big capacitors in the motherboard.

Later on continue with big-sized components, connectors, etc.

If your PC shuts down, the root cause might be in a false contact/defective

solder joint.

I have used this technique when doing repairs and I have found it very useful.

Two VGA monitors were repaired that way recently.

 

Another trick for reducing your VGA card temperature.

My new 8800GT was running rather hot.

Default speed for its fan was 30% (aprox 900 rpm) and NVidia drivers didn't

have any way of changing that.

I installed RivaTuner 2.06 (works on Vista x64) and bumped fan speed to 50%.

GPU temperature dropped 10 degrees with no additional noise from the fan!!!

 

Carlos

 

"Tony Sperling" wrote:

> Thank you. The only surprising behavior really is that it is shutting down!

>

> Fans are all running, but one fan has been building a rattle at start-up

> lately, I think it's the Arctic Cooling CPU fan, but it could be the Video

> Card - they are right next to each other and I cannot insert my ear close

> enough to say definitely, and Video Card fans are notoriously BAD quality!

> The rattle goes away completely after a few minutes and I cannot see that

> temperatures has been affected in any way - and I have been watching this

> for the same reason, obviously.

>

> Beyond that, everything looks completely normal, and just like it did since

> it was new!

>

> No, I didn't think it would be the battery either - I'll get another

> Graphics Card and shall see how that transpires. Like Charlie said earlier,

> it's a nice thing to have in an emergency!

>

>

> Tony. . .

>

>

> "Dominic Payer" <dominic@dcp.fsv.co.uk> wrote in message

> news:1E6BA55B-C653-499D-B6B8-D264FC74C2FE@microsoft.com...

> > If the CMOS data is retained the battery is good. It is possible the CMOS

> > data has been corrupted, but I don't think this would cause the machine to

> > shut down with no error report.

> >

> > If there is a failing component, it would probably be making electronic

> > noise and this could either give misleading error reports or show up in

> > unusual behaviour, though this could be almost unnoticeable. Is there

> > anything even slightly unexpected about the way the machine has been

> > behaving?

> >

> > Is the PSU fan running? Stalled or failed fans could lead to overheating.

> >

> > Are there any thermal cutouts in the mains power supply to the machine?

> > These could be faulty or actually overloaded and resetting.

> >

> >

> >

> > "Tony Sperling" <tony.sperling@dbREMOVEmail.dk> wrote in message

> > news:OeprUoRfIHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

> > > Before I throw myself on the phone - anybody think it possible, even by

> > > the

> > > slimmest of chances, that the CMOS Battery could cause such a thing?

> > >

> > > The machine is about 8 months of age, and the battery could in reality

> be

> > > significantly older than that. I have not seen any other indications

> that

> > > would make me suspect the battery, I succesfully flashed the BIOS a

> month

> > > ago, but then BIOS's has been seen to have mysteriously severe impact on

> a

> > > system's apparent sanity.

> > >

> > > I intend to buy a second PCI-e Video Card and test that before I ship it

> > > off!

> > >

> > >

> > > Tony. . .

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> >

>

>

>