Help needed with unit shutting down randomly

A buddy of mine has a recurring problem with his PC. Unfortunately I
do not know the MB type or anything (think it has a symbol that looks
like a Gx on it...) except it's a P3 duron.

The issue first came up 3 weeks ago in that it would lose it's power
and shut down. Sometimes it would be able to restart, other times not
unless the unit itself is moved or tapped slightly.

Initially I thought that the problem was a defective CPU fan (it was
dead) as I replaced it and all seemed to work fine. However, I had to
use the SYSTEM FAN connector as th eCPU fan connector was no longer
giving 12 VDC, only about 9.4 VDC..... Anyways, this seemed to fix
the problem but only for 3-4 weeks and now th eunit is doing the same
thing again!?

Tap the unit and the power to the board will become flaky, BUT the
power supply itself is still working in top condition as the other
lights are functional (and I checked the power supply 3-4 weeks ago
within my own PC without issue).

Anyone have any potential clue what the issue may be and what I might
try to debug it?

Thanks for any help.

Crap, you;re right... I shoulda figured out AMD and not Intel. Sorry
about that..... he keeps referring to it as a P3 and I knew that was
wrong.

I'll check the solder joints as I'll have the unit tomorrow and will
disassemble it but not relying too much on figring that one out. Just
really weird that it worked for about 3-4 weeks before crapping out
again and all I did was disassemble everything and reassemble it along
with a new CPU fan.

I figure if the CPU fan connector ain't gettingu 12V then it's also
possibly a bad component. Anways, will check it out better ands see
what comes up.

Thanks for the info.

On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 00:26:19 GMT, (Jim Turner)
wrote:

First off, there is no such thing as a P3 Duron :-) P3 is Intels
Pentium 3. Duron is AMD's budget chip similar to Intels Celeron.

Sounds like you have a heat problem or a bad connector on the
motherboard or a cold solder joint. could even be that the heat is
making the board move just enough to cause a bad connection to
separate and your tapping remakes the connection. Try a can of freeze
spray to see if there are hot spots, temperature sensitive spots. If
the CPU fan connector is already flaky (low voltage) you probably have
a defective mother board, and I would replace it.

Jim
On Wed, 25 Jun 2003 18:58:30 -0400, Joe Bloe wrote:

A buddy of mine has a recurring problem with his PC. Unfortunately I
do not know the MB type or anything (think it has a symbol that looks
like a Gx on it...) except it's a P3 duron.

The issue first came up 3 weeks ago in that it would lose it's power
and shut down. Sometimes it would be able to restart, other times not
unless the unit itself is moved or tapped slightly.

Initially I thought that the problem was a defective CPU fan (it was
dead) as I replaced it and all seemed to work fine. However, I had to
use the SYSTEM FAN connector as th eCPU fan connector was no longer
giving 12 VDC, only about 9.4 VDC..... Anyways, this seemed to fix
the problem but only for 3-4 weeks and now th eunit is doing the same
thing again!?

Tap the unit and the power to the board will become flaky, BUT the
power supply itself is still working in top condition as the other
lights are functional (and I checked the power supply 3-4 weeks ago
within my own PC without issue).

Anyone have any potential clue what the issue may be and what I might
try to debug it?

Thanks for any help.