Looking for a PC doctor/exorcist
Unexpectedly and suddenly, my not-so-old daily driver PC has just given up. It boots but either freezes or reboots after between one and three minutes of activity. This happens under Windows and Linux, whether booting from the internal (M.2) disk or USB drive. I have: - wiped the OS from the internal disk and tried to reinstall - updated the BIOS to the latest version (Gigabyte motherboard, Ryzen CPU) - Booted safe mode under both Windows and Linux (tuxedoOS) - removed all peripherals (using the mobo onboard video) - checked that the CPU temperature is under 40C idle, at one point opening the case and pointing a floor fan at it. - swapped mouse and keyboard - run memtest, zero errors None of this has helped. Any suggestions? The culprits appear to be down to CPU, motherboard and power supply. I would really prefer not to have to replace all three. Sent from my laptop... any help, or suggestions of where to take this thing, are appreciated. -- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 at 11:33, Evan Leibovitch via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
The culprits appear to be down to CPU, motherboard and power supply.
The power supply is the easiest to eliminate as a culprit, if you've got a spare. I could lend you one if it would be convenient to get it to you. -- Scott
The power supply is only a few years old. Would it really flake out bad enough to cause the problems I experienced? Thanks for the offer, depending on how things go I might take you up on it. Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56 On Fri, Jun 20, 2025, 11:47 Scott Allen <mlxxxp@gmail.com> wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 at 11:33, Evan Leibovitch via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
The culprits appear to be down to CPU, motherboard and power supply.
The power supply is the easiest to eliminate as a culprit, if you've got a spare. I could lend you one if it would be convenient to get it to you.
-- Scott
On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 at 14:37, Evan Leibovitch <evanleibovitch@gmail.com> wrote:
The power supply is only a few years old. Would it really flake out bad enough to cause the problems I experienced?
Failures of these types of things tend to follow a bell curve. Most will have a normal life span. A few will fail much sooner. A few will last much longer. For power supplies, the majority of failures will be the result of electrolytic capacitors drying out or leaking. Temperature can have a large effect on this. -- Scott
On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 at 14:45, Scott Allen <mlxxxp@gmail.com> wrote:
For power supplies, the majority of failures will be the result of electrolytic capacitors drying out or leaking.
Partial failure of an electrolytic capacitor typically results in a loss of capacitance. If it's a filter capacitor this can cause the supply to become overly electrically "noisy". The AC voltage "noise" on the output will swing higher than it should. This can cause seemingly random crashes due to a voltage dipping below what a component can tolerate, even though the supply seems to be functioning normally overall. -- Scott
Specs? Does the mobo have error code LEDS? On 2025-06-20 11:34, Evan Leibovitch via Talk wrote:
Unexpectedly and suddenly, my not-so-old daily driver PC has just given up. It boots but either freezes or reboots after between one and three minutes of activity. This happens under Windows and Linux, whether booting from the internal (M.2) disk or USB drive.
I have:
* wiped the OS from the internal disk and tried to reinstall * updated the BIOS to the latest version (Gigabyte motherboard, Ryzen CPU) * Booted safe mode under both Windows and Linux (tuxedoOS) * removed all peripherals (using the mobo onboard video) * checked that the CPU temperature is under 40C idle, at one point opening the case and pointing a floor fan at it. * swapped mouse and keyboard * run memtest, zero errors
None of this has helped.
Any suggestions? The culprits appear to be down to CPU, motherboard and power supply. I would really prefer not to have to replace all three.
Sent from my laptop... any help, or suggestions of where to take this thing, are appreciated. --
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56 ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/GKM5XVI...
- I'm guessing "power supply". Swap it. If it's not the cause, then you can use it in the new PC. On 2025-06-20 11:34, Evan Leibovitch via Talk wrote:
Unexpectedly and suddenly, my not-so-old daily driver PC has just given up. It boots but either freezes or reboots after between one and three minutes of activity. This happens under Windows and Linux, whether booting from the internal (M.2) disk or USB drive.
I have:
* wiped the OS from the internal disk and tried to reinstall * updated the BIOS to the latest version (Gigabyte motherboard, Ryzen CPU) * Booted safe mode under both Windows and Linux (tuxedoOS) * removed all peripherals (using the mobo onboard video) * checked that the CPU temperature is under 40C idle, at one point opening the case and pointing a floor fan at it. * swapped mouse and keyboard * run memtest, zero errors
None of this has helped.
Any suggestions? The culprits appear to be down to CPU, motherboard and power supply. I would really prefer not to have to replace all three. Sent from my laptop... any help, or suggestions of where to take this thing, are appreciated.
-- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
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I would start by stripping everything down to the basics. Remove everything except one stick of ram and use a usb boot. Swap the ram sticks and slots. Keep adding hardware until something breaks. Last time something similar happened to me was a usb wifi that brought the whole thing to its knees. On Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 12:00 William Park via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
- I'm guessing "power supply". Swap it. If it's not the cause, then you can use it in the new PC.
On 2025-06-20 11:34, Evan Leibovitch via Talk wrote:
Unexpectedly and suddenly, my not-so-old daily driver PC has just given up. It boots but either freezes or reboots after between one and three minutes of activity. This happens under Windows and Linux, whether booting from the internal (M.2) disk or USB drive.
I have:
* wiped the OS from the internal disk and tried to reinstall * updated the BIOS to the latest version (Gigabyte motherboard, Ryzen CPU) * Booted safe mode under both Windows and Linux (tuxedoOS) * removed all peripherals (using the mobo onboard video) * checked that the CPU temperature is under 40C idle, at one point opening the case and pointing a floor fan at it. * swapped mouse and keyboard * run memtest, zero errors
None of this has helped.
