On 1/29/09, Anne Wilson <cannewilson at googlemail.com> wrote: > 2009/1/29 Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com>: >> Anne Wilson wrote: >>>> Are the failures power related, or is the system just shutting down on >>>> its own? >>>> >>>> If the latter, I would suspect either a power supply or a processor fan. >>>> If >>>> the former, maybe you need to invest in an inexpensive UPS. >>>> >>> I do have a UPS, and it's fully charged. The system is just >>> spontaneously rebooting or shutting down. >> >> My first guesses would be the system power supply or the CPU fan. >> > I'm beginning to think that way. The smartctl long test has completed > without errors. I think that I'll dig out the specs for the mobo/cpu > tonight, then buy a new PSU and CPU fan in the morning. Assuming that the Diagnostic tests you run on the hard drive and RAM are OK, if the box was made by Dell, Compaq/HP, etc., they probably have Diagnostics you can run on the mobo/cpu that you can Download from their web site. If not, hopefully from the web site of the mobo manufacturer. You said that the UPS is fully charged. I wonder if you need a UPS with larger capacity and if your UPS is working properly. Depends on how long the frequent outages were that day. My observation is that if the power goes down (especially when we have Thunderstorm activity) it may come back up and then go down again, sometimes in 1 or 2 minutes or less. The cheap PSU's are vastly over rated, with regard to their capacity. The one I bought for this Dell Dimension 2400 a few weeks ago says "550 watts". The motherboard repairman told me he believes the true capacity is about 50% of that..... If your data is critical, the backups should be stored off site. There are some companies mentioned on webhostingtalk.com who provide backup service to their servers over the Internet. In my own box, the vast majority of the symptoms, if not all symptoms, disappeared, after I unplugged the connectors and reseated them. Then, the new PSU..... In my wife's box, a strange intermittent problem, where the BIOS couldn't see the hard drive when booting, disappeared, when I replaced the EIDE cable. When you have the cover off, put your hand on the Shroud over the CPU and see whether or not it is hot or cool. If it is hot, that's not an indication of good cooling. The Capacitors on the motherboard should look alike and not be hot to the touch. GL