Well *that* was fun.

[Bob Schroeck]

Last night, Friday 26 October, in the last seconds of a fight against Eochai on Peregrine Island on the Virtue server of City of Heroes, my computer self-destructed.
To be precise, it froze solid, and when I rebooted the system, it powered up but never POSTed. I let it cool off for, well, ultimately several hours, but it never again booted.
So I just dropped about $400 on a new mobo, cpu, memory, and because I chose an AGP graphics card not 10 months ago, a new graphics card. I did, however, end up quadrupling my memory, and getting a dual-core cpu and a higher grade of nVidea card. Once I get around to going back into COH, I'm hoping to see some improvements here and there in performance. (In particular, I hope I no longer require geological time to zone...)
In case I haven't made it obvious, yes, I'm running on the new system now, and yes, my hard drive and other components survived unscathed. In fact, my old graphics card -- and probably my old cpu -- are just fine. It was just the mobo. Which was too old for me to find a newer board that would take both my chip and my AGP card.
Anyway, wish me luck.-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[offsides]

Glad to hear your back online for a decent price, even if you had to get the new video card. How much memory you got now?
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large

[Bob Schroeck]

2 gig. In the four years since we built that system, I never upgraded the memory.
Oh, and I went into COH last night, and oh yeah, there were obvious differences. I haven't zoned yet, but I expect it to be a lot less painful now.-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Kokuten]

can you give us a capsule summary of your current stats?Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, sure, although you'll have to wait until I get home tonight for specific part numbers and the like.
* Asus motherboard, with all the usual stuff on board. It's a small footprint design, but that's okay.
* Pentium IV dual core chip. It runs at 1.6 GHz, which on the face of it is slower than my old 2 GHz system, but it seems a whole lot faster.
* 2 GB memory
* nVidia 8500GT card.
Everything else is the same -- the hard drive was unaffected, so I just had to plug it in and make sure Win2K had drivers for the new hardware.-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

This morning, when I went to turn on my computer to check weather.com, it started spontaneously rebooting about a minute or two after starting up; upon reboot it went to message claiming I needed to insert a boot disk or check the boot medium. Powerdown and restart makes it boot normally, but sure enough, about two minutes later -- whether I log in to Windows or not -- it flickers and reboots.
Time to call the computer store -- looks like my new mobo is flakey...-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[kestrel404]

Reseat the power and data cables to your hard drives. Make sure all the wires are connected tightly. If it's still happenning, and the hard drive is still accessible for those two minutes, then yeah, it's definitely the motherboard.
"Not this again!" Minerva said. "Albus, it was You-Know-Who, not you, who marked Harry as his equal. There is no possible way that the prophecy could be talking about you!" - Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality, Chapter 84

[CattyNebulart]

or the powersupply. a faulty powersupply can easily break other components, cause random restarts etc.
Also check if your motherboard has a Nforce firmware if it has version 4 you might as well chuck the board, it will be less pain to replace the motherboard again than to live with it. Earlier versions are ok, and later versions have partial fixes, so it's worth checking if there are firmware updates for the motherboard available.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Bob Schroeck]

I'll be checking all the connections when I get home tonight -- I didn't have time this morning before leaving for work. I'm not sure how to check the power supply.
Catty, how would I go about checking the firmware? Is that something I can do in the bios setup in my 2-minute window? Or something I can spy printed on a chip somewhere?-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[kestrel404]