Any suggestions? The culprits appear to be down to CPU, motherboard and power supply. I would really prefer not to have to replace all three. Sent from my laptop... any help, or suggestions of where to take this thing, are appreciated.
-- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
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From: Evan Leibovitch via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org>
Unexpectedly and suddenly, my not-so-old daily driver PC has just given up. It boots but either freezes or reboots after between one and three minutes of activity.
It looks like you have tried all the obvious things. First thoughts: Before everything else: Make sure you have a backup. That may involve removing the disks and hooking each to another computer. How can you run memtest in less than three minutes? It sounds like an overheating problem. You've tried to address that. Grasping at straws: are there any fans on components that are not spinning? The processor says that it is happy. You've removed the video card. Are there any other fans just for one componenet? If you go to the firmware ("BIOS") settup page on boot, and you let the machine sit for three minutes, does the machine reboot or freeze? Have you tried reseting the "BIOS" to default or factory settings? Years ago, I was surprised how often a power supply misbehaved. So I keep a spare in stock. But I haven't needed one for at least 15 years. Good luck.
If it is happening the same with Win and Linux, then I'd guess it's a hardware issue. Remove your boot disk (whatever it is), throw it into another PC, and see if all is well. As to what hardware exactly is the problem, this will be difficult to determine. You could then start swapping components. Also, the weather has turned much hotter recently, and my laptop is kicking out much more heat. Try booting your PC in a fridge and see if it starts up ok. Or a bed of ice? On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 at 16:50, D. Hugh Redelmeier via Talk < talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
From: Evan Leibovitch via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org>
Unexpectedly and suddenly, my not-so-old daily driver PC has just given up. It boots but either freezes or reboots after between one and three minutes of activity.
It looks like you have tried all the obvious things.
First thoughts:
Before everything else: Make sure you have a backup. That may involve removing the disks and hooking each to another computer.
How can you run memtest in less than three minutes?
It sounds like an overheating problem. You've tried to address that. Grasping at straws: are there any fans on components that are not spinning? The processor says that it is happy. You've removed the video card. Are there any other fans just for one componenet?
If you go to the firmware ("BIOS") settup page on boot, and you let the machine sit for three minutes, does the machine reboot or freeze?
Have you tried reseting the "BIOS" to default or factory settings?
Years ago, I was surprised how often a power supply misbehaved. So I keep a spare in stock. But I haven't needed one for at least 15 years.
Good luck. ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/5AAY776...
In a previous life, my friend Max was always sending cases of power supplies back to the wholesalers. It's super easy to reduce production costs by cheaping out. We would skin the first power supply in the case, look to see if anything obvious was missing, and set it up in one of his chassis for a load test. We regularly had X watt PSUs fail to deliver anything like X. One was so bad that when we started the load test, the line on the oscilloscope went from 12v to ... /zero/. If the first one passed, we'd skin the rest (we never used the crap cases), see if they were all the same, and then add crowbars and put them into his chassis, which was designed for good airflow and signal damping with a naked PSU. And at least once, they changed half-way through the case! --dave On 6/20/25 16:50, D. Hugh Redelmeier via Talk wrote:
From: Evan Leibovitch via Talk<talk@lists.gtalug.org> Unexpectedly and suddenly, my not-so-old daily driver PC has just given up. It boots but either freezes or reboots after between one and three minutes of activity. It looks like you have tried all the obvious things.
First thoughts:
Before everything else: Make sure you have a backup. That may involve removing the disks and hooking each to another computer.
How can you run memtest in less than three minutes?
It sounds like an overheating problem. You've tried to address that. Grasping at straws: are there any fans on components that are not spinning? The processor says that it is happy. You've removed the video card. Are there any other fans just for one componenet?
If you go to the firmware ("BIOS") settup page on boot, and you let the machine sit for three minutes, does the machine reboot or freeze?
Have you tried reseting the "BIOS" to default or factory settings?
Years ago, I was surprised how often a power supply misbehaved. So I keep a spare in stock. But I haven't needed one for at least 15 years.
Good luck. ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe viaTalk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread:talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived athttps://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/5AAY776...
-- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest davecb@spamcop.net | -- Mark Twain
Granted others may have helped. Still, I would suggest Derek at finn soft. www.finnsoft.com Has been a few weeks since I connected with him, but he is rather brilliant at the unexpected. Karen On Fri, 20 Jun 2025, Evan Leibovitch via Talk wrote:
Unexpectedly and suddenly, my not-so-old daily driver PC has just given up. It boots but either freezes or reboots after between one and three minutes of activity. This happens under Windows and Linux, whether booting from the internal (M.2) disk or USB drive.
I have:
- wiped the OS from the internal disk and tried to reinstall - updated the BIOS to the latest version (Gigabyte motherboard, Ryzen CPU) - Booted safe mode under both Windows and Linux (tuxedoOS) - removed all peripherals (using the mobo onboard video) - checked that the CPU temperature is under 40C idle, at one point opening the case and pointing a floor fan at it. - swapped mouse and keyboard - run memtest, zero errors
None of this has helped.
Any suggestions? The culprits appear to be down to CPU, motherboard and power supply. I would really prefer not to have to replace all three. Sent from my laptop... any help, or suggestions of where to take this thing, are appreciated.
-- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
participants (9)
-
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
David Collier-Brown -
Don Tai -
Evan Leibovitch -
ganesh＠rethinkmail.com -
Karen Lewellen -
Nick Accad -
Scott Allen -
William Park