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nrking83Flag for United States of America

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Computer turns off during boot

Hi All.

I'm having a strange problem with a computer I'm repairing.  Its an AMD Athlon X2 2209mhz processor on a biostar motherboard custom built.  There has been absoutely no hardware changes on the system.  It worked for 3 years now and suddenly while booting into windows XP it will power off.    Strangely enough though it boots fine in safe mode.  

I checked the event viewer while in safemode and it shows an error "Service Control Manager" with details "The following boot-start or system-start drivers failed to load:
awlegacy
BHdrvx86
ccHP
eeCtrl
Fips
Processor
SRTSPX
SymIRON
SYMTDI

I suspected the power supply so I replaced it, no change.  Ive also changed the memory, hard drive, all cables.  I've tried booting with just hard drive and memory and did the same thing.  

Only thing I havent replaced is the processor and mobo.  Could either those cause this error?  Is there anyway to check?  

Any help would be appreciated!

Matt
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envoguecomputers

Try pressing F8 as the computer is booting and select "Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure". This will confirm whether or not a Blue Screen Error is causing your problem. Beyond this, it sounds more like a software issue, have you tried doing a clean install of XP?
Your problem can have a lot of causes, from hardware malfunction, to malware... cannot tell with more information
Avatar of nrking83

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Hi guys,

I've tried disabling the restart on system failure, no luck.  It just powers down at the same point every time.   I've also swapped hard drives with another system with a working OS, same power off situation.  

Emil:  I've scanned the hard drive for malware and viruses, it was clean.  What information can I provide to shed more light on it the issue?

Thanks!
If it does not turn off in safe mode it cloud be a driver update problem !
Did you made sure all your components are up ti date bios firmware and drivers for all cards installed..
A good scan would be mounting the HD in another system that we are sure it's clean, some malware cannot be detected by the infected OS
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dbrunton
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"That implies hardware."
Yes it does

"You could check CPU cooling, heatsink compound, how the CPU is sitting in the socket."
Not probable as it shutdowns in the same point, if you boot to BIOS the cpu works high, and
the BIOS monitoring section can tell if there is problems of this sort

" Check motherboard for bulging capacitors as well."
I helps somewhat, but there are many other components that fail without that visual hint

If you can, try using a PCI hard drive controller, and disconnect any non vital devices and cards
>> Not probable as it shutdowns in the same point

Yeah, but Safe Mode works.  Which is the strange part.  And hard drive from a working OS does the same thing which is also puzzling.



>> If you can, try using a PCI hard drive controller, and disconnect any non vital devices and cards

Hmm.  And make that all external devices such as printers, network cables and USB devices.
Maybe the fans on the CPU or motherboard aren't doing their job?
There's another harmless thing you could possible do; reset the BIOS, it will force to re-calculate the plug n' play resource table; I had problems with some old supposedly PnP motherboards, that messed up that table, also, a BIOS reset will force the installed drivers to realloacate. This haves minimal impact, but is not 100% safe in every single PC of this world.
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Thanks guys!!  Some of these things that were suggested I havent tried yet.  I'm going give them a try and post card the results.
Hello Again,

So I've tried disabling the onboard NIC and sound, no change.  I've tried to reset the bios but there is no floppy installed.  I found the utility to load the bios in windows but I cant seem to get it to run correctly.  I do have the latest version though.

A new discovery today though.  It now turns off in Safe Mode too now.
 
I reseated the processor again, but when taking off the fan it looked like it needed more thermal paste possibily.  I checked the temperature after it turned off at it was at 74C, but quickly cools off to about 55C.   I'm thinking that during boot the processor heats up so much that it shuts down.  I'm going to run out and buy some thermal paste and I'll update you with my findings.  I'm fairly certain that 74C is way to hot for an AMD Athlon XP Processor.  

Thanks!
AMD Athlon X2 (Manchester + Toledo)          65°C
AMD Athlon X2 (Windsor)       70°C-72°C (1.35v - 1.25v)
AMD Athlon X2 (Brisbane)       78°C (1.25v)

from http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/CPU/CPU%20Temperatures.shtml

Really depends on which CPU you have.

Sometimes I ask myself why I became an IT.. :D

I reapplied the thermal paste again, the processor is running really cool at about 35C.  Sadly enough its still turning off at bootup.  Argghh.

The board is under warranty still luckily for another 2 weeks, if nothing new develops I'm going to send it back on Monday.  

In the meantime anything comes up I'll post back!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
Have you tried booting from a live Linux CD and running it like that for a couple of hours (if it will last that long)?
Tried Linux live cd same problem :-/
OK

Time to use the warranty.  That puts it squarely on the motherboard, CPU, PSU and memory.

Since you've replaced the PSU and memory that says CPU and motherboard.  Most likely (but don't quote me) on motherboard.
Definitely time to try a RMA.    

btw: nice catch on the temps, just booting should never max out the cpu temp that way.
it seems that you have a problem with your graphic card drivers. Perhaps you have installed some software in the recent times that is not compatible or is causing problems with your video card drivers or with the xp os.
Just an update guys,  turns out that the manufacturer extended the warranty, but only from the date the board was manufacturered.  Missed it by a few months.  To make things worse the hard drive suddenly went dead.  This computer is going to be scraped at this point.  Thanks for all your help!!
Although I wasnt able to fix the problem, these were great ideas to find the problem.  
Thank you much, but sorry to hear that it was a no go.     : /
Boot in "Safe Mode "  and Uninstall "Display adapter"  under " Device Manger" and try re-starting to Normal Mode.