Random Reboot problem solving

**overlander** · 06-10-2008, 09:53 AM

All,
I'm getting quite frustrated with random reboots. machine specs are:

Jetway J7F5 2.0 ghz c7
1GB DDR2
40gb Seagate 2.5" HDD
usb cdrom
usb gps
m2-atx PS
Windows XP home (legit and activated copy)
All hardware is new

the moboard, HDD and PS are mounted on a single plastic board. the moboard mount screws are grounded to wires that connect to car battery direct. both pos/neg wires to ps are direct connected to 2nd car battery through a fuse. jiggling doesn't reboot computer or cause power loss. the plastic mount board is screwed into vehicle body and solid.

I have also included 2 fans (1 in, 1 out) to cool the board, and system monitoring has HDD and CPU around 39-40c consistenly, so I've rulled out overheating.

The reboots don't seem to be tied to any one activity. They occur when car is running or not. Not associated with any one app.

Steps I've taken are a complete reformat and reinstall of XP, and still occuring. I've also (prior to reinstall) turned off windows restart on error, and have monitored the event logs. I also have Norton AV fully updated, and found nothing on a full sweep.

I've gotten several different BSOD (0x00000024, 0x0000008e, 0x00000050)

couple questions.
1) how do I determine which events in the log caused a fatal error. the amount of events, warnings and errors over nothing (ie multiple dcip due to lost wireless connections) are overwhelming.

2) what is a good methodological procedure to rule out issues and isolate the root cause? I don't have a floppy, so I have to figure out a way to test the memory on startup.

thanks in advance. dreaming of a stable system.

**nasa** · 06-10-2008, 10:22 AM

Power seems to always be a problem, so that is were I suggest you start looking...

1. use a voltmeter and check voltages going into and out of the M2-ATX
2. check the voltages on your supply lines (12V and 5V)
(if unsure if they look right, post back here what you find)

After that I would:

1. check memory module (have you tried swapping it out?).

Still can't figure it out:

start with just the bare essentials (ie: no usb devices, no firewire, nothing outside the motherboard, cpu, memory, vga cable and keyboard). Make sure that runs stable, if not start looking in detail at the CPU and/or MB....

Good Luck

**overlander** · 06-10-2008, 10:26 AM

thanks. will do and report back.

**Kimota** · 06-10-2008, 02:50 PM

You may also want to check your power connections I recently experienced the same random reboot issue. It turned out that after recieving my car back from the the mechanic they did not tighten my battery terminal connection or fused power cable (that supplies power to my PC and amps) properly they just placed in the connections on the terminal without tightening them.

**overlander** · 06-17-2008, 09:17 AM

Well, I tested the power supply lines coming out of the m2-atx. Showing 11.94v and 5.0v respectively. I'm sure the 11.94 was just a little resistance in my ground or not the best connection with my multimeter. would that make a difference? If not, I'm going to run memtest86. I've run it already through test #5 with no errors, but geez, that test takes a while. I don't have a PS out of the car, so I have to idle for a while to run it. Any other tips at this point?

**nasa** · 06-17-2008, 09:24 AM

You don't have a system you can swap your memory into (since it does take a long time....)

**overlander** · 06-17-2008, 09:33 AM

I'm going to check but I doubt it. I think it uses regular DDR SIMM and not DDR2 on my jetway.

**Snootch** · 06-22-2008, 07:52 AM

I just had this problem, and fixed it (sort of). I was using a 512Mb stick of GeiL DDR in my SP13000 and started having these problems- random rebooting, freezing on black screen when rebooting, etc. and I went to the store and bought some cheap Centon RAM (same size, same speed). The problem went away. However, I pullde the PC out of the car to re-install everything and try a nLited OS. after everything was installed and running fine, after a reboot the motherboard started doing long beeps. (memory not attached) I tried swapping the RAM, disconnecting everything, clearing the CMOS, nothing worked. SO, to make a long story short, I thing the problem may have been the memory controller on the motherboard all along. So if you can't nail down the problem after swapping power supplies and RAM, the motherboard may be the culprit.

**overlander** · 06-26-2008, 02:17 PM

well, got a new RAM module from MCS and problem didn't go away. MCS says it must be the board, so I'm sending it back for a warranty exchange. I'll post my update when it comes back. I'm hoping that's it.

**chesapeake** · 06-29-2008, 07:10 PM

I had the same issue, just driving down the road and bam, reboot, not reason. Was actually thinking it was me using the turn signal. I hooked up the debugger to my dump files and it indicated that I was having an IRQ issue, basically trying to use a memory space that wasn't there. This all started happening after I paired my first bluetooth device so, started there. I removed all refrences to bluetooth and re-installed. Reboot after reboot, I was so ****ed. I'm in florida and though this computer should be able to handle it I was starting to think it may have something to do with it (and the bluetooth as well). I relocated the bluetooth dongle that is attached to the MB via the little USB daughter board and plugged it into my powered USB hub. Haven't had an issue yet. I don't know for sure if it was my re-installing the bluetooth or some sort of heat issue with that specific device but it seems to be fine now. At first everything was pointing to RAM but nope that definitely wasn't the issue. Good luck on getting it working. Here are a few links that could help with the dump file analysis.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...sh.html?page=2

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtoo...g/default.mspx