Instantaneous power down, no reboot

[AlphaDraconis]

Hello,

I have a new Gateway E-6100-C. Twice now the computer randomly shuts down. There is no warning, no error message, just a blinding flash to black screen. The second time it happened was this morning, and now the computer will not boot. It grinds on the A drive after trying the CD drive. I created a Windows XP boot disk, and now I'm getting BIOS beeps: two beeps then five beeps repeated over and over. Google tells me that this indicates a First 64K RAM Chip/Data Line failure.

I have two theories as to what is causing this. The first is Ethernet. I know some LANs can be configured to kill a bad node, which would kill the PC with no warning.

I also suspect the 250 watt power supply. I don't think 250 watts is enough to power a 2.6 GHz P4, two 250 gig hard drives, a 128MB video card, two optical drives, and several fans. But would an underpowered PS cause a hard shutdown like that?

The next question is, did the MB get fried?

Thanks. Specs below:

7-bay tower case w/ 250-watt power supply
Windows XP Professional
Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2.6GHz with Hyper-Threading Technology and 800MHz FSB
2048MB PC3200 400MHz DDR SDRAM dual-channel
500GB (2-250GB serial ATA hard drives) Auto-Protect RAID 1 Storage Solution w/ 8MB performance enhancing cache
128MB ATI Radeon 9600G with TV out and DVI
DVD-RW/-R/CD-RW Recorder and 48x/24x/48x CD-RW
(8) USB 2.0 (2 in front and 6 in back), (1) Serial, (1) Parallel, (2) PS/2, (1) RJ-45 Integrated LAN, (1) VGA Expansion Slots:5 PCI and 1 AGP
Integrated Intel 10/100/1000 Ethernet (Gigabit) adapter

 

[pyrojunkie]

You'll need to check every component. This could be anything from the CPU. Motherboard, PSU or Memory.

A underpowered PSU normally reboots the machine randomly, but your setup is seriously too much power for a 250W. I couldn't even imagine the system booting in the first place. Did Gateway sell you that machine with only a 250W PSU?

If the machine is new, I would best suggest bringing it back to Gateway and having them look at it.

 

[Zepper]

The PSUs that come with a lot of the name brand PCs are just speced for enough to power a normal system - 1HD, 1Opt drv etc. Put too much more on it and no go. Odds are good a 350W PSU would fix her up.
.bh.
:moon:

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums, AlphaDraconis Besides the good advice already given, you could also try just two memory modules at a time, or even just one at a time, to see if it's simply a faulty module. The board should operate with one module, albeit with a nasty performance drop. Good luck, and consider both of your options (warranty to Gateway or upgrade to a quality 350W+ power supply such as an Antec TruePower 430).

 

[Bassyhead]

I would guess the problem is the power supply. Try removing as many components of possible (of course if this doesn't void your warranty) to run the machine minimally at less power consumption and see if the problem persists.

 

[AlphaDraconis]

Thanks for the welcome. I've actually been hanging around for the hot deals forum for a couple years, but never been motivated to post. But now that I'm the sole IT person supporting a research lab, I'm thinking this community is a great resource.

I would go through checking each component, but this thing is brand new out of the box. Sending her back to the mothership.

 

[beatle]

Let us know what Gateway says. I've had a machine reboot randomly for no apparent reason before. It turned out to be my secondary Matrox PCI video card didn't like being in the bottom PCI slot!

 

[AlphaDraconis]

I guess it would be polite to answer your questions, since I asked for your help.

Yes, the power supply came shipped with the Gateway. I am a new hire to a biotech lab brought on to create a new IT support "center" (of one). They use University Purchase orders, and relationships have already been established with Dell, IBM, Apple, and Gateway. When the time came for me to decide which company to work with, I decided to gve Gateway a try. They have a bad rep in techie circles... ironically, that is why I decided to go there. The old CEO came out of retirement to right the ship, and they have a new focus on the small business market. Anyway, I couldn't resist this laptop: http://products.gateway.com/products/GConfig/prodDetails.asp?system_id=m675xlb&seg=ed (M675XL). After that I spec'ed a high end workstation, and the Gateway came out 600 bucks cheaper with 500 GB of hard disk space vs 80 GB.

When I placed the order, I requested a better power supply, but that was not an option. Apparently, 250W power supplies is all they have. I am not pleased with that, of course. But I really like the architecture of this PC. Lots of room, lots of fans, quiet, easy access case. Of course, the random shutdowns are not cool.

mechBgon, beatle: I pulled out every card and drive. What finally caused the computer to come back up, interestingly enough, was the soundcard in the bottom slot. Hmm! I wonder if this is the same problem that beatle ran into? Anyway, the computer is running again. I might remove that soundcard since we don't use it.