Cold Boot issue
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From: KL on 1 Apr 2008 13:47 Hi, I am encountering a weird cold boot issue with my XP based system recently (doesnt seem to appear with a warm boot) and hope someone here could have an explanation. Shortly after the system booted XP (even before the XP logo) the system seems to crash and to reboot automatically. Upon the subsequent (sometimes it needs a second one) XP start I get the typical error message (safe mode, Last-Known-Good Configuration, ......). Until yesterday a faulty RAM chip could have been the explanation but I got a new one meanwhile. Also several disk checks didnt point to any bad sectors. Does anyone have an idea what else it could be respectively how I could easily find the reason? Thanks!
From: Clark on 1 Apr 2008 15:39 KL wrote: > > Hi, > > I am encountering a weird cold boot issue with my XP based system > recently (doesnt seem to appear with a warm boot) and hope someone here > could have an explanation. > > Shortly after the system booted XP (even before the XP logo) the system > seems to crash and to reboot automatically. Upon the subsequent > (sometimes it needs a second one) XP start I get the typical error > message (safe mode, Last-Known-Good Configuration, ......). > > Until yesterday a faulty RAM chip could have been the explanation but I > got a new one meanwhile. Also several disk checks didnt point to any bad > sectors. > > Does anyone have an idea what else it could be respectively how I could > easily find the reason? > > Thanks! Does it behave that way if you boot into Safe Mode originally? It might be one of your drivers causing it to crash, Safe Mode is supposed to load only the basic ones. After it is booted, you might check the Event Viewer to see if anything is showing up. Clark
From: KL on 1 Apr 2008 15:21 Clark wrote: > > Does it behave that way if you boot into Safe Mode originally? It might > be one of your drivers causing it to crash, Safe Mode is supposed to > load only the basic ones. > > After it is booted, you might check the Event Viewer to see if anything > is showing up. > > Clark Thanks Clark, actually this might be a reason which I didnt think of yet, also because the problem started rather suddenly without any hardware modification or driver updates and appears right after the BIOS passed to XP (where most drivers are probably not already really loaded). Someone also pointed me to electrolytic capacitors on the mainboard which might have bursted and I actually found some kind solid yellowish mass on some of them (although I cant definitely say whether they are bursted). Could this be an explanation as well? Thanks again.
From: Paul on 1 Apr 2008 18:33 KL wrote: > Clark wrote: >> >> Does it behave that way if you boot into Safe Mode originally? It >> might be one of your drivers causing it to crash, Safe Mode is >> supposed to load only the basic ones. >> >> After it is booted, you might check the Event Viewer to see if >> anything is showing up. >> >> Clark > > Thanks Clark, actually this might be a reason which I didnt think of > yet, also because the problem started rather suddenly without any > hardware modification or driver updates and appears right after the BIOS > passed to XP (where most drivers are probably not already really loaded). > > Someone also pointed me to electrolytic capacitors on the mainboard > which might have bursted and I actually found some kind solid yellowish > mass on some of them (although I cant definitely say whether they are > bursted). Could this be an explanation as well? > > Thanks again. The capacitor should be a cylinder with a flat top. There is a seal on the bottom of the capacitor, and it can push out if there is internal gas pressure inside the cap. If the top bulges, there are stress lines in the top of the cap, that are designed to open if the pressure inside the capacitor becomes too high. The electrolyte can leak out the bottom of the capacitor, if the seal fails. Sometimes you'll see a brownish deposit under the cap when this happens. If the capacitors were part of the processor power conversion, then their failure results in processor instability (crashing just as desktop appears etc). They can be replaced, by someone skilled with a soldering iron, and solder removal device (solder sucker). Motherboards are easy to damage, as the PCB is not of the highest quality. The copper foil delaminates pretty easily. http://www.badcaps.net/images/caps/kt7/image004.png (bulging tops) http://www.badcaps.net/images/caps/kt7/image005.png (seal popped on the bottom) Paul
From: KL on 2 Apr 2008 05:17
Paul wrote: > > The capacitor should be a cylinder with a flat top. There is a seal > on the bottom of the capacitor, and it can push out if there is > internal gas pressure inside the cap. If the top bulges, there are > stress lines in the top of the cap, that are designed to open > if the pressure inside the capacitor becomes too high. > > The electrolyte can leak out the bottom of the capacitor, if the > seal fails. Sometimes you'll see a brownish deposit under the > cap when this happens. > > If the capacitors were part of the processor power conversion, then > their failure results in processor instability (crashing just > as desktop appears etc). They can be replaced, by someone skilled > with a soldering iron, and solder removal device (solder sucker). > Motherboards are easy to damage, as the PCB is not of the highest > quality. The copper foil delaminates pretty easily. > > http://www.badcaps.net/images/caps/kt7/image004.png (bulging tops) > http://www.badcaps.net/images/caps/kt7/image005.png (seal popped on > the bottom) > > Paul Thanks Paul. If there is an entire website dedicated to a hardware issue it seems to be a rather serious one :). Some of the capacitors actually seem to be bulged at the top and had the mentioned mass on them. As I am not really skilled in soldering I guess it is time for a new mainboard. Thanks again Paul, especially for the links. |