Re: What now?
- From: Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 06:49:04 -0500
Ed Cregger wrote:
I bought a refurbed Gateway 5014 from Tiger Direct a couple of months ago, or slightly longer.
The computer worked perfectly for the first couple of weeks, then it began rebooting spontaneously. There did not seem to be any link with the duration of operation and when the machine would reboot. I have kind of ruled out heat as being a problem since it will reboot within a couple of minutes when started up after a 24 hour off period.
I called Gateway. They sent me a power supply. Installed it. No change. They then sent me a hard drive. Installed it, but no change. Before all of this I reinstalled the operating system several times too (XP SP2, both Gateway's version and a new version - both were equipped with Media Center). No change.
I sent the computer back to Gateway. Got it back. No change. I wrote them an email afterwards, pleading for help after explaining the problem. No response.
I now have a $500 P.O.S. computer that cannot be fixed by a normal user. It is useless as it is.
I have tried various virus and malevolent software removal tools. No change.
I'm down to the CPU and the motherboard. Oh, I did replace the original 1 GB of RAM with 2 GB of RAM. No change, but the computer runs a bit better otherwise.
What's next? I can't afford to eat this computer. Neither Gateway, nor Tiger Direct have offered to help me any further. The computer is now out of warranty.
Any thoughts? TIA
Ed Cregger
According to the Tigerdirect page, it's a $650 POS :-)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1697010&sku=G153-GT5014
The motherboard appears to be a microBTX, with cooling duct over
the processor (and perhaps the Northbridge as well ?). The board
doesn't look that bad. It is based on a 945 chipset. Uses DDR2
memory. Probably isn't too old (which is why you'd hope there
wouldn't be a "bad caps" problem).
http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/Intel2/106007/106007nv.shtml
The first thing I'd do, is disable "Automatic restart" in Windows,
so if there is a BSOD, the BSOD stays on the screen instead of rebooting.
If the machine won't stop with Automatic Restart disabled, then
you'd know it was a more "hardware" related problem, rather than a
bad driver or perhaps a memory error.
Another test case, would be whether or not it will restart while just
sitting in the BIOS (having not had a chance to boot - press whatever
key is needed to enter the BIOS, then wait and see what happens). Again,
this is intended to see if the problem exhibits itself while the
machine hasn't had Windows loaded.
The machine uses a Pentium D 2.8GHz. Draws about 95W TDP.
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL8CP
Another test I might try, is power down, unplug the computer,
remove all the RAM. Power up. The BIOS should beep the "missing
RAM" code. Now, let it sit. Does it restart all by itself, when
sitting in that condition ?
Is the machine currently using a PCI Express x16 video card, or
just the built-in graphics ? With the machine running, do the fans
seem to be working ? What about the Northbridge heatsink temp ?
Does it seem reasonable, or do you burn yourself if touching it.
Does the BIOS have a hardware monitor page ? If so, what do the
listed voltages look like ? The expected values should be
within +/-5% of nominal values.
Paul
.
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