Mystery Reboots still happen

chuckster · 06-04-2006, 10:39 AM

Anyone else exhibiting this or figured it out....

I am running an Opus 120, Epia MII 12K, XMDirect, 2.5" Hard drive, 512MB memory, iGuidance 2.1.3, usb GPS receiver, Xenarc TS, Soudblaster USB sound and a Griffin Powermate.

I was getting this random reboot with an nlited system so I decided to reinstall XP Pro to my CARPC with a regular install. Unfortunately I still get random reboots.

I went on a long road trip of 9 hours without it rebooting but just last night I drove for 10 minutes and it rebooted. I get no error, no indication of a problem what-so-ever; it just acts as if someone reached under the seat and hit the reboott button. It will reboot while playing XM and will reboot while playing MP3's. I use hibernate now and also installed the powermate but it was rebooting before these changes also.

I've tried bumpy roads, moving wires, shaking the pc you name it in order to isolate the problem but I can't recreate it. It just decides to reboot when it feels like it; sometimes within 10 minutes sometimes, a week, and sometimes it takes a month or more.

Thanks,
Chuck

guino · 06-04-2006, 10:49 AM

Most of the time, when XP just reboots, it has some sort of information on the problem, but for whatever bright reason, M$ decided to make the computer restart automatically preventing users from seeing the error (And blue screen), if you disable the auto-restart, you may have a chance to find out the issue (which is most likely hardware/driver related):

-Start->Control Panel->System
-Click the Advanced Tab->Startup & Recovery
-DISABLE the "Automatically Restart" on system failure

liquid_smoke · 06-04-2006, 02:19 PM

i think the issue is the Opus powersupply is sending the shutdown command to the computer. I think it has something to do with power spikes but i also have this same issue sortof. When ever i turn my AC on cold air sooner or later the powersupply will send a shutdown command to the computer. If i have the heat on its fine. Ive been looking at something to stick inbetween the OPUS and the battery to make sure it has a constant 12V to see if that fixes it. Summer time is here

and im gonna need the cool air.

liquid_smoke · 06-04-2006, 02:22 PM

or just replace the opus powersupply and hope whatever you replace it with dosent hve this issue. I havnt been exactly happy with the opus because its never really been rock solid. Sometimes it shuts down on the acc switch sometimes i dosnt and i have to manual shutdown, also dont like that it keeps pulling power from the usb after the computer is off. There is a hack to for the last issue but should be something that you shouldnt have to do since the ps is geared to be run in a car.

v8 scimitar · 06-04-2006, 03:40 PM

when you say reboot is it crashing and coming back up or is it actually shuting down properly and comming back up?
If its crashing then I would swap the memory out and see if that cures it. I had the same thing a month ago new ram sorted it out. Its unlikely to be heat related if its doing it within 10 mins but then it could be if you have a faulty cpu fan and it stops now and again or doesnt start. I have also seen this problem with a faulty IDE cable but more often or not that just locks the PC up but it can crash it too.
If its actually shutting down and comming back up then what liquid smoke sugests is quite likely.

Jaz · 06-04-2006, 03:45 PM

check your error logs for the fault... this should display when guino's turning off automatic restart should...

have you changed your memory at all? this will cause random rebooting for random reasons

chuckster · 06-04-2006, 10:07 PM

WOW! You're all awesome I didn't expect so many different trouble shooting ideas and theories.

I will work on this tomorrow.

First I will disable the automatic restart to see if I can capture an error before reboot. I imagine if it's a hard reboot happening then I will not see this but this is a great idea to try.

I will monitor if AC has anything to do with it. I have noticed this happening more frequently and I have started using the A/C. This very well coule be part of the issue.

When the system reboots it's not a graceful reboot. It acts as if someone has just hit the reset button. One second music is playing and the next is a blank screen as it's rebooting. It seems to happen at any time and like I stated I went on a road trip and had not problems but just yesterday evening it happened within 10 minutes. There seems to be no reason why it happens.

I will monitor for everything mentioned hear and I will report what I find. It may be within a day or maybe longer....

Thanks, if anyone else has anything for me to look out for or try please let me know.

Chuck

Playerbeat · 06-05-2006, 11:25 AM

check your motherboard's temps too. If you havn't already.

xBrady · 06-05-2006, 12:13 PM

Is this really related to Road Runner?

sama · 06-05-2006, 12:14 PM

check fo any bare wires, or loose hardware like ram etc. I've dropped a screw on a live motherboard before and burnt the PS2 mouse and keyboard controller!

also, it may be down to a bad driver. I've had that happen to me a couple of times when IRQ's clash. two bits of hardware that are not happy sharing an irq.

finally, isolate if it's an os related issue by running a differnt os if you can. boot into dos or something and keep it on there for hours. if it reboots, it's not a s/w issue.

just some more ideas

jay_tu · 06-05-2006, 12:20 PM

But mine only happened in the winter.... during the summer time it works just fine....

I might be wrong about the opus being affected by winter...

but same exact setup, and since summer has started i havent seen it re-boot yet.

chuckster · 06-05-2006, 11:41 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by xBrady

Is this really related to Road Runner?

Probably not but I really like this community and it feels like home for me since this is pretty much all I've used (besides trying out Centrafuse at the beginning). Sorry if I posted in the wrong place but I am getting some good ideas out of the replies I've gotten so far.

Chuck

liquid_smoke · 06-18-2006, 03:14 AM

any updates on this?

chuckster · 06-18-2006, 06:39 AM

Update.....

I had one BSOD unrelated to the issue I started this thread with. The BSOD I had was a win32 error but it was the first time ever I had it and I haven't seen it since. I know it was unrelated because it happened before I changed the stop on error selection in windows.

I haven't had any reboots yet. Just went on another 8 hour trip and it didn't reboot. This issue is such a phantom problem it drives me nuts.

I unfortunately will not be able to give any other updates for a few more weeks as my vehicle is stored at at the moment due to a pending move to Canada!!! YA..it's not cold enough here in Boston for me so I'm going North! Everything is in turmoil at the moment

Chuck