Faulty PSU **** OR **** make sure that you have a surge protector.
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Question
HP Pavilion Desktop - Random Power Off
I'm working on a computer for a customer. It's a Pavilion a1245c with stock hardware. Here's what's happening:
1. The computer randomly powers off - no shutdown, just *poof* and the power is off.
2. After it shuts off, the power light blinks constantly and you cannot use it to turn the computer back on.
3. I have to unplug the power cord from the PSU for 30 seconds, then the blinking stops - mind you the blinking light keeps blinking even after the power cord is unplugged.
4. After I plug it back in, it seems to start up just fine. Sometimes it shuts off again during startup.
5. I have been able to repeat the problem successfully by running scans with the AV and spyware programs - ones that create a heavy load - after about 10 minutes of that, it will shut off.
Any ideas? HP support has had me reconfigure all the power and autorecovery settings for the computer and I've spent 5 hours on the phone with them to no avail. One of their suggestions was to leave it in the BIOS screen for 8 hours to see if it shut off. That only proved to me that there was an issue during heavy usage and not during idle time.
I'm guessing it might be the power supply, but am not up to having my customer spend $50 on a new one unless I'm sure that it is most likely the issue.
Thanks for your support.
ScottN
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Answers
Since you changed the power supply and are still experiencing a power-type problem, it is probably the motherboard. But make sure it isn't a heat problem - check the temperature of the cpu at various intervals with Everest: http://www.majorgeeks.com/
symptoms 2 and 3 on your list sound like the recurring fault that we've had on our Dell Optiplex 270s. It normally affects them from a cold boot though. The fix for them has been a new mobo.
We have also had similar results with boards with bad capacitors - check yours too.
http://www.badcaps.net/
and pics too:
http://www.badcaps.net/ide
It can't be a software issue if it fails to even POST. Other than RAM testing with memtest86, there's not much more to do.
hth, Danny
The affected motherboard is an OEM MSI MS-7184 which was also used by eMachines.
MSI OEM boards had BIG TIME problems with cheap capacitors so I would consider the previous comment seriously.
It does look like it's around a 2005 vintage which -should- be after the major caps problems but I would still look with an MSI board.
>> mind you the blinking light keeps blinking even after the power cord is unplugged. <<
An indication a cap is discharging much more slowly than it should.
Also LOOK at the PSU. (Inside.)
HUGE possibility of bad caps in the power supply.
For that matter:
If it's Bestec then turn it off, remove the power supply, throw the PSU away. NOW.
HP favored Bestec for a while. - Bestec uses cheap capacitors.
At least one Bestec model is known to blow a cap and take out the northbridge on the motherboard with it.
.
This is becoming a ridiculous quest.
To date I have replaced the power supply AND the motherboard, updated the motherboard to the latest firmware, reactivated Windows over the phone and the computer seems like it's running fine for a while - THEN IT STILL SHUTS OFF! At least somewhere in the switch over, I seem to have fixed the problem of having to unplug the computer before turning it back on again.
The next thing I guess I can try is swapping out the HD. I might as well have built a new computer for this guy by now.
If I run a scan with AVG, the computer will guarantee to shut down after a certain point. If I try to install software on the machine, I get the same reaction.
ScottN
I agree with the heat issue. I'd be looking at that.
Monitor the temp if you've got the tools. If not, just stick the probe of a cheap indoor/outdoor thermo in there and measure the high on the outdoor side.
Also might just try letting it run in front of a household fan with the cover off and see if that helps.
I've has power supply fans that were running, but not enough to dump the air out, but you said you'd replaced that. Take a look at the CPU fan, make sure it's actually running 100%. It the CPU is overheating, it won't take long at all to start doing as you're saying.
I'm at wit's end now. I'm going to send it back to the customer as is. The machine has a new HD with XP Pro, motherboard, power supply, case fan and a brand new cpu fan/heatsink. It's become quite unpredictible in when it shuts down now - just after being turned on when cold for hours, after idling for 20 minutes. Speedfan shows the core temp never gets above 43C and then it *poof* shuts down. The only thing he has to cover is my cost on parts replacement.
Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll part out the points in a bit.
ScottN
Try turning off all ACPI/APM funtions in the BIOS and see if the problem goes away.
(APM) Advanced Power Management
(ACPI) Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
(You may not have both depending on the motherboard.)
It's possible there is a BIOS glitch in the ACPI or APM implimentation that you can get around simply by turning it off. Normally these kinds of bugs are fixed with BIOS updates which may or may not have been released yet for that motherboard.
If it works or not update the BIOS to the latest. There may be some other glitch that was fixed.
Disabling and checking first, if the problem does go away, will give you the 'warm fuzzy' of actually knowing what the problem was.
.
ACPI and APM use OS specific drivers to interface with the hardware (chips) and BIOS (setpoints/settings).
If the OS doesn't have those drivers the system simpy doesn't have those features. And, even if Ubuntu has ACPI/APM drivers (I don't know..) the Ubuntu drivers aren't going to be the same drivers as Windows.
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by: CallandorPosted on 2007-01-10 at 07:07:31ID: 18284318
It sounds like a power problem, which is most likely the power supply or the motherboard. If you have a spare compatible power supply, swap it in and see if the problem continues (you can "borrow" one from another system).