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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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