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PC Shuts Down and Reboots In Rapid Succession



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 20th 17, 03:25 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware
tb
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 66
Default PC Shuts Down and Reboots In Rapid Succession

I have a desktop PC with Linux MX16 (64-bit) installed.

I have noticed in the last few months that occasionally Firefox
freezes. In a couple of instances the PC just shut down on its own.

This evening, all of a sudden it started shutting down and rebooting in
rapid succession.

I pressed and held the power button to shut ther PC down completely.
After a few minutes I rebooted and the PC has been working ok so far.

Time to replace the power supply, maybe?

What do the experts think? Hopefully it is not something that has to
do with the motherboard. I can replace a power supply but cannot
repair a motherboard...
--
tb
  #2  
Old February 20th 17, 04:14 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default PC Shuts Down and Reboots In Rapid Succession

tb wrote:
I have a desktop PC with Linux MX16 (64-bit) installed.

I have noticed in the last few months that occasionally Firefox
freezes. In a couple of instances the PC just shut down on its own.

This evening, all of a sudden it started shutting down and rebooting in
rapid succession.

I pressed and held the power button to shut ther PC down completely.
After a few minutes I rebooted and the PC has been working ok so far.

Time to replace the power supply, maybe?

What do the experts think? Hopefully it is not something that has to
do with the motherboard. I can replace a power supply but cannot
repair a motherboard...


I would want to understand first, exactly what
kind of shutdown it is.

My PCs are set here, to go OFF if the power fails.
So they won't start booting again. If the main
rails +3.3V,+5V,+12V were to go off, then the PC
would not restart immediately.

The CPU has THERMTRIP. That gates PS_ON# and
turns off the request for power to the PSU. That
shouldn't restart on its own either.

At least some of the monitoring methods, could be
using +5VSB to "latch" or "remember" the failure. Say
for example, VCore had an overcurrent detection feature.
Maybe +5VSB would power logic remembering the failure.
Only fully turning off the PC using the switch on
the back, waiting 30 seconds, turning it on again,
would make it "ready for another boot attempt".

AC ---- rectifier --- cap ---+-- Main_PSU_section == 3,3V, 5V, 12V etc
|
+-- Separate +5VSB for sleep, soft power
button, +5VSB lights the mobo green LED.

The PC does have a shutdown and restart sequence,
but normally some code in the operating system requests
that.

Maybe an indication from ACPI Power Button,
might trigger an OS shutdown (but not a restart).

I know you're in a rush to "fix something", but
I'm trying to save you some money. For example, if
you change the PSU and it isn't fixed, you're not
going to be very happy. So first, try to describe
what the shutdown appears like - is the timing the
same as if you selected restart from a menu ?

Have you tested with the LiveCD of another distro,
to see if it behaves the same ?

A bad PSU can make noises (or a puff of smoke) at
startup. The CPU can crash, there could be a Linux
kernel panic, and so on, if the +12V isn't stable.
To shutdown and restart, seems a "bit too orderly"
for me. Like this was coming from software somehow.

Paul
  #3  
Old February 20th 17, 08:49 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
tb
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 66
Default PC Shuts Down and Reboots In Rapid Succession

On 2/19/2017 at 9:14:04 PM Paul wrote:

tb wrote:
I have a desktop PC with Linux MX16 (64-bit) installed.

I have noticed in the last few months that occasionally Firefox
freezes. In a couple of instances the PC just shut down on its own.

This evening, all of a sudden it started shutting down and
rebooting in rapid succession.

I pressed and held the power button to shut ther PC down completely.
After a few minutes I rebooted and the PC has been working ok so
far.

Time to replace the power supply, maybe?

What do the experts think? Hopefully it is not something that has
to do with the motherboard. I can replace a power supply but cannot
repair a motherboard...


I would want to understand first, exactly what
kind of shutdown it is.

My PCs are set here, to go OFF if the power fails.
So they won't start booting again. If the main
rails +3.3V,+5V,+12V were to go off, then the PC
would not restart immediately.

The CPU has THERMTRIP. That gates PS_ON# and
turns off the request for power to the PSU. That
shouldn't restart on its own either.

At least some of the monitoring methods, could be
using +5VSB to "latch" or "remember" the failure. Say
for example, VCore had an overcurrent detection feature.
Maybe +5VSB would power logic remembering the failure.
Only fully turning off the PC using the switch on
the back, waiting 30 seconds, turning it on again,
would make it "ready for another boot attempt".

AC ---- rectifier --- cap ---+-- Main_PSU_section == 3,3V, 5V,
12V etc |
+-- Separate +5VSB for sleep, soft
power button, +5VSB lights the
mobo green LED.

The PC does have a shutdown and restart sequence,
but normally some code in the operating system requests
that.

Maybe an indication from ACPI Power Button,
might trigger an OS shutdown (but not a restart).

