An IBM 6790KBM Computer Constantly Restarts on Boot

An IBM 6790KBM computer restarts after showing the Win XP bootscreen and also briefly shows the memory dump error or commonly called the Blue Screen of Death or the BSOD. It was handed to us but the system unit was already been tried to be fixed by another technician. We then asked the computer technician on what problems did he encounter and the fixes he has done. The computer technician said that he was suspecting the following components to be defective and has taken some actions or fixes.

a. RAM or its DIMM Slots

- He checked each of the RAMs in binary method. One RAM after the other tried on each DIMM slot.

b. Video Card

- The Video Card has also been suspected because it shows trashy video sometimes.

c. Motherboard

- The Computer technician said that he checked and tested the RAMs and the Video Card on another system and were just working fine. So he suspected that the motherboard is failing.

d. The Processor???

- Yup, he suspected the processor. That could be quite impossible considering that the computer has display and bios configuration could be accessed. What must he be thinking then.

e. The Power Supply Unit (PSU)

- I asked the technician earlier before I accepted this job that did he check the power supply. He said no, because everything seems fine and working.

Those were the Computer Technician's suspicion and I need to check it myself rather than resting my computer troubleshooting skills on his observations.

Date Fixed : August 27, 2010

Problem : IBM 6790-KBM computer will restart after showing the win xp boot screen and briefly stalls showing the memory dump error or the Blue Screen of Death or BSOD then restarts.

Owner : I dont know. The Computer Technician handed it to me.

Motherboard : IBM 6790KBM 1.5 Ghz Processor

Operating System : Win XP SP 2

Technician : Drokz

URLs: computer-help-tips.blogspot.com clhidohardware.blogspot.com

INTERVENING FACTORS

- Computer needs to be fixed in a day

OBSERVATIONS

- Intermittent restarts on boot up attempt

- Has power, has video, shows POST, boot attempts then crashes and restarts.

TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURES

***** please turn off the avr and unplugged the power cord if you'll replace and test any peripheral in a system *****

- Since it has display and shows the POST, we should check the RAMs if they are working right. To do this, disconnect all the data cables, the power connectors to the drive and the peripheral cards.

- The computer is installed with two RAMs so we need to check each RAM on every DIMM slot. After swapping each of the RAMs on the DIMM slots, we found out that DIMM slot 1 and the other RAM is defective. How was it determined? On POST. The Computer boots up so slow when the other RAM is inserted. And also if the good RAM is inserted in DIMM slot 1, it stalls the computer on POST. Use the binary method in testing the RAM.

- We already determined that one of the RAMs and DIMM slot 1 are defective and been eliminated (RAM removed, DIMM slot unused), it did not solve the problem at all. So its time to check the disconnected peripheral if which is failing. So we started checking with the hard drive.

- We connected the Hard Disk Drive and tried booting up the system. It looked good at first because the POST was relatively faster. But on XP's boot up screen, it still stalled and briefly show BSOD then restarted. We then assumed that this could be an OS problem but I suggested that the PSU must be checked.

- So we opened the PSU and found no physical evidence of defective components. But our suspicion on the PSU still persisted so we tried another good PSU and the system booted up successfully! We finally got the system running well. The tested good PSU was rated at 400 W, could it be that the older PSU can't fully sustain the power that the IBM consumes? The system is now running fine after some RAM , cable and connector checks.

SUMMARY :

- The IBM 6790KBM computer had a failing DIMM slot 1 and one of the RAMs is found to be defective. But removing the defective RAM and leaving the DIMM slot 1 unused didn't solve the problem but significantly made the computer run better.

- The PSU was then founded out to cause the boot-restart problem. This intermittent and stubborn problem was caused by the Power Supply Unit and has been replaced. The system is now up and running fine.

Computer Restart After a Few Minutes of Operation

Computer troubleshooting is sometimes confusing and costs you a lot of time. But with the help of this computer troubleshooting guide; you will be able to learn basic computer repair, troubleshoot computer hardware problems and many other basic computer repair tutorial provided with this blog.

In this troubleshooting example, an ASUS P5PE-VM has having problems with constant restart some few minutes after being turned on. Basing on the past computer troubleshooting experience, this is attributed to the overheating of the CPU or the Video Card. But there was no video card and as I have checked on the BIOS hardware monitor, the system voltage, motherboard temperature, and CPU temperature, everything seems just fine. And to add more problem, the hard drive has farmed with a lot of computer virus through mp3 downloads via torrent. But one thing I have noticed is that if I just leave the machine running without opening any application, the computer doesn't restart. And if I try to open a memory and cpu intensive application like a game or movie maker, the system shuts down. That leaves me to suspect the RAM or CPU to be failing.



