RePost: Sony PCV-RZ14G computer

[Charles Schuler]

Original post:

"Twice a day or once a month or whatever, this computer goes dead. The LCD
monitor goes black and the keyboard becomes non-responsive (Caps Lock does
not light the LED). The USB ports also seem to go dead as
disconnecting/reconnecting them does not produce the audio bong. The fans
are running and the LED on the mother board is lit.

Pressing and holding the front panel power switch will shut it down and then
pressing it again will power it back up and it ALWAYS boots normally.

Have tried:

1/dismounting all the boards and reseating them (including RAM)
2/dismounting the processor and reseating it
3/cleaning out the dust bunnies
4/reseating all the connectors
5/pushing and tapping all over the place when it is normal trying to force
it to fail but that never happens."

Now, on to what I have just learned. While chatting on Skype, I clicked on
the video button (the one that starts and stops video transmission) and the
computer entered its dead mode. Amazingly, I can repeat this behavior! It
sometimes takes many clicks on that button, by the way.

I am thinking that the Skype software call to the video card (it is a NVIDIA
GeForce4 MX 440) is one heck of a clue. But, what is actually happening?
Is the card putting the processor into an endless cycle of interrupts? Is
the card jamming the bus?

By the way, the computer does not have to be running Skype to fail.

Any ideas out there?

 

[Baron]

Original post:

"Twice a day or once a month or whatever, this computer goes dead.
The LCD monitor goes black and the keyboard becomes non-responsive
(Caps Lock does
not light the LED). The USB ports also seem to go dead as
disconnecting/reconnecting them does not produce the audio bong. The
fans are running and the LED on the mother board is lit.

Pressing and holding the front panel power switch will shut it down
and then pressing it again will power it back up and it ALWAYS boots
normally.

Have tried:

1/dismounting all the boards and reseating them (including RAM)
2/dismounting the processor and reseating it
3/cleaning out the dust bunnies
4/reseating all the connectors
5/pushing and tapping all over the place when it is normal trying to
force it to fail but that never happens."

Now, on to what I have just learned. While chatting on Skype, I
clicked on the video button (the one that starts and stops video
transmission) and the
computer entered its dead mode. Amazingly, I can repeat this
behavior! It sometimes takes many clicks on that button, by the way.

I am thinking that the Skype software call to the video card (it is a
NVIDIA
GeForce4 MX 440) is one heck of a clue. But, what is actually
happening?
Is the card putting the processor into an endless cycle of interrupts?
Is the card jamming the bus?

By the way, the computer does not have to be running Skype to fail.

Any ideas out there?

Try a new PSU ! See if that helps.

 

[Charles Schuler]

Try a new PSU ! See if that helps.

Thanks Baron, but why would the power supply be an issue in this case?

 

[Baron]

Thanks Baron, but why would the power supply be an issue in this case?

You seem to be describing a sudden change in power loading that would
cause the PSU to shutdown if it was close to the limit of its power
handling capability.

The way to test this is to swap out the PSU and see if the problem goes
away.

I had a client that was having problems burning a DVD. Within a few
seconds of starting to burn, the machine shut down. New PSU cured the
problem. The original PSU was only 190 Watts !!! The machine never had
a burner originally. The installation of the DVD burner just pushed an
already marginal PSU over the top.

 

[Charles Schuler]

You seem to be describing a sudden change in power loading that would
cause the PSU to shutdown if it was close to the limit of its power
handling capability.

The way to test this is to swap out the PSU and see if the problem goes
away.

I had a client that was having problems burning a DVD. Within a few
seconds of starting to burn, the machine shut down. New PSU cured the
problem. The original PSU was only 190 Watts !!! The machine never had
a burner originally. The installation of the DVD burner just pushed an
already marginal PSU over the top.

That is an extra load (burning a DVD), but in my case the computer will
often fail when it is just sitting there. Granted that it is on the
Internet and could be downloading a virus update at the time. However, hard
disk activity seems to be unrelated to the failure mode that I am
experiencing.

So, you would recommend changing the power supply before the video card?

 

[Dave]

So, you would recommend changing the power supply before the video card?

I assume you're running Win2K or WinXP

Take a look in C:\WinNT\Minidump and see if there are any crash dump files.
These are a snapshot of what's going on as the computer crashes. If it's a
straight hardware failure, you won't have crash dumps. In that place I'd
probably lean towards swapping out the power supply. BUT if it's in any way
software-related (which it seems to be given that it's reproducible by
performing a particular SW activity such as you relate with Skype) you'll
have a crash dump. The dump files are named according to the date and time
of occurance. To analyze the dump:

1. Install windows debugging tools from the Microsoft site.
2. Run WinDbg and configure according to docs (i.e. you'll have to either
download the symbol libraries (huge) or link to the MS symbol server). Set
both the symbol and image source directories.
3. Open up the crash dump file. You'll get an abbreviated explanation.
Type "!analyze -v" and scan the output... it will normally tell you what
file is causing the fault.

Good luck, these things can be a bastard to track down.

Dave

 

[Baron]

That is an extra load (burning a DVD), but in my case the computer
will often fail when it is just sitting there.

Yes I agree ! I was just trying to illustrate that it takes/took very
little to cause a problem !

Granted that it is on the
Internet and could be downloading a virus update at the time.
However, hard disk activity seems to be unrelated to the failure mode
that I am experiencing.

So, you would recommend changing the power supply before the video
card?

As I originally suggested just swap the PSU our with another one and see
if that changes or alters the situation. Obviously you need to use a
PSU that is of equal or greater wattage rating.

I doubt that the video card itself is the culprit !

 

[Baron]

I assume you're running Win2K or WinXP

Take a look in C:\WinNT\Minidump and see if there are any crash dump
files.
These are a snapshot of what's going on as the computer crashes. If
it's a
straight hardware failure, you won't have crash dumps. In that place
I'd
probably lean towards swapping out the power supply. BUT if it's in
any way software-related (which it seems to be given that it's
reproducible by performing a particular SW activity such as you relate
with Skype) you'll
have a crash dump. The dump files are named according to the date and
time
of occurance. To analyze the dump:

1. Install windows debugging tools from the Microsoft site.
2. Run WinDbg and configure according to docs (i.e. you'll have to
either
download the symbol libraries (huge) or link to the MS symbol server).
Set both the symbol and image source directories.
3. Open up the crash dump file. You'll get an abbreviated
explanation. Type "!analyze -v" and scan the output... it will
normally tell you what file is causing the fault.

Good luck, these things can be a bastard to track down.

Dave

I agree ! The trick is to discover if its hardware or software !
But in my opinion, if the hardware is dodgy, then the software will
never be right !

 

[Charles Schuler]

I assume you're running Win2K or WinXP

Take a look in C:\WinNT\Minidump and see if there are any crash dump
files.
These are a snapshot of what's going on as the computer crashes. If it's
a
straight hardware failure, you won't have crash dumps. In that place I'd
probably lean towards swapping out the power supply. BUT if it's in any
way
software-related (which it seems to be given that it's reproducible by
performing a particular SW activity such as you relate with Skype) you'll
have a crash dump. The dump files are named according to the date and
time
of occurance.

I am using XP home. There is no Minidump folder. I went to the control
panel and the computer is configured to dump. I search for .dmp files and
found three very old ones in a Temporary folder.

Thanks for your help.