I know you're in a rush to "fix something", but
I'm trying to save you some money. For example, if
you change the PSU and it isn't fixed, you're not
going to be very happy. So first, try to describe
what the shutdown appears like - is the timing the
same as if you selected restart from a menu ?

Have you tested with the LiveCD of another distro,
to see if it behaves the same ?

A bad PSU can make noises (or a puff of smoke) at
startup. The CPU can crash, there could be a Linux
kernel panic, and so on, if the +12V isn't stable.
To shutdown and restart, seems a "bit too orderly"
for me. Like this was coming from software somehow.

Paul


I'll try to better describe what happened. Please keep in mind that I
am not a techie.

The shutting down and restarting was not the normal shutdown and reboot
that one might do using the shutdown/restart software. It was as if I
was playing with the power button of the PC: turn it on and off in
rapid sequence. The green LED light for power on the PC chassis kept
turning on and off. It did that several times. I know that there is
nothing wrong with the power strip (or the power supplied to the strip
from the wall plug) because I have a couple of other things connected
to it which were not affected by this issue.

This is the first time that the PC does this on/off behavior. A few
times in the past, the PC completely went dead -- all of a sudden!

In all these instances, letting the PC rest in the off state, waiting a
few minutes and then turning it on solved the issue.

I used to have Windows 10 installed on the PC. And a few times the PC
completely went dead without any warnings, too.

In my limited tech experience, I suspect some sort of hardware problem.
I'm hoping it is the power supply and not the motherboard itself.

--
tb
  #4  
Old February 20th 17, 10:49 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default PC Shuts Down and Reboots In Rapid Succession

tb wrote:
On 2/19/2017 at 9:14:04 PM Paul wrote:

tb wrote:
I have a desktop PC with Linux MX16 (64-bit) installed.

I have noticed in the last few months that occasionally Firefox
freezes. In a couple of instances the PC just shut down on its own.

This evening, all of a sudden it started shutting down and
rebooting in rapid succession.

I pressed and held the power button to shut ther PC down completely.
After a few minutes I rebooted and the PC has been working ok so
far.

Time to replace the power supply, maybe?

What do the experts think? Hopefully it is not something that has
to do with the motherboard. I can replace a power supply but cannot
repair a motherboard...

I would want to understand first, exactly what
kind of shutdown it is.

My PCs are set here, to go OFF if the power fails.
So they won't start booting again. If the main
rails +3.3V,+5V,+12V were to go off, then the PC
would not restart immediately.

The CPU has THERMTRIP. That gates PS_ON# and
turns off the request for power to the PSU. That
shouldn't restart on its own either.

At least some of the monitoring methods, could be
using +5VSB to "latch" or "remember" the failure. Say
for example, VCore had an overcurrent detection feature.
Maybe +5VSB would power logic remembering the failure.
Only fully turning off the PC using the switch on
the back, waiting 30 seconds, turning it on again,
would make it "ready for another boot attempt".

AC ---- rectifier --- cap ---+-- Main_PSU_section == 3,3V, 5V,
12V etc |
+-- Separate +5VSB for sleep, soft
power button, +5VSB lights the
mobo green LED.

The PC does have a shutdown and restart sequence,
but normally some code in the operating system requests
that.

Maybe an indication from ACPI Power Button,
might trigger an OS shutdown (but not a restart).

I know you're in a rush to "fix something", but
I'm trying to save you some money. For example, if
you change the PSU and it isn't fixed, you're not
going to be very happy. So first, try to describe
what the shutdown appears like - is the timing the
same as if you selected restart from a menu ?

Have you tested with the LiveCD of another distro,
to see if it behaves the same ?

A bad PSU can make noises (or a puff of smoke) at
startup. The CPU can crash, there could be a Linux
kernel panic, and so on, if the +12V isn't stable.
To shutdown and restart, seems a "bit too orderly"
for me. Like this was coming from software somehow.

Paul


I'll try to better describe what happened. Please keep in mind that I
am not a techie.

The shutting down and restarting was not the normal shutdown and reboot
that one might do using the shutdown/restart software. It was as if I
was playing with the power button of the PC: turn it on and off in
rapid sequence. The green LED light for power on the PC chassis kept
turning on and off. It did that several times. I know that there is
nothing wrong with the power strip (or the power supplied to the strip
from the wall plug) because I have a couple of other things connected
to it which were not affected by this issue.

This is the first time that the PC does this on/off behavior. A few
times in the past, the PC completely went dead -- all of a sudden!

In all these instances, letting the PC rest in the off state, waiting a
few minutes and then turning it on solved the issue.

I used to have Windows 10 installed on the PC. And a few times the PC
completely went dead without any warnings, too.

In my limited tech experience, I suspect some sort of hardware problem.
I'm hoping it is the power supply and not the motherboard itself.


OK, replace the PSU.

The motherboard really shouldn't restart on its own
like that, but if the PSU is "stuttering", who knows
what would happen to the PS_ON# and RESET logic trees.