Date Fixed : November 11, 2003


Problem : Computer restarts after a few minutes of operation


Owner : Ms. Luna (PESO Office, Dumageuete)
Motherboard : ASUS P5PE-VM
Operating System : Win Xp Sp2


Technician : drokz
Weblog : http://computer-help-tips.blogspot.com


INTERVENING FACTORS :

- No motherboard support cd
- HDD is infested with many variants of virus


OBSERVATIONS :

- Boots normally and everything seems fine
- Computer restarts if a RAM or CPU intensive application is being run


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE :

- Before doing anything, safety must be a primary concern. Be sure to turn off the AVR and unplug the power cord from the system unit before opening or handling it. Be sure not to wear any metallic objects on your body. Drain off ESD by touching the unpainted part of your system unit chassis for a minute before opening the side cover of your computer.

- Based on our previous observation, we know that the computer boots fine but only restarts when we try to open an application that is RAM or CPU intensive. This signifies that either the two peripherals when pushed too hard will cause the whole system to function. And with this type of error, video card or CPU is likely overheating. But again, there was no video card so it is least to be suspected.

- Since I have suspected the CPU to be overheating, we need to check first if the CPU heatsink fan is spinning normally. So open the side cover and flip the open side up, turn on the system unit and try to see and feel if the CPU fan speed is normal. But as I have checked, it seemed just normal so I need to check it in the BIOS to verify that there is a less possibility of an overheating CPU.

- Restarted the computer and pressed "del" (some are to press F2 to access BIOS settings), chose hardware monitor to check for voltage abnormality or motherboard and CPU overheating. But I found the voltage normal and the temperature on both the motherboard and CPU is even below normal. CPU overheating is not the most possible cause of the problem.

- I could not directly point that the RAM is failing because it has handled and passed initial memory test at POST. The operating must be corrupted due to virus infection and it is not out of the possibility. So I tried to backup the files but I always get an error message. This must be due to the effects of the virus infection.

- To copy the files needed, Mini Xp was used to boot up the computer and run unstoppable copier and finally got the files needed for backup. After the successful backup, we are now ready to re-install the operating system.

- As the boot sequence was configured in the BIOS and restarted the computer, Xp installation began. But a few minutes on the process of installation, there was a Blue Screen of Death or a Memory Dump Error. Bang! That's it, it could either be a Hard Disk or a RAM error. Since checking the RAM is easier as to check the Hard Disk, we can easily do so by replacing the peripheral with a known good one.

- The computer was turned off then had the RAM removed, replaced it with a known good RAM then retried installing Win Xp. Not with a big surprise, the installation continued. The RAM must be the one causing the problem. To verify this, all necessary software must be installed and test run every applications.

- Appropriate device drivers using a driver pack, Win Office 2007, VLC, Google Chrome, and other essential programs and utilities where installed. Had some games and RAM or CPU intensive applications opened but the computer just ran fine. The RAM has caused the problem. I reported to the system unit's owner that the RAM is defective and a few days later, she bought and had the RAM installed. Also, the backup files were virus scanned and copied back to her drive.


SUMMARY :

- Troubleshooting intermittent problems are one of the hardest computer problem to troubleshoot. As for our troubleshooting tutorial via example was, a sudden restart is not entirely caused by a video card or CPU failing or overheating. As for this experience, the RAM has caused the problem.

This computer troubleshooting tutorial has been tailored to let readers imagine and think how the actual computer troubleshooting really works. If you think there is a better way for you to learn, then let us know. :-)

P5PE-VM Motherboard Dead?

A P5PE-VM motherboard was declared dead by the City Computer Technician and when the system unit was handed over to us, it resurrected. As many computer technicians say "If you can't replace the motherboard, replace your technician". This may sound mean but why not consider this thought. As we checked the system unit by powering it up, we noticed that the computer was "dead". There was no video but the fans are all spinning. After some few moments of trying to point out the problem. We got it solved and here's how we done it.



Date Fixed : July 20, 2010


Problem : Computer is dead, No Video but Fans Spin.


