Weird Computer Crashes

jrmcferren

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I had two computer crashes tonight, I'm talking about turn the whole computer off crashes due to the computer freezing up. The first crash is the oddest of them all.

First Crash:

I was loading the radar image of the local area when I noticed that my Keyboard LEDs went from Numlock on, Capslock off, Scroll Lock off, to Numlock off, Capslock on, scroll lock on. This usually means that the microcontroller in my keyboard has crashed. Next I must tell you that even though this is a PS/2 keyboard it is designed to be connected and disconnected with the power on. I unplugged the keyboard cable from the back of the keyboard and reconnected it. First time same config on the leds as the crash, second time the LEDs flashed as normal, but the keyboard did not respond. I decided to go ahead and shut down gracefully by using the mouse. I noticed that the mouse was not moving. I looked over at the mouse to find that it had gone dark. :eek: It is an optical with a light in the back. I knew I was in some kind of trouble. Still concentrating on a graceful shutdown as I'm using Linux I reached for the power button just a tap will send it into a shutdown sequence. I looked at my router and found that the LED for my computer was OFF. This usually only happens under two circumstances, the computer is completely powered off to the point where it is either unplugged or the switch on the power supply is off. Now remember I still had a picture on my monitor. I then looked down at the Hard drive led before pressing the button, then I noticed that the power LED was OFF. Now remember I had a picture albeit frozen as I then noticed on my monitor and the fans were still running. I had no choice to reach back and shut the switch off and restart hard. It seemed that the motherboard turned off but power was still flowing to the video card and the power supply was still on. The computer had a continuous uptime of almost six and a half days not a record BTW.

Second Crash:
After restarting from the first crash and logging in I re-started my UPS software, and Seti@Home, Note that my email program, IM program, and even music program restart automatically at login along with my Terminal emulator if it was up when the system was shut down. I then restarted Firefox and restored the session, clicked an option on the radar and the system froze again. I looked at the mouse, dark. I tried the keyboard, unresponsive, tried pressing the power button, no response. Did a hard restart yet again, but the router LED and power LED were still on. Uptime was around seven minutes.

I restarted the system with no other changes other than I loaded Seti first then my UPS software. No problems yet.

Thoughts to possible diagnosis:

On the first crash I believe Cosmic radiation corrupted the memory (it happens all the time this is why servers have ECC memory) and caused a malformed instruction to reach the CPU causing the motherboard to shut down partially. This could have also been caused by a power glitch that got past the UPS and the power supply. On the second crash I believe either a memory cell did not get cleared properly for some reason (I would have no idea why, but if something odd happened who knows) or another power glitch.

For those that have better degrees than I do I ask the following questions:
-Why and How would a motherboard shut down only partially and not take the video card with it and also affect the circuits that operate on +5VSB?
-If the motherboard shuts down, why would it leave the power on signal set to low (turn on)?
-Why would the video card keep displaying the same static image?
-Do you have an better theories as to what may have happened?
-Why would the system crash a second time and not a third?

Note I left a lot of information out regarding system specs to keep this post shorter.
 

Black Rose

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Did you have an externally powered USB hub attached to the computer as well?

I find with my Asus boards that even with the computer turned off, as long as the USB hub is still being powered by it's external adapter, there will still be power to the motherboard (green light on MOBO still on).

I also have 5-port USB 2.0 PCI card installed with an externally powered USB hub on that as well. With that hub, I have to disconnect the external power supply to the hub, or the power will keep flowing and will still spin the case and CPU fans even when the computer is off.

Both of the Asus boards have had the PS/2 ports fail, so now the keyboard and mouse are USB connected.
 

jtr1962

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Your power supply might be starting to go. That's often the cause of mysterious, seemingly random computer malfunctions.
 

jrmcferren

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Doh :ohgeez:, That's what I get for troubleshooting a computer problem that late at night. I am due for a new power supply anyway. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy a PC Power and Cooling power supply. This is the second Thermaltake power supply I put into this system. Thanks guys, I should have been able to figure out the power supply thing myself. :oops:
 

RA40

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Check the caps on the components. A few weeks back, I was having odd start-up problems. Mostly a long delay in the usual post process. Most had suggested it was the PSU so I put in my old back-up. Fired right up. Looking into the PSU, I noticed it had 3 bulged leaking caps inside.

A spell back, leaking caps on a mobo caused weird intermittent issues almost similar to yours.
 

z96Cobra

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I second the capacitors check. A few years back a bunch of counterfeit capacitors made it to some MOBO manufacturers and caused quite a few problems. I experienced it on an Asus or Abit (can't remember which one) and had to replace the MOBO. Just last weekend one of my buddies had a system die and when we opened it up we saw that 6 caps had popped open. They were all the same specs/size. No other caps of different size were affecetd, and the ones that did die were on different circuits.

