Strange problem...

eNxy

New member
Hey guys,

Firstly sorry in advance if this is in the wrong section... it's just that I really don't know what the cause of this problem is...

So basically, I have this really peculiar problem with my PC and it revolves around me knocking the tower. Once I knocked the side of my tower quite hard whilst moving my foot, and it caused my PC to automatically reboot. I thought it was just luck that I might've knocked the reset or something, but I found that if I tilt my PC about 1cm off the ground and let it fall, it'll reboot (I know it's not that safe but I have thick rubber feet on my tower). I don't know if something is loose ? or if my hard drive is slowly dying or what. My PC can happily run for days and even weeks if I don't knock it, but as my PC is directly under my desk by my feet it's really hard when I want to readjust myself.

It's really starting to annoy me because I don't want to have a PC that can't take any sort of bumps whilst on, but you know when you're playing a game and you need to readjust your seating and you end up accidentally knocking or kick your PC tower... you wouldn't expect your whole PC to reboot.

I know this is a really peculiar topic but any sort of help would be appreciated.

Many thanks
 
I'll give that a shot now... I didn't actually bother using the mains cable that came with the PSU... I thought it wouldn't make a difference as they're all the same plug head. Give me two seconds :)
 
Yer, start with the Kettle lead as that would be the number one culprit.

Then start following the internal power leads and make sure they are plugged in.

A shock to the HDD could cause a reboot though i have only seen this once with a notebook and it got dropped to cause it.

Let us know how you got on

Ed
 
I'm just going through all my components... the lead is fine, I tested the same lead on other PC's and I've tested other leads on this PC.

I've tried a different hard drive, no luck there. I've tried the RAM, reseating, changing slots, no luck therer either.

It doesn't always just go to reboot, on average, for instance out of 10 times, i'll reboot 8 of the 10 times, and completely freeze 2 out of he 10 times.

I'm not simulating an earthquake or anything, just tilting it about 1 or 2 cm from the ground, nothing extreme that it shouldn't be able to handle. I'm sure quality control practically throws the items !
 
Ok, well it's probably not the PSU then... the PC doesn't always reboot when it's knocked. Sometime's it'll freeze. I'd say out of 10 times, 8/10 it'll reboot, 2/10 it'll completely freeze.

This narrows it down to my motherboard...
 
Most prob there is something loose so when you tilt you are intermittently grounding the motherboard to the case.

Try reseating the motherboard...make sure there are no loose screws or something
 
Ok I'll give that a shot. It's not so much the tilt, it's when it impacts from the small drop. Surely if something was causing it to short wouldn't there be permanent damage ? I just have a feeling something is loose. It's been to and from Uni about 4 times in total, but I always tried to give it as much padding as possible.
 
name='rapidman17' said:
^ maybe the reset switch has been depressed slightly so the slightest shake sets it off ?

:damn:

Wish you never mentioned that lol, I used to ALWAYS press my reset button with my toe!! They were stupid enough to put it at the bottom of the case and it was a BIG button. I mean I could palm it and still have enough room for a 12" pizza.
 
Nah it isn't that because one of the first things I tried was to disconnect my reset button totally :p and it made no difference. There are no cables/loose screws or anything behind my motherboard. It's really strange... It must be something loose... maybe a tiny transistor that's the tiniest bit wobbly on my mobo ?
 
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