criticalmass
29th Jun 2005, 05:47
My video editing machine began viciously rebooting (no warnings, just straight into warm-boot sequence) , always during rendering operations on edited productions. Machine running Win XP Home, Sony Vegas 4 and DVD Architect 1.0.
Consultation with the supplier of the editing software/hardware package showed three likely areas:
1. Bad blocks developing on the system drive in the area assigned to the page-file (swap space if you prefer), or on the partition into which I was writing the rendered file (both partitions existed on the same hard-drive, so this was quite plausible)
1. A dry-joint on a RAM chip which was ageing and causing random reboots,
3. A dodgy power-supply (always a likely suspect for random rebooting problems),
These are listed in order of probability.
After moving the page-file and destination folder for the rendered productions onto a new hard-drive, we thought we had the problem licked...not so. I set a 1.5hr production to render and went away. On coming back I found the machine had once again viciously rebooted. Back to square one.
Pullled the side cover off the box to examine the RAM chips. All secure in their socket. Power supply was a 530W Antec, a high-grade unit so we assumed it would be still good. I have added additional fans inside the box to get good cooling airflow - there are eight separate drives inside this machine so it is fairly "dense" with cables etc.
And then I saw them! Those electrolytic capacitors on the mainboard which supply the surge of current when the logic state changes on those thousands of micro-transistors in each chip.
The tops of most of the electrolytics were bulging and showed evidence of the electrolyte corroding its way right through the can! Problem located - but not fixed.
Apparently, due to a dearth of hiigh-grade electros, some mainboard makers sourced lower-grade caps. My mainboard was one of those built with these devices (A Soltek board). Within two to three years they will all go west and the fix is to replace the mainboard. Even replacing the failed electrolytics doesn't guarantee a fixed board. Junk the crook board and update to a newer one.
So, if your computer begins behaving oddly with random rebooting, or rebooting during processor-intensive tasks, open the box and check those electrolytics before assuming you have some other more serious problem. Chances are your hard-drives are fine. Once even one electrolytic cap goes bad, the board is dying. Replace it soon!
Consultation with the supplier of the editing software/hardware package showed three likely areas:
1. Bad blocks developing on the system drive in the area assigned to the page-file (swap space if you prefer), or on the partition into which I was writing the rendered file (both partitions existed on the same hard-drive, so this was quite plausible)
1. A dry-joint on a RAM chip which was ageing and causing random reboots,
3. A dodgy power-supply (always a likely suspect for random rebooting problems),
These are listed in order of probability.
After moving the page-file and destination folder for the rendered productions onto a new hard-drive, we thought we had the problem licked...not so. I set a 1.5hr production to render and went away. On coming back I found the machine had once again viciously rebooted. Back to square one.
Pullled the side cover off the box to examine the RAM chips. All secure in their socket. Power supply was a 530W Antec, a high-grade unit so we assumed it would be still good. I have added additional fans inside the box to get good cooling airflow - there are eight separate drives inside this machine so it is fairly "dense" with cables etc.
And then I saw them! Those electrolytic capacitors on the mainboard which supply the surge of current when the logic state changes on those thousands of micro-transistors in each chip.
The tops of most of the electrolytics were bulging and showed evidence of the electrolyte corroding its way right through the can! Problem located - but not fixed.
Apparently, due to a dearth of hiigh-grade electros, some mainboard makers sourced lower-grade caps. My mainboard was one of those built with these devices (A Soltek board). Within two to three years they will all go west and the fix is to replace the mainboard. Even replacing the failed electrolytics doesn't guarantee a fixed board. Junk the crook board and update to a newer one.
So, if your computer begins behaving oddly with random rebooting, or rebooting during processor-intensive tasks, open the box and check those electrolytics before assuming you have some other more serious problem. Chances are your hard-drives are fine. Once even one electrolytic cap goes bad, the board is dying. Replace it soon!