Problem with older system P4PE

Did you go to Control Panel>System>Advanced>
Startup and Recovery and untick Automatically
restart? This should give you BSODs instead of
reboots. If it still does instant reboots, then that
points to a hardware related fault. If you could do
a lengthy thorough memtest without problems that
would indicate the basic hardware is sound, and the
instability is definitely related to running XP.

The SP2 update may have created an incompatibility
with an existing device driver. Have you tried
installing the latest Intel inf for the 845 chipset?
One thing SP2 provides is full support for USB2,
so there may be a conflict with the Asus USB2
driver. Another area of possible conflict may be
with the Intel Application Accelerator. It's not
required for XP SP2. Unfortunately the only way
to fully remove IAA is to reinstall.
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

.. Unfortunately the only way
> to fully remove IAA is to reinstall.

You may be able to sufficiently remove IAA through
the Control Panel>Remove programs route. IAA has
reportedly not been updated since 2002, so it will
not be SP2 compatible. The IAA driver IdeChnDr.sys
has been reported to cause BSODs with XP SP2.
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

sambient.DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm experiencing random reboots. I've been through this before so I
> know the routine but perhaps there are some other options to resolve
> it.
>
> First, my psu is a quality (Vantec 420W), it's powering the board, a
> 2.4 P4, 3 hard drives and an older ATI Radeon 9000 (AGP, 64MB
> memory). I do not have a multi meter to check the PSU, however I'm
> running the shareware "SpeedFan" which is current logging all the
> voltage, fans speeds and temperatures. Nothing in these logs are
> showing and weird drops or changes.
>
> I've also ran memtest on the memory and everything appears fine from
> those tests.
>
> The problems started when I upgraded XP to SP2. Till then I had good
> system stability. I'm trying to avoid doing a total re-install .
> I've installed all the proper drives, including the Intel inf's and
> accelerator for the chipsets. I did have a duplicate spare of the
> video card and replaced that to see if it would make a difference. It
> did not. The reboots seem to happen haphazardly. Sometimes while I'm
> working in an application, sometimes on it's own when no apps are
> really running.
>
> I know hardware problems are usually the culprit but the fact that
> they weren't happening till I did the SP2 upgrade makes me lean in
> that direction.
>
> Any suggestions ?
> TIA
> S
>
I recently had a P5P800 replaced by ASUS as one of the capacitors was
noticeably bulging at the top. Maybe a quick visual inspection will
turn up a problem. In my case it was very simple as the side of the
case is a window and I noticed the cap while waiting for the computer to
recover from one of it's random reboots.
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

On Aug 1, 8:26 pm, "Ian D" <tau....TakeThisOut@nowhere.com> wrote:
> . Unfortunately the only way
>
> > to fully remove IAA is to reinstall.
>
> You may be able to sufficiently remove IAA through
> the Control Panel>Remove programs route. IAA has
> reportedly not been updated since 2002, so it will
> not be SP2 compatible. The IAA driver IdeChnDr.sys
> has been reported to cause BSODs with XP SP2.

One odd system error logged in event viewer that keeps coming up is:

The ASInsHelp service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

I looked this up and it seemed ASInsHelp is related to an Asus
utility. Yet I didn't install this utility with the SP2 install. Why
would it be showing up. Prior to Sp2, I was using Probe (v1 I
believe). Actually I did not use any of the Asus drivers after the
install.

S
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

On Aug 1, 8:07 pm, "Ian D" <tau... RemoveThis @nowhere.com> wrote:
> Did you go to Control Panel>System>Advanced>
> Startup and Recovery and untick Automatically
> restart? This should give you BSODs instead of
> reboots. If it still does instant reboots, then that
> points to a hardware related fault. If you could do
> a lengthy thorough memtest without problems that
> would indicate the basic hardware is sound, and the
> instability is definitely related to running XP.

