Re: Computer resets several times while booting

In comp.os.linux.hardware Garry Knight <garryknight@xxxxxxx> wrote:
For some time now my machine has been resetting itself several times at boot
time before eventually booting successfully.

As others have said, it is most likely to be a Power Supply Unit problem.

Is it rebooting during the Power On Self Test, or further along the line?

The machine was running fine for a few years under various Mandrake/Mandriva
Linux versions and then suddenly started resetting whenever the sound card
was used, though not every time.

Do you know what type of motherboard you have? There is a bug I have found with
Asrock K7S8XE motherboards, which can cause the computer to crash when the
sound card is used.

(A BIOS upgrade fixes this)

The box is a generic Chinese box

Ok, check if its an Asrock motherboard.

Standard CMOS Features
----------------------
IDE Primary Master ST340823A

For the purposes of testing you could remove these:

IDE Primary Slave ST340014A
IDE Secondary Master LITE-ON DVDRW SHW-163]
IDE Secondary Slave SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-61

Maybe put the CDROM on the primary interface and disable the secondary one.
Again, I have seen problems with Asrock motherboards using the secondary
interface, causing some wierd error messages during boot-up. (I'm not sure
what other brands may be affected)

(The BIOS upgrade did not fix this, and I ended up putting the IDE devices in
a specific order as a workaround)

Drive A 1.44M, 3.5 in.

Set to "None" if you are not using this.

Use the CMOS reset jumper on the board, remove the internal battery, power the
machine up and down, as needed, and reset the BIOS. (You could put a new
battery in at this point).

Virus Warning Disabled
CPU Internal Cache Enabled
External Cache Enabled

If things are still looking bleak, you could disable External Cache, but I
doubt that is the problem.

Quick Power On Self Test Enabled

Disable this for a more intensive Power On Self Test

Boot Up Floppy Seek Enabled

This hammers the heads in the Floppy Disk Drive during bootup. Disable this.

PCI Dynamic Bursting Enabled

You could toggle this, for the purpose of testing. (But I doubt that is the
problem)

OnChip IDE Channel1 Enabled

Disable this for the purpose of testing (You will need to move your CDROM
drive onto the primary interface)

Pimary Master UDMA Auto

If you wanted to eliminate a drive problem, you could disable UDMA, but I
doubt that is causing your problem.

Onboard FDD Controller Enabled

Disable this for testing purposes

Onboard Serial Port 1 Auto
Onboard Serial Port 2 Auto

Disable these for testing purposes

Onboard Legacy Audio Enabled

Disable this

Game Port (200-207H) Enabled

Disable this for testing purposes

ACPI function Enabled

Some early boards had problems with ACPI. Try the drive swapping stuff first.
If it still crashes, you could try Disabling this.

PM Control by APM Yes
Video Off Option Suspend -> Off
Video Off Method V/H SYNC+Blank

Ok, good.

Wake Up Events
LPT & COM LPT/COM

Switch Off

HDD & FD On
PCI Master Off

Ok.

IRQs Activity Monitoring

Disable these:

IRQ3 (COM 2) Enabled
IRQ4 (COM 1) Enabled
IRQ5 (LPT 2) Enabled
IRQ6 (Floppy Disk) Enabled
IRQ7 (LPT 1) Enabled

PNP OS Installed No

Ok, good.

Reset Configuation Data Disabled

You could do a reset, if the other stuff does not work.

Resources Controlled By Auto(ESCD)

If you are really really desparate, then you could do this manually, but I
would try the other stuff first.

Assign IRQ For VGA Enabled

This legacy interupt is no longer required. You can disable this.

Assign IRQ For USB Enabled

I don't know whether you need this for a USB keyboard or mouse. (You need to
Google here.) Disable it if you can.

PC Health Status

Ok, it looks healthy to me.

Let us know how you get on. I reckon its the Power Supply by the way, so try
that first and foremost.

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com

http://markhobley.yi.org/

.

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