Owner : The Dumaguete Public Employment Office (PESO)
Motherboard : P5PE-VM, P4 2.6 Ghz
Operating System : WIN XP PS 2


Technician : Drokz
URL : http://computer-help-tips.blogspot.com


INTERVENING FACTORS :

No motherboard support cd
PC Must be fixed in a day.


OBSERVATIONS :

Upon turning on the computer, we noticed that there was no video but all fans are spinning. so we need to check the RAM's, video card, reseat the processor, and power supply.

Also, the video card fan spins quite abnormally slow.


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE :

- With this type of trouble are almost always expected to be a video card fault. As observed, all fans are spinning and no video display. So we pulled out the video card and visually checked for blown or leaky capacitors but found nothing different or faulty. So we cleaned the connector edge of the video card with a contact cleaner and inserted it after to its slot. Still upon powering the system unit back, no video, no beep and all fans are still spinning.

- So we switched our suspicion to the RAMs. So we cleaned all the RAMs' connector edges and checked it individually by inserting one RAM after the other on each of the DIMM slots. After doing so, we found no clue to what really caused the problem. We can actually check for the power supply right away but it is best to check the components that are accessible and easier to test. So we decided to finally check the PSU for fault.

- As we open and see the insides of the PSU, we weren't surprised to that some capacitors are leaking. Even if there are capacitors leaking, the PSU may still give enough power to spin up the fans and light the LED's. But the power it produces is not enough to make the system to normally run. So we replaced the PSU and the problem was resolved.

- After replacing the PSU the system runs fine for a few minutes but then restarts. As timed, it was about three minutes before the computer restarts. As observed earlier, the fans of the video card spins slow. So we attached a 12 volt fan to the video card. And upon powering up the system unit, there was no restarting of the computer after three minutes. The over-heating of the video card caused the computer to repeatedly restart.

- Problem Solved!


SUMMARY :

- PSU's can still produce enough electricity to spin up the fans and power the LED but not sufficient enough to power the system unit normally when its capacitors are leaking. So consider checking PSU's if you computer gives you no video yet the fans are spinning.

- An over-heating video card can cause a computer to restart after some few minutes when its components can no longer take the heat.

Computer Freezes, then Restarts

Owner: Vicon Jake
Address: Villa Rosa Subd., Sibulan, Negros Oriental


Motherboard: P5PE - VM
Processor: INTEL Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz S. 775
Memory: 256 Mb
Operating System: Win XP Sp2
Internet Connection: Globe broad band

Technicians : Rogin Diez Jason Diputado

CLIENT REQUESTS:

- File backup (pdf, word, excel, pictures and mp3's)
- antivirus installation


OBSERVATION

- Computer Stalls upon win xp boot screen
- CPU temperature soars high from 128 C to 170 C on the BIOS hardware monitor tab. Then system shuts down.


TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE

- Since the CPU temperature is so high, we removed the cpu fan and heatsink assembly. Cleaned the contact surfaces with a clean paper to remove the dried out thermal paste.

- We then applied a pea-sized amount of thermal paste on the center of the conducting surface of the cpu and half of a pea-size for the heatsink and spread it equally across its surface.

- Install back the fan-heatsink assembly on the processor / socket.Upon turning it on, we checked on the hardware monitor of the BIOS and found the cpu temperature reading wa less then 56 C.

- And upon booting up to load the Operating System, the system stalls but no longer shuts down.

- The easiest way to backup the files is to re-install the operating system without formatting.

- After installing a new O.S. and successfully booted, we proceeded with the file backup.

- And also, we downloaded the appropriate system drivers for P5PE - VM (the installation cd was lost) motherboard from an internet face just within the subdivision.

- Re-installation with formatting was then made after the file backup and the drive was then partitioned in four (C: D: E: F:). Appropriate drivers were then loaded, ms office '07, USB Safely Remove, Tera Copy, and WinRAR were installed respectively.

- Defragmentation was followed using the SmartDefrag program then RegCure was installed to defrag the registry.

- Virtual memory was also increased on all drives.

- We finally downloaded AVIRA anti virus from the internet from Vicon's computer and internet connection.


PARTS FOUND DEFECTIVE

- No hardware found seriously defective but only a over-heating cpu and a virus infected hard disk drive (HDD) that needs a backup.


CPU over-heating may cause system halting, freezing, or constant restart or unexpected shutdowns. A thermal paste is enough to patch up that problem.