I also see the powered USB hub problem with my system (Gigabyte MOBO) and I have to unplug it when I need to completely power down my system. It just backfeeds 5v into the MOBO.

Are any of your hard drives making any bad noises, like clicking? You could have a bad drive also. If not and you don't see any "swollen" or popped capacitors, then it probably is your PSU.
Roger
 

PhotonWrangler

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RA40, was the one with bluging caps an Antec power supply?

I had an Antec that went up in smoke...literally.

Yikes! What was the model number on the Antec supply? I've got a couple of Antecs here.

BTW I had an old, noisy motherboard (bad caps) that finally ate the hard drive.
 

Black Rose

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Yikes! What was the model number on the Antec supply? I've got a couple of Antecs here.

BTW I had an old, noisy motherboard (bad caps) that finally ate the hard drive.
It was a 350 watt SmartPower 2.0 power supply. Model number is SL350.

It don't know if it was a cap that blew in mine, but they were bulging when I ripped it open.

BlownPSU.jpg


We had two computers with them in it. The other computer was having continuous issues that made no sense.
Replaced them both with Seasonic S12 430 watt power supplies and have not had an issue since.
 

jrmcferren

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It was a 350 watt SmartPower 2.0 power supply. Model number is SL350.

It don't know if it was a cap that blew in mine, but they were bulging when I ripped it open.

BlownPSU.jpg


We had two computers with them in it. The other computer was having continuous issues that made no sense.
Replaced them both with Seasonic S12 430 watt power supplies and have not had an issue since.

It looks like that resistor by R21 (probably is R21) burned out and probably was glowing for a time. The heat caused by that failure as well as general overheating probably caused the capacitors to bulge due to high pressure from the electrolyte boiling. It looks like you may have had a small fire although not hot enough to continue burning once the power was shut off. I would actually like to see pictures of other parts of the board if you still have it. I may have been cause due to a lack of ventilation.
 

PhotonWrangler

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Wow! Bar-b-q chips indeed. Thanks for sharing that, Black Rose. I'm fortunate thao my Thermaltakes aren't that model, but now I'm wary of their designs in general. It looks like there was a small fire and explosion in the PS. IMO that hints that they're not derating their components enough in terms of voltage and thermal stress.
 

Illum

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My last incident looked something like this, only the chip was burnt in half on the PSU
[this was NOT my pic, I threw it in for illustrative purposes only]


I was thinking the power supply as well, I've never heard of the keyboard microprocessor crashing before:ohgeez:

does the computer run fine while your avoiding that particular site?
I'm thinking it may have been a malicious script and the system sends itself into a general system fault or a STOP error...which could explain why its a partial shutdown, last time my system crashed the keyboards numlock, caps, scroll could still be turned on and off and the mice is still on
 
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PhotonWrangler

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My last incident looked something like this, only the chip was burnt in half on the PSU

That looks awfully familiar! That was the result of a nearby lightning hit. The EMP traveled down a serial cable and detonated the first chip that it encountered, which was that 1488 RS232-->TTL level shifter on a mux board.

Those 1488/1489 chips are like fuses, btw. Look at them crosseyed and they blow, although usually not that violently!
 
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jrmcferren

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No, it was not the site, it is the NWS site. My keyboard microcontroller sometimes does crash due to the connector on the back (of the keyboard) coming loose. No if a script causes a problem it would probably result in a Kernel Panic at worst, this is Linux not windows.
 

snakebite

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open up that power supply and have a look.
lots of crap units out there.i see them every day.
had a customer with a new system they had just gotten online from tigerdefect.had a "600w" starpower psu in it.real "gutless wonder" as i named these types.
weighed about 8 oz.
sold the guy a recapped 250w unit.
opened both so he can see the difference.
the 250 weighed 3 pounds.
 

RA40

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RA40, was the one with bluging caps an Antec power supply?

I had an Antec that went up in smoke...literally.

Mine was a Just PC 550 watt, Egg had horrid reviews on it BTW. It drove me crazy the last month because I couldn't track down what was causing problems. I swapped memory, video, went back to stock CPU speeds... Swapping the PSU...problem solved.

The back-up is an old Coolermaster 450W Real Power. It's done time in 2 builds but I kept it just in case. Once I have some $$ to spare, I'll get a Corsair 520HX or 550VX. I've got a Corsair 520HX in my other box and I like it.

Antec PSU's: One of my buddies who is a sys-ad gives them a :thumbsdow
 
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