Computer randomly "dies;" needs CMOS reset to boot again

T

Trombe

Gawd
Joined
Jan 25, 2007
Messages
891
To further explain the topic title, the machine (in sig) will randomly just shut off for no reason while it's on, or just "die" while it's off and refuse to power back on at all - no fans spinning, no POST, no nothing, until I perform a CMOS reset. Flipping the PSU switch on and off does nothing to help the problem either. Whenever the system "dies" the clock in BIOS and Windows will freeze and consequently display the time of death when I'm able to boot the machine up again.

This started happening around Monday afternoon. Current OS is Windows 7 since I ended up reformatting anyway trying to fix this issue - all of a sudden my legitimate Windows XP claimed I had "major hardware changes" and thus needed to re-activate WGA. I ended up installing a diagnostic program of some sort from AT&T to figure out what was going on with m DSL connection at the same since that wasn't working either right before the restart that gave me the WGA failure prompt (and I couldn't validate because of the DSL being dead at the time), and I'm certainly hoping that program had nothing to do with this...

Last thing I was doing before that was just memtesting RAM which didn't get any errors overnight. The red LED light on the motherboard is still active as long as the switch on the PSU is turned on. I can still change the clock in BIOS/Windows after reviving the system with a CMOS reset and it'll continue to work as normal. The time it takes to die again can be anywhere from 4 hours to about 20 hours as of what I've experienced so far. Only spare parts I have left is some more RAM so I'll be switching that out now and hoping for the best, but in the event that doesn't work, does anyone have suggestions on possible culprits and fixes? Thanks for reading.
 
i would say the possible fault is the motherboard.. especially with having to constantly reset the cmos, network/internet issues around the same time and random shutoffs..

btw even though you own a legit copy of windows xp.. its always good to have a WGA crack around just for one of those rare instances like that.. its happened to me a few times as well..
 
No need for a crack, just call and get a new activation #. Easy and only takes a few minutes.
 
enginurd said:
No need for a crack, just call and get a new activation #. Easy and only takes a few minutes.
Click to expand...


its actually a glitch with WGA if something goes wrong with the system it would freak out and claim the key needs to be validated first and would do the 30 day count down.... had it happen to me a couple times before..
 
It was happening at all settings, and the network issues were all AT&T's fault (looking for a new ISP too, but no Verizon here unfortunately). I've stepped back down to WinXP as a precaution, but in the end I'm pretty sure the cause of this is that the Ballistix are basically dead. If it weren't for the heatspreader clips I think I could slide it right off the sticks because the thermal pads on the ICs aren't sticking anymore at all. Replaced them and I haven't had any issues since. I suppose the lesson of the day is not to run them at 2.2V even if Crucial's specs say so. Thanks for suggestions though.

Next step is to figure out why the mobo's beeping at me trying to get another stable OC even though no temps are breaking 60C anywhere.
 
Strange... my ballistix have been running at 2.2v for well over 2yrs now. Oh well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top