The green LED might be tied directly to +5VSB. I like
a feature like that, as it makes it easier to monitor
for +5VSB issues. (Which is the second half of the
two-part PSU.) Maybe the supply has detected internal
overload or overheat.

Paul
  #5  
Old February 20th 17, 11:18 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
John McGaw
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 732
Default PC Shuts Down and Reboots In Rapid Succession

On 2/20/2017 2:49 PM, tb wrote:
On 2/19/2017 at 9:14:04 PM Paul wrote:

tb wrote:
I have a desktop PC with Linux MX16 (64-bit) installed.

I have noticed in the last few months that occasionally Firefox
freezes. In a couple of instances the PC just shut down on its own.

This evening, all of a sudden it started shutting down and
rebooting in rapid succession.

I pressed and held the power button to shut ther PC down completely.
After a few minutes I rebooted and the PC has been working ok so
far.

Time to replace the power supply, maybe?

What do the experts think? Hopefully it is not something that has
to do with the motherboard. I can replace a power supply but cannot
repair a motherboard...


I would want to understand first, exactly what
kind of shutdown it is.

My PCs are set here, to go OFF if the power fails.
So they won't start booting again. If the main
rails +3.3V,+5V,+12V were to go off, then the PC
would not restart immediately.

The CPU has THERMTRIP. That gates PS_ON# and
turns off the request for power to the PSU. That
shouldn't restart on its own either.

At least some of the monitoring methods, could be
using +5VSB to "latch" or "remember" the failure. Say
for example, VCore had an overcurrent detection feature.
Maybe +5VSB would power logic remembering the failure.
Only fully turning off the PC using the switch on
the back, waiting 30 seconds, turning it on again,
would make it "ready for another boot attempt".

AC ---- rectifier --- cap ---+-- Main_PSU_section == 3,3V, 5V,
12V etc |
+-- Separate +5VSB for sleep, soft
power button, +5VSB lights the
mobo green LED.

The PC does have a shutdown and restart sequence,
but normally some code in the operating system requests
that.

Maybe an indication from ACPI Power Button,
might trigger an OS shutdown (but not a restart).

I know you're in a rush to "fix something", but
I'm trying to save you some money. For example, if
you change the PSU and it isn't fixed, you're not
going to be very happy. So first, try to describe
what the shutdown appears like - is the timing the
same as if you selected restart from a menu ?

Have you tested with the LiveCD of another distro,
to see if it behaves the same ?

A bad PSU can make noises (or a puff of smoke) at
startup. The CPU can crash, there could be a Linux
kernel panic, and so on, if the +12V isn't stable.
To shutdown and restart, seems a "bit too orderly"
for me. Like this was coming from software somehow.

Paul


I'll try to better describe what happened. Please keep in mind that I
am not a techie.

The shutting down and restarting was not the normal shutdown and reboot
that one might do using the shutdown/restart software. It was as if I
was playing with the power button of the PC: turn it on and off in
rapid sequence. The green LED light for power on the PC chassis kept
turning on and off. It did that several times. I know that there is
nothing wrong with the power strip (or the power supplied to the strip
from the wall plug) because I have a couple of other things connected
to it which were not affected by this issue.

This is the first time that the PC does this on/off behavior. A few
times in the past, the PC completely went dead -- all of a sudden!

In all these instances, letting the PC rest in the off state, waiting a
few minutes and then turning it on solved the issue.

I used to have Windows 10 installed on the PC. And a few times the PC
completely went dead without any warnings, too.

In my limited tech experience, I suspect some sort of hardware problem.
I'm hoping it is the power supply and not the motherboard itself.

Before you go any further or spend any money you might just try pushing the
power cord connector into the PS really really hard. More than one time
I've found that the fit was not perfect and that the connection was not as
permanent as I might like and the connection failed temporarily from
vibration or temperature change or the POM. Nothing to lose beyond a few
minutes of effort.

Of course if that isn't it I'd probably replace the PSU on general principles.
  #6  
Old February 22nd 17, 05:46 AM posted to alt.comp.hardware
tb
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 66
Default PC Shuts Down and Reboots In Rapid Succession

On 02/20/2017 04:18 PM, John McGaw wrote:

Before you go any further or spend any money you might just try pushing
the power cord connector into the PS really really hard. More than one
time I've found that the fit was not perfect and that the connection was
not as permanent as I might like and the connection failed temporarily
from vibration or temperature change or the POM. Nothing to lose beyond
a few minutes of effort.

Of course if that isn't it I'd probably replace the PSU on general
principles.


You might have hit the nail on the head... I checked the power cord and
its plug was not firmly seated into the power supply receptacle. I have
made sure that the plug is inserted all the way in now.
We'll see what happens. Maybe I won't have to replace the power supply!!

Thanks, John and Paul, for your help.
--
tb
 




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