COmputer restarting on its own

[Hameister]

Do all the motherboard caps look good to you?

 

[OhSnapWord]

Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Northbridge gets extremely hot though.

 

[Hameister]

Hmmm, how do the VRMs check out?

 

[OS-Wiz]

I'd boot into Safe Mode (F8) and get rid of the infection with your favorite anti-virus/malware scanner. I like MalwareBytes, and MS Security Essentials. Then check the remaining memory stick(s). Could be heat or PSU issue.

 

[OhSnapWord]

Hammy, good catch. A few of the caps are distended. Sold the customer a new machine. Finding a BTX LGA 775 board isn't easy, or cost effective.

 

[Hameister]

Hammy, good catch. A few of the caps are distended. Sold the customer a new machine. Finding a BTX LGA 775 board isn't easy, or cost effective.

Weird huh,...well, that's somethin' else I'll have to add to my data base of useless information.

Those swollen caps were probably leaking internally, enough to create a ripple, and force the re-boot because of verying voltage, but not actually open up, or create dead short.

My guess is that the distended caps were in the vicinity of the NorthBridge circuits, since you said it was getting very hot.


EDIT: Maybe you want to invest in this freak of nature, and then sell the machine.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Motherboard-DDR400-LGA775-BOXD915GMHL/dp/B0006VHVIM

 

[setishock]

Ok let's try this.
Disconnect the hard drives and any other current drawing devices connected to it. Go to just one stick of ram, the one that check good. Pull out any pci cards installed. If you need a vid card leave it in. But if you can use onboard video use that.
Flush the cmos settings.
Boot to the bios after that and just let it sit.
If it doesn't reboot after a bit then my money's on one of the devices you removed is a flake.
If it does then swap the psu for one you know is good and fired it back up.
If it doesn't then shut down, install the OS bearing hard drive, boot back up.
Then one at a time reinstall the devices until it goes down. That one is going to be the one that's a flake.

SNAP! In the time it took me to type that up you discovered the problem. Oh well...

 

[OhSnapWord]

Weird huh,...well, that's somethin' else I'll have to add to my data base of useless information.

Those swollen caps were probably leaking internally, enough to create a ripple, and force the re-boot because of verying voltage, but not actually open up, or create dead short.

My guess is that the distended caps were in the vicinity of the NorthBridge circuits, since you said it was getting very hot.


EDIT: Maybe you want to invest in this freak of nature, and then sell the machine.

Amazon.com: Intel Motherboard for BTX 915G DDR400 LGA775 (BOXD915GMHL): Electronics

Not a terrible idea.

The caps near the northbridge had this black substance on top of them, it looks like some of them actually ruptured.

 

[Hameister]

Not a terrible idea.

The caps near the northbridge had this black substance on top of them, it looks like some of them actually ruptured.

Whew! Nasty, fortunately I've never had to deal with anything like that. I've had very good luck with Asus boards, even after over clocking, and stressing the heck out of them.

 

[OhSnapWord]

I ended up transplanting the hard drive into a new system I built around an FX-4100 and 4GB of RAM. This should serve my customer well who uses the computer for general office productivity.