I mostly meant the power cable that's going into your hard drive. It the power supply is flaky, you should be hearing the CPU fan switching on and off whenever the computer shuts down.
As for firmware, most recent firmware upgrade programs run from windows, and you REALLY don't want to be in the middle of one when your system reboots. I wouldn't mess with that, myself.
EDIT - Oh, I just read Catty's post. I somehow missed it when I first replied. You can get to the Nforce firmware info from the Device Manager (right click the 'My Computer' icon, Properties, the Hardware tab), but I can't pinpoint it further than that 'cause I'm not using an Nforce board myself. You would have to find the Nforce chip and do a properties on that to find out the version - and that's probably going to take you more than 2 minutes unless you know where to look. Perhaps Catty can tell you better than that.
OR, you can look up the specs for your specific motherboard on the internet. If you know the exact make and model, it should be part of the basic motherboard specs (somwhere, I would hope).
"Not this again!" Minerva said. "Albus, it was You-Know-Who, not you, who marked Harry as his equal. There is no possible way that the prophecy could be talking about you!" - Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality, Chapter 84

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, not rebooting yet now that I'm home from work. Very mysterious. I couldn't get as far as launching Mozilla this morning, but now everything seems to be okay...
I did check all the wires, pushed on them even if they didn't seem loose, all that. Maybe it was one of them after all.
Spent about ten minutes in the bios setup, didn't see anything relevant, and I can report that my CPU runs at about 82 degrees F so it's not overheating.
Very weird.
More later as things develop, or don't, whichever comes first.-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Bob,
I've had similar things happen to what you've discribed for two reasons:
1) Voltage dips. This can trigger the PSU and/or MB to trip the reset. This can even happen through surge protectors.
2) HD problems. One HD I had started causing crashes due to corrupt data it needed to recover. This does seem to fix itself, but I got a second HD and mirrored the dodgey one just in case.
If you still suspect PSU problems there are commercially available testers that simulate the various connections. They're not expensive. It might be a good idea to test it anyway. It's easier to use a tester than manually bridging the contacts on the MB connector and it tests the other connectors (HD, CD/DVD. CPU Fan, etc...)

[CattyNebulart]

the easiest is to just look up the specs to your MB, it will list which firmware it's using.
And a computer should always be hooked up to a UPS to smooth out the power flow it will make your powersupply last a lot longer.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Bob Schroeck]

Well, as it turns out, I've had a couple more reboots since I last posted. And in thinking about it, the power supply explanation is making more and more sense -- and may even explain the initial blowout which prompted the new mobo purchase. Maybe I should just scrap the current case-and-supply and buy a new one this weekend.-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

If you're going to change power supplies, you might be interested in the ones from Hiper. (Assuming you can get past their ads with the Penthouse girls in them, and look at the hardware itself...) They have a line of power supplies with built-in USB hubs, apparently so you can plug in those power-hungry perhiperals without putting a load on the motherboard. Here's a NSFW (for a photo of one of those ads) Inquirer story about them.
Edit: Or not. That particular model's only available in Europe...

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

Catty mentioned UPSes...
I had completely forgotten that I actually have a UPS on this machine -- an old one that Offsides gave me years ago, because he didn't need it any more.
Now this UPS is like a big block powerstrip. About the size of an unabridged dictionary, it has two lines of outlets along its top -- three that aren't protected by the UPS, and three that are. Now, the three unprotected ones stopped working a couple years ago. And it just occurred to me that my problems might be caused by the rest of the UPS finally starting to die, too...
So I'm making the experiment -- I've moved everything over to a conventional powerstrip and seeing if my reboot problem goes away or not. More on this as it develops.-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Kokuten]

time for a new UPS then!Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[robkelk]

Definitely. They aren't very expensive, either. (At least, not in Ottawa... but try to buy one form a closer source than that store, okay?)

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

Nope, I'm nowhere near so lucky. I left the system on overnight, and it had rebooted to the "boot media" error I mentioned above when I looked in on it this morning.
So we're back to "new power supply". -- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

I'd get a new HD as well and copy your drive to it, just in case.

