OT: really odd power supply problem

[ZappaFan]

Had a problem recently with my son's computer where he kept getting spontaneous reboots. First thing I usually think of in that instance is the power supply, but the way it was rebooting made think think it had a windows problem (running XP Pro). I found that it was only doing it on his profile, if I logged onto the machine using my profile it didn't seem to happen. So I deleted his profile and made him a new one and it didn't happen again for maybe a couple of months. Long story short his power supply seems to run Win98 OK, but won't run XP Pro. Tried running his PC for a while with a clean Win98 intall and it didn't happen at all. But it now won't even get all the way through an XP Pro install without a spontaneous reboot. Swapped out the memory and the HD just for grins and neither made any differnce. Verified the P/S failure by moving it to another machine and it wouldn't even finish loading Windows (little bit higher end PC this time).

[MYK]

Did you double check the cables? I thought my new beastly computer was dying, but I just kept kicking the cable that was hanging out of the wall socket, making it reboot every time I got a good song going.

As far as the PSU dying... swap it out, ASAP. Those little boogers like to hurt stuff on their way out. The cost of a new one is usually quite a bit less than the cost of all the hardware they can destroy in a Worst Case Scenario.

[Hp_Sauce]

I have to agree with Myk. Throw it in the trash. It sounds like you've clearly troubleshot that it is the PS. Maybe it's got a slight short somewhere, or a tiny glitch. Something about it just can't provide the proper/constant power for XP and you can't really pop it open and repair it... So just pitch the $40 for a new one, I say.

Kudos on a really nice trouble shooting job by the way. I think I would have assumed random restarts were CPU related (over heating?)... the power supply is the last place I would have looked.

-hps

[ZappaFan]

I have to agree with Myk. Throw it in the trash. It sounds like you've clearly troubleshot that it is the PS. Maybe it's got a slight short somewhere, or a tiny glitch. Something about it just can't provide the proper/constant power for XP and you can't really pop it open and repair it... So just pitch the $40 for a new one, I say.

Kudos on a really nice trouble shooting job by the way. I think I would have assumed random restarts were CPU related (over heating?)... the power supply is the last place I would have looked.

-hps

just so happens that the new P/S heading to my mailbox rightnow was $40. :)

[Relativity]

It could have also been something overheating (ie, your PS) while windows is booting. Make sure all your fans go vroom vroom!

PS: I wouldnt ever try to 'verify' a PS failure by moving the PS in question to a HIGHER end pc. For one it might not be powerful enough to power all the newer hardware, which would result in erratic behaviour. For two, it would suck if it fried your higher end hardware.