Weird power situation

[coolcloo1019]

So my sisters computer was not booting up. Long story short she took it to a shop and they said there was a loose connection inside. They plugged it back in, computer booted up and ran fine. She took it home, plugged it in and it gets to the welcome screen and starts over. She calls them back, takes it in again and they hook it up and runs like a charm. She takes it back home again, same thing. Trys different outlets, same thing. Trys a different power cord that they gave her, same thing. No matter what happens, it will not boot up at home but will at the computer shop. Any ideas?!?! They even had her bring all of the computer equipment there (monitor, surge protector, speakers, mouse, etc.) and hooked it all up and it ran fine....

[Clint]

maybe she has low voltage or a dirty power signal..

Might want to try a power conditioner? :dunno:

[Josh]

test the voltage at home. also, it may be wise for her to invest in a UPS with voltage regulation....it 'cleans' up the power.

[Notladstyle]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101343

/thread

[coolcloo1019]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101343

/thread

I actually had a backup sitting here at the office. I let her take that home and she said it's still doing the same thing. It's not the exact one you linked to but it's an APC 350CS. I thought for sure that would take care of it as well. But no good.

[Josh]

May need a UPS with a AVR....that does wonders to clean the power, otherwise she's got some really really dirty power coming into that place and should get an electrician stat.

[Notladstyle]

I actually had a backup sitting here at the office. I let her take that home and she said it's still doing the same thing. It's not the exact one you linked to but it's an APC 350CS. I thought for sure that would take care of it as well. But no good.

I JUST had a workstation come thru here that passed power test until I put a DVM on it while it was running - about 2 minutes into boot the 5v rail drops to 3v and the 12v rail dropped to 7 volts cause it to freeze up.

Your PSU may be on its way out.

[coolcloo1019]

Well we went and picked up a UPS with AVR. Hooked it all up and computer ran fine for about 30 minutes. Shut down and now when you start it back up it runs just long enough for the system to get all booted up, then shuts off. This is annoying. Any other ideas?

[dscivicdx]

all the fans working? sounds like either power supply or cooling issue, i.m.o.

[coolcloo1019]

I'll have to open it up and check but I know at least 1 fan is running because as soon as you boot it up, a fan kicks on and sounds like a freight train but then soon after quiets down. (It's always done that from day one).

I was doing some reading and read that I should try loading Ubuntu onto the computer to see if it's a Windows problem or hardware problem. Does that sound like a good idea. Although I'm almost certain it's a hardware problem.

[dscivicdx]

it definitely sounds like a hardware problem to me. what kind of computer is it?

[coolcloo1019]

it definitely sounds like a hardware problem to me. what kind of computer is it?

An Emachine that's about 3 years old. Probably the PSU going out.

[Notladstyle]

I JUST had a workstation come thru here that passed power test until I put a DVM on it while it was running - about 2 minutes into boot the 5v rail drops to 3v and the 12v rail dropped to 7 volts cause it to freeze up.

Your PSU may be on its way out.


=(

[dscivicdx]

An Emachine that's about 3 years old. Probably the PSU going out.

that would be my first guess, but i would check to make sure the cpu fan is spinning and check all the sensor temps before i swapped it out.