Constant Rebooting

[EricE]

UPSs are good, cheap insurance. You can get nice stand-by units that will do active power conditioning for around $50 to $75 - I'm picking up one a month and slowly covering all our computers.

A $75 UPS is cheaper than a $500 computer! Plush when the power goes, people get some time to save their work...

[wogster]

Originally Posted by co1722

I replaced the power supply on Friday. It stayed on for the hour I was there, and stayed on for 2 and a half hours yesterday with no rebooting at all. It looks like that was the problem. Thank you all for your help.

The remaining question is why did the power supply fail, I've seen power supplies go many years without failing, some even that were on 7/24. You should get a licensed electrician to have a look at the circuit, especially if the building was built before 1970.

[jsharris83]

one thing to think about is the power consumption from the video card. If it isn't being pushed at home like it is at the church during presentations then it will not need as much power. If it is an aftermarket video card then alot of times it says it needs a 450 watt or better. most factory PCs come with a 250-350 watt PS. I have seen even a 175 watt.

[SterlingAug]

Originally Posted by wogster

The remaining question is why did the power supply fail, I've seen power supplies go many years without failing, some even that were on 7/24. You should get a licensed electrician to have a look at the circuit, especially if the building was built before 1970.

Most power supplies last 3-5 years. Any longer than that is gravy. I never, ever turn off my PCs at home. The heat up/cool down cycles are very bad for the circuits (especially the power supplies). When I build a new PC, I always over-spec the power supply on the high side, then I select the best quality (highest cost) power supply I can afford. If a power supply only has to run at 60% load instead of 95% load, which one do you think will have the most problems or fail the soonest? I would rather spend an extra $50 on a better power sully than to fry $400 worth of mobo, processors, and RAM.

A good source of lower cost UPSes is "refurbups.com".

[wogster]

Originally Posted by SterlingAug

Most power supplies last 3-5 years. Any longer than that is gravy. I never, ever turn off my PCs at home. The heat up/cool down cycles are very bad for the circuits (especially the power supplies). When I build a new PC, I always over-spec the power supply on the high side, then I select the best quality (highest cost) power supply I can afford. If a power supply only has to run at 60% load instead of 95% load, which one do you think will have the most problems or fail the soonest? I would rather spend an extra $50 on a better power sully than to fry $400 worth of mobo, processors, and RAM.

A good source of lower cost UPSes is "refurbups.com".

I don't turn mine off either, the usual causes of a power supply failure is simply bad power. I've seen only 4 power supply failures in 35 years of computer use. One was around 1985 when a PC-XT power supply took 640K of ram with it at at cost of $320, this was after a power failure. The next one was as a mainframe operator and a short duration power failure took out the power regulator in a motor-generator unit. The next one was after the Great Ice Storm of '98 and a power supply blew because they completely fried the UPS because they had to keep gassing up the genny. The client wasn't prepared for a 5 day power shutdown at their Montreal facility. The third was just this past year, no idea why, it's on a UPS and never gets turned off. Sometimes it's just a poorly made part.

[ATaylor]

does indeed sounds like a bad power supply.
can also be bad memory module.