[SWLUG] Help!

[Gareth Watkins]

"Davage, Marcus" <Marcus.Davage at LloydsTSB.co.uk> wrote:

> Please accept my apologies for being sort-of off-topic - it's only because
> of the wealth of wisdom and help that you have already provided so many
> supplicants!
> 
> My problem is this:
> My PC keeps spontaneously shutting down or rebooting. It doesn't matter
> whether it's W2K or Linux (I have dual boot). I switch it on, do some work
> for a few minutes/few hours (it is totally arbitrary) and *click* it's
> suddenly off, and it may - or may not - reboot. What's the problem? Is it
> something to do with the power unit, or is it overheating? What can I do? I
> built it myself two years ago with no problems before now, and I'm rapidly
> losing patience/ideas/work/data. I'm afraid it's going to trash my h/d.
> 
> Marcus Davage
> 

The problem is probably a poor connection somewhere inside the PC, but just 
in case:
I had a similar problem about ten years ago, which was eventually traced to 
brownouts on the power supply. The mains voltage was dropping slightly -- 
not enough to affect radio, TV, etc, but enough to drop the supply to the PC 
below the 200v - 260v (or whatever) tolerances, causing a reboot (for brief 
power drops) or shutdown (for longer ones -- perhaps over a second or two). 
In my case, these brownouts were caused by a bad connection on the overhead 
supply cable to the house. But they could be anywhere along the supply. It 
might help to plug a table lamp into the same ring main, and see how much 
the light dips when you boot up.
Of course, if you've got a UPS, this won't be the answer. If you haven't, 
try borrowing one for a day & seeing if your problem goes away.

Good luck,
Gareth Watkins