Yes I did disable Auto restarts , and there are no BSOD's. So if I'm
reading your response correctly, even though it's still a possible
XP related issue, XP wouldn't throw a BSOD / Stop error ? Or nothing
in the event viewer ?

> The SP2 update may have created an incompatibility
> with an existing device driver. Have you tried
> installing the latest Intel inf for the 845 chipset?
> One thing SP2 provides is full support for USB2,
> so there may be a conflict with the Asus USB2
> driver.

I didn't use any Asus drivers or would the USB2 conflict come from the
bios ?

S
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

Another possibility I'm considering is a power / electrical issue. I
noticed the incidence of reboots over the weekend was higher then
during the week. I also noticed the last few days (since Monday) that
the reboots start at around 10am - 11am. Perhaps it's just
coincidental. However the system stays on all night and in the
morning I can do quite a bit of work without any reboots. Now I do
have the computer plugged into a surge protector and I'm not seeing
any indication from other appliances flickering or going off at the
time of the reboot. So I'm wondering if even a small drop in current
could throw the pc into a reboot even though my router, modem and such
are not going off. I guess a UPC might be in order to test this
theory.

S
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

sambient RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> I'm experiencing random reboots. I've been through this before so I
> know the routine but perhaps there are some other options to resolve
> it.
>
> First, my psu is a quality (Vantec 420W), it's powering the board, a
> 2.4 P4, 3 hard drives and an older ATI Radeon 9000 (AGP, 64MB
> memory). I do not have a multi meter to check the PSU, however I'm
> running the shareware "SpeedFan" which is current logging all the
> voltage, fans speeds and temperatures. Nothing in these logs are
> showing and weird drops or changes.
>
> I've also ran memtest on the memory and everything appears fine from
> those tests.
>
> The problems started when I upgraded XP to SP2. Till then I had good
> system stability. I'm trying to avoid doing a total re-install .
> I've installed all the proper drives, including the Intel inf's and
> accelerator for the chipsets. I did have a duplicate spare of the
> video card and replaced that to see if it would make a difference. It
> did not. The reboots seem to happen haphazardly. Sometimes while I'm
> working in an application, sometimes on it's own when no apps are
> really running.
>
> I know hardware problems are usually the culprit but the fact that
> they weren't happening till I did the SP2 upgrade makes me lean in
> that direction.
>
> Any suggestions ?
> TIA
> S

I think Michael is correct. Sounds exactly like a bad electrolytic
capacitor(s). Carefully inspect them, especially near the CPU socket.
Any bulging on the side, on top, or discoloration on top of, or anywhere
near the capacitors (sides and at the bottom). The discoloration is the
electrolyte leaking from the cap and is usually light to dark brown in
color.
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

The fact that you can be working in an application OR doing nothing it
reboots implies that you probably have an intermitent thermal fault in
either the PSU or that older motherboard. I would recommend first trying a
different PSU in the system and see if that fixes it. If not, it's probably
a failing motherboard.

--
---------------------
DaveW
<sambient DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1186013689.533998.127060@j4g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> I'm experiencing random reboots. I've been through this before so I
> know the routine but perhaps there are some other options to resolve
> it.
>
> First, my psu is a quality (Vantec 420W), it's powering the board, a
> 2.4 P4, 3 hard drives and an older ATI Radeon 9000 (AGP, 64MB
> memory). I do not have a multi meter to check the PSU, however I'm
> running the shareware "SpeedFan" which is current logging all the
> voltage, fans speeds and temperatures. Nothing in these logs are
> showing and weird drops or changes.
>
> I've also ran memtest on the memory and everything appears fine from
> those tests.
>
> The problems started when I upgraded XP to SP2. Till then I had good
> system stability. I'm trying to avoid doing a total re-install .
> I've installed all the proper drives, including the Intel inf's and
> accelerator for the chipsets. I did have a duplicate spare of the
> video card and replaced that to see if it would make a difference. It
> did not. The reboots seem to happen haphazardly. Sometimes while I'm
> working in an application, sometimes on it's own when no apps are
> really running.
>
> I know hardware problems are usually the culprit but the fact that
> they weren't happening till I did the SP2 upgrade makes me lean in
> that direction.
>
> Any suggestions ?
> TIA
> S
>
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

