Hardware Trouble

Can anyone help me out here? I have this old computer, which has operated fine until two days ago. All of a sudden, it desides to reboot, seemingly at random time intervals. Sometimes, it reboots twice in 10 minutes, sometimes, it doesn't reboot for 3 hours.

For now, it reboots only when I'm not using the computer, but since I hardly use the computer (it's configured as a gateway), that's not really surprising. As far as I can tell, nothing warns for the upcoming reboot: it's almost as if someone presses the reset-botton on the case.

Up till now, I checked all connectors in- and outside of the case. I even checked wether the power- and resetbutton were stuck in any way: not so. I checked to see if all cards were firmly in their sockets, I checked wether the memory modules were in place, everything seemed to check out okay.

Software maybe? I checked everything I could think of, and ended up installing a complete new Operating System (from Windows to RedHat) - the entire drive is repartitioned... So I guess that rules out a softwareproblem... I'm at a loss here, someone, help me out.

Maybe a problem with the power.[peek and drops]

power supply? Do you have an ohmmeter?

Does it hold it's CMOS config or does it go back to the default settings. Just wondering...

I would check for updates for the bios. Sounds like the power configuration for it is screwed. Check for any updates. I know Osprey bios has had problems with the computer just deciding to reboot itself. I can almost guarantee thats your problem.

I have installed the latest BIOS update, and the power supply is fine: another computer is attached to the same outlet.

check the group its on in your home.To many on 1 group like a fr.,washing mach. 2 pcs,lights and audio/tv .

Ghe, I'm in a student appartment: I just have one group of fuses - but the computer has always been on the same group...

1) try another outlet in a different room. 2) Check the wiring in your computer VERY carefully, look for any cracked or exposed insulation. 3) Check to make sure the plug that goes into the back of the power supply is tight. 4) check the board for any rust or corrosion, clean if neccesary. 5) clean out all dust from the machine. 5) Get an electromagnetic static pad that can get rid of any static in the machine. 6) Um... replace the bios battery if needed.

Thats about all i can think of right now.. Try those.

You can try an UPS[200 watt or better more..........will cost ya about 200 euro or more]

when Ganjica said "power supply" .. i believe the meaning was the computer internal supply
and not the external ac power.

I'd say besides trying another power supply.. you might try memory..
usually bad memory would just cause hangs.. but i've seem bad memory cause weird **** to happen.

good luck...

Also check your policies and your file dump when it crashes it may reboot to clear the system dump file...wierd I know but it is an option...some computers have the option to automatically reboot once it crashes and seeing as it is an old computer I would believe that it might be it....

but what do I know...

You mentioned you had windows installed previously. Did you enable drivespace? There used to be a problem with drivespace creating a continuous re-boot loop on Win 95 and 98. You had to cancel out either "DRVSpace=0" or "DBLSpace=0" in the msdos.sys file, which leads to my second question. Is it possible DOS or the msdos.sys file migrated over even tho you changed to RedHat? Just an idea.