mini problems

Post by **mr mixin** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 12:24 am

Thought i'd create a thread on this cos it might help someone in the future if i find the answer.

Okay the story goes:

Yesterday i came home from work and something had tripped a switch in my house meaning the electrics were all off. I thought it was a power cut, but upon consultation with father mixin i foudn out the truth.
So my mini PC had a sudden cut of the leccy that fuels its brain. It might even have been the mini that broke everything, who knows.

So now when i try to load windows up it doesnt even get past loading. Just restarts. It'll happily sit idle in BIOS config though while i watch the system temp sky rocket.
Thought i'd try DSL (DamnSmallLinux) on it earlier and that loads fine, but after about 10 mins of usage, it just restarts a la windows.

At first i thought it was the power supply that was playing up, but why can it sit happily in BIOS for ages and ages?

So im starting to think something else. Maybe RAM. Maybe the ram is fooked and as windows/DSl tries to access a certain part of it, it just restarts the PC?

I'll try and change some ram round in a bit and see what happens.

whats everyones thoughts on this?

Post by **mr mixin** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:04 am

So a quick change of the RAM and also the HDD and everything is still not working as planned.

I'm not looking at it being the mobo thats FUBAR'd, or the PSU. Not liking the look of this

Eamonn · Post by **Eamonn** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 3:00 am

Have you tried safe mode?

Post by **mr mixin** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 3:11 am

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 4:15 am

It sounds like the PSU is knacked. The reason its happy in BIOS is because its under no load, but if the PSU rails are bejiggered, as soon as you put any strain on the CPU, the 12v rail will either under or overvolt, causing either random restart or overvoltage protection restart. Only way to check is either use a multimeter to check your rails, or rig the mini to another PSU to check.

Posted from a Sony Ericsson P900

Post by **fac51** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 10:42 am

or the cpu overheating? is the cpu's fan working ok?

Post by **mr mixin** » Sun Nov 14, 2004 8:42 pm

CPU doesnt have a fan edward. The idea of the PC is to be 100% silent

Andy > Was thinking PSU from teh start, so looks like i'll have to invest in a new one. Now just need a cheap source for external ones

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:47 pm

It's one of those mini ITX hush boxes IIRC Mix? Do they use a proprietry PSU (accepting a nominal voltage instead of the regular 12v ATX standard) or is it using a standard ATX PSU albeit a low output one?

Post by **fac51** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 6:57 pm

mr mixin wrote:CPU doesnt have a fan edward. The idea of the PC is to be 100% silent

sorry my psychic abilities are weak

Post by **mr mixin** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 7:50 pm

Okay, me being a dumb nuts went and bought a new psu thinghy. Just the external lead and brick bit.

Completly forgot that there was a convertor inside mini. Now i'm thinking it's that thats broken, so need to locate an online source to get them.

It's the numero 1 bit on this page. I can find the whole kit in loads of places, but i just want the board.

anyone?

Post by **fac51** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 1:18 pm

no idea mixy me old mate

Adamizer · Post by **Adamizer** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 2:16 am

Sorry if i barge in, but that behavior sounds like the lsass virus, If it doesnt do the same thing if u disconnect your internet it might be that...

just a guess...

good luck.

Andy · Post by **Andy** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 2:29 am

Nah, Blaster wouldn\'t affect Linux, nor would it just restart, it would indicate its presence with an error message beforehand.

Posted from a Sony Ericsson P900