> I think Michael is correct. Sounds exactly like a bad electrolytic
> capacitor(s). Carefully inspect them, especially near the CPU socket. Any
> bulging on the side, on top, or discoloration on top of, or anywhere near
> the capacitors (sides and at the bottom). The discoloration is the
> electrolyte leaking from the cap and is usually light to dark brown in
> color.
>

If this was a low quality motherboard I would agree, but this is an
Asus P4PE, a high quality reliable board. I have a P4PE that has
run flawlessly for almost 5 years. Not a sign of bulging caps, in
fact the caps are the quality Japanese makes - Nichicon, etc. I
had an Abit SE6 in which about 60% of the caps were bulging
or leaking after less than 2 years. I turfed that board and used
the opportunity to upgrade to the P4PE with a 2.4 GHz
Northwood.

The OP says the problems started after installing SP2 and he
never mentioned SP1, so I assume he went directly from XP
2002 (no SP). Under the hood, SP2 is basically a new OS so I
think an older device driver is not compatible with SP2. Or,
possibly by coincidence his PS started acting up at the
same time.
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

On Aug 2, 2:10 pm, "Ian D" <tau....RemoveThis@nowhere.com> wrote:

> If this was a low quality motherboard I would agree, but this is an
> Asus P4PE, a high quality reliable board. I have a P4PE that has
> run flawlessly for almost 5 years. Not a sign of bulging caps, in
> fact the caps are the quality Japanese makes - Nichicon, etc. I
> had an Abit SE6 in which about 60% of the caps were bulging
> or leaking after less than 2 years. I turfed that board and used
> the opportunity to upgrade to the P4PE with a 2.4 GHz
> Northwood.
>
> The OP says the problems started after installing SP2 and he
> never mentioned SP1, so I assume he went directly from XP
> 2002 (no SP). Under the hood, SP2 is basically a new OS so I
> think an older device driver is not compatible with SP2. Or,
> possibly by coincidence his PS started acting up at the
> same time.

This minute I can't go back and look but will later. However I've had
the cover off a number of times the last few weeks and look around
pretty well. I didn't see any facial issues that would indicate bad
caps. I did do a quick education at badcaps.com for myself after the
last post. Sometimes bad caps are not apparent in appearance.

Anyway, regarding the install, no I was on SP1 and now in retrospect
should have stayed on it. I waited this long to do the upgrade and
SP2 was out in 2004 or 2005 ? Anyway, point is my system was rock
stable all through that time.

One mention though is that when I first built this system I was going
through automatic reboots and found out it was the video card. I went
through 3 of them with the VAR. The card was a Radeon, can't remember
the model but the OEM was PowerColor. The VAR confirmed the first
card I sent back was defective, however the next 2 were tested prior
to my receiving them. Whenever I'd try to use a program that accessed
the 3D capabilities, games, modeling, even dxdiag, the system rebooted
and the 3d was disabled. I finally get a refund from the VAR and
purchased the ATI brand Radeon and all was good from there. Just
seems odd that a configuration that seems harmless would kill the
video card.

Back to the install / upgrade of SP2. I have a drive with 2
partitions, C and E (well now it's E) , C had XP original on it. I
started SP2 as an upgrade and after completion the system wouldn't
boot into Windows. It would get almost there and then die and
reboot. I couldn't use the repair option as it was asking for an
admin password and I guess at some point I set one and forgot it. So
locked out and no options I opted to do a fresh install on the E
partition. It's a little messy though I don't think it's the cause of
this problem. I deleted the C Windows install however some of the
files under C: still remain, Windows recognizes 2 installs and I've
set it to boot into E's install. What remains on C is the *.sys
files, IO.sys, Config.sys, even Boot.ini. However I thought these
older files could be removed, but when I tried first with "NTLDR" I
could no longer get into the E install. Fortunately I got the file
back in there.

