Crikey! My machine has become possessed!

[Karlos]

Hi,

Just yesterday, my 1200T did a strange thing. A strange thing it has continued to do, at random and without the slightest warning since.

It can just be sitting there minding it's own buisness, then poof the display is lost and the machine needs a cold restart. Occasionally it won't even boot without startup yet you can access the the boot menu (and the blizzards own menu too).

I tried the HD in another machine and it seems to be fine. I checked the BPPC is properly seated and nothing has worked loose.

I'm as good as certian that it is not overheating - the 040 and 603 are adequately cooled, as is the bVision. I also keep it clean inside (the bane of a lot of active cooling being the dust build up).

I've *never* seen it do this before yesterday, but now its doing it completely at random, without any warning at all and with sufficient frequency not to be viewed as a quirky "one off" lockup.

Suggestions?

[bloodline]

End-of-life :-(

Time to get that shiny new Athlon64 Laptop you've been promising yourself... oh wait... that was me :-)

[Karlos]

bloodline wrote:
End-of-life :-(

Aw don't say that. There isn't a machine that could possibly replace this one - not even close. It's almost a pet :lol:

[bloodline]

Karlos wrote:

bloodline wrote:
End-of-life :-(

Aw don't say that. There isn't a machine that could possibly replace this one - not even close. It's almost a pet :lol:

It's probably time to let the little one go... if it were a dog, it would probably need to be taken to the Vets for a special injection... :boohoo:

ok, on a more practical level, I guess it's time for a strip down and piece by piece rebuild, until you find the offending component. :-/

[Framiga]

i vote for a new PSU :-)

[Karlos]

@Framiga

It's a 230W PSU in there. I doubt the BPPC/BVision/Drives/Fans draw that much.

[Karlos]

bloodline wrote:

ok, on a more practical level, I guess it's time for a strip down and piece by piece rebuild, until you find the offending component. :-/

I just stripped, dusted and rebuilt - its been a few weeks since the last time.

No odd behaviour so far, but that's the problem with random stuff - it's random!

[Framiga]

how much old is the PSU?

and check the +5v +12v with a DM (on the mobo and on the blizzard too)

[bloodline]

Karlos wrote:

bloodline wrote:

ok, on a more practical level, I guess it's time for a strip down and piece by piece rebuild, until you find the offending component. :-/

I just stripped, dusted and rebuilt - its been a few weeks since the last time.

No odd behaviour so far, but that's the problem with random stuff - it's random!

Perhaps you could send me an image of your hard drive and let me run it on my PPC... To make sure it's a fair test I had better have a copy of EVERYTHING you use :-D

[Vincent]

Karlos wrote:
It's a 230W PSU in there. I doubt the BPPC/BVision/Drives/Fans draw that much.

It doesn't, but trying a new PSU for a week or two is worth a try.  Mine suddenly started going wierd (well, the hd's wouldn't start up or they would suddenly shut down in the middle of being used, and the same with the cd drive).

--edit--
:lol: @bloodline, nice try :-D

--editII--

My ATX PSU wasn't even 2 years old when it started playing funny buggers, but I've replaced it with an AT PSU that's about 7 years old :-o :-D

[bloodline]

Vincent wrote:
--edit--
:lol: @bloodline, nice try :-D

--editII--

Shush!! He might still go for it! :-|

[leirbag28]

@Karlos

Check if any of the contacts are oxidizing on the PSU, the BVision, Your Accelerator or other parts.

[Star69]

Karlos wrote:

It can just be sitting there minding it's own buisness, then poof the display is lost and the machine needs a cold restart. Occasionally it won't even boot without startup yet you can access the the boot menu (and the blizzards own menu too).

I didn't know it was possible to run Windows 98 on a miggy  :lol:

[Karlos]

bloodline wrote:

Perhaps you could send me an image of your hard drive and let me run it on my PPC... To make sure it's a fair test I had better have a copy of EVERYTHING you use :-D

The DVD's are in the post...*










*disclaimer: this could be a lie.

[Karlos]

leirbag28 wrote:
@Karlos

Check if any of the contacts are oxidizing on the PSU, the BVision, Your Accelerator or other parts.

I did that when I stripped it down the other day. I can't say I saw any evidence. As Framiga and Vincent suggest, perhaps the PSU is getting a bit wonky in it's old age.

So far it is behaving but I haven't yet had it running for the usual timescale ;-)