[Bob Schroeck]

Problem is, I just about blew the discretionary budget on the new mobo, memory and video card. I might be able to eke out a new case from petty cash, but a new drive? Not likely, at least not yet.-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[kestrel404]

www.pricewatch.com/power_...e/680w.htm
No need to replace the whole case, if you don't want. PSUs are cheap.
As for replacing your hard drive, a word of advice: Wait for black friday. I regularly get $20 hard drives every black friday. Last year's $20 model was 120 gig, the year before that it was 80 gig.
But if you don't already have a DVD burner, you can usually find those for $30, and they make backups really easy. If you do have one, backup all your essential data. It will probably only take 1 or 2 DVDs, and a total of an hour or 2.
"Not this again!" Minerva said. "Albus, it was You-Know-Who, not you, who marked Harry as his equal. There is no possible way that the prophecy could be talking about you!" - Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality, Chapter 84

[Kokuten]

bob, do you have paypal? Also, where are you doing your component shopping?Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Xenoproctologist]

Symptoms sound to me not so much like a defective power supply as a power supply that's just marginal for your new system's needs. I'm guessing it's an off-brand supply which came with your case.(?)
First, I'd avoid buying a new case/power supply combo. For one thing, unless you spend rather more money than I'm guessing you want to, you'll end up with another no-name power supply of questionable quality. For another, unless there's some specific deficiency in your case you want to remedy, it's just not worth the risks involved in performing a superfluous motherboard transplant.
As for the new power supply itself, there is absolutely no need for these gratuitous 680 watt bohemoths people keep trying to push on you. *flat stare* Your system as specced is about a frugal as a modern system can be. Assuming your processor is an E2140 (which is actually a Core 2 Duo, not a Pentium IV; a very different animal) you're drawing no more than 200 watts. For comparison and sanity check, my UPS estimates that my heavily-overclocked 3.15GHz Core 2 Duo, Geforce 8800 GTS, 4 hard drives, inefficient power supply, dual LCD monitors , and who-knows-what additional dongles and doohickies combined consume at most 350 watts. And besides that, solid 700 watt power supplies start at around $120. Anything cheaper will achieve combustion before it manages to scrounge up the "rated" wattage.
My recommendation: go for a 380 watt power supply from a solid manufacturer. You'll pay a bit more for the wattage, but it's cheaper than hot flaming death, and it'll give you room for reasonable growth. (Note: 3GHz+ quad core and SLI 8800 GTX's do not constitute "reasonable")
Were I buying right now, I'd say the Antec earthwatts EA380 would be my personal choice. Relatively pricey at $60, but it's 80%+ efficient, which will cut down the power consumption, and its an Antec, which means it's rock-solid, and is likely capable of exceeding its rated wattage.
If I just wanted something cheap, but solid, I'd probably go with the majority opinion on Newegg and grab this 430 watt ThermalTake. $40 out-the-door, minus $12 mail-in rebate *shudder*, for a grand total of $28 for a highly-rated power supply which (judging by reviews) outsells any other power supply on Newegg three-to-one. Probably not as solid as the Antec, and the efficiency is a cheerfully wretched >=65%, but you can feel reasonably confident that it'll work as advertised.

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, updates... Yes, the powersupply is a noname that came with the case. It's a 400-watter, though, and had no problems with my old system -- which required a separate power feed to the graphics card in addition to whatever it leeched through the slot. Unless the dual core eats huge amounts of power (more than my old CPU plus the motor on a fan, plus), I can't see the PS being simply a hair too weak to support the board. If it is the power supply, it's probably simply going.
Kokuten asked

---

bob, do you have paypal? Also, where are you doing your component shopping?

---

Yes, and local computer shops, mostly, when the need is immediate and/or dire. Otherwise, I do Tiger Direct or some other online source, as recommended by Ask Simon or another aggregator site. (For instance, Ask Simon sent me to Amazon to get the best price on my last graphics card.)
My main problem right now is budget. I just had to drop over $400 on emergency brake work on the car last night, and that's probably dropped the spendable cash supply to near zero. Which has to last us until next Friday.
So no new computer parts for me any time soon.
(Edit to add: And just to top that off, I'm home sick today. )-- Bob
---------
One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.