Sorry for the long post. I don't think this info is relevant to my
problem. However maybe I'm wrong so I'm throwing it out there.

S
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

Ian D wrote:
>> I think Michael is correct. Sounds exactly like a bad electrolytic
>> capacitor(s). Carefully inspect them, especially near the CPU socket. Any
>> bulging on the side, on top, or discoloration on top of, or anywhere near
>> the capacitors (sides and at the bottom). The discoloration is the
>> electrolyte leaking from the cap and is usually light to dark brown in
>> color.
>>
>
> If this was a low quality motherboard I would agree, but this is an
> Asus P4PE, a high quality reliable board. I have a P4PE that has
> run flawlessly for almost 5 years. Not a sign of bulging caps, in
> fact the caps are the quality Japanese makes - Nichicon, etc. I
> had an Abit SE6 in which about 60% of the caps were bulging
> or leaking after less than 2 years. I turfed that board and used
> the opportunity to upgrade to the P4PE with a 2.4 GHz
> Northwood.
>

So you are saying that the P5P800 from ASUS is Not a quality board?
This board starting failing after about a year. Since ASUS replaced the
board I have had no further problems with the random rebooting. In my
case it was very easy to spot the culprit as it was right below the
heatsink on the Memory Controller Hub with nothing obscuring the view.


> The OP says the problems started after installing SP2 and he
> never mentioned SP1, so I assume he went directly from XP
> 2002 (no SP). Under the hood, SP2 is basically a new OS so I
> think an older device driver is not compatible with SP2. Or,
> possibly by coincidence his PS started acting up at the
> same time.
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

Ian D wrote:
>> I think Michael is correct. Sounds exactly like a bad electrolytic
>> capacitor(s). Carefully inspect them, especially near the CPU
>> socket. Any bulging on the side, on top, or discoloration on top of,
>> or anywhere near the capacitors (sides and at the bottom). The
>> discoloration is the electrolyte leaking from the cap and is usually
>> light to dark brown in color.
>>
>
> If this was a low quality motherboard I would agree, but this is an
> Asus P4PE, a high quality reliable board. I have a P4PE that has
> run flawlessly for almost 5 years. Not a sign of bulging caps, in
> fact the caps are the quality Japanese makes - Nichicon, etc. I
> had an Abit SE6 in which about 60% of the caps were bulging
> or leaking after less than 2 years. I turfed that board and used
> the opportunity to upgrade to the P4PE with a 2.4 GHz
> Northwood.

How nice for you.

> The OP says the problems started after installing SP2 and he
> never mentioned SP1, so I assume he went directly from XP
> 2002 (no SP). Under the hood, SP2 is basically a new OS so I
> think an older device driver is not compatible with SP2. Or,
> possibly by coincidence his PS started acting up at the
> same time.

I know what the OP said and I've seen problems with caps and/or PSUs
that show up when upgrading, or installing an OS because there is more
activity then, than when the computer is just running normal operations.

It certainly can't hurt to look at the caps to be sure, since the
symptoms are indicative of that kind of problem. When troubleshooting a
problem, you don't just throw away a possibility because you "feel" that
it couldn't be that. Any component can malfunction at any time. It
doesn't happen often (thank goodness), but you don't know unless you
look/measure/etc.
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE 

I'm defintely going to check the caps. Had an emergency here so will
get around to it shortly. Also in the process of getting a new PSU.

Just in case this was missed I'm reposting in case it means anything:

One odd system error logged in event viewer that keeps coming up is:

The ASInsHelp service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.

I looked this up and it seemed ASInsHelp is related to an Asus
utility. Yet I didn't install this utility with the SP2 install. Why
would it be showing up.Coud it have anything to do with system
restarts ?

S
 >> Stay informed about: Problem with older system P4PE