Any help is greatly appreciated. I have a 2 1/2 year old system built by
ABS running Windows XP Home Edition, 1.34 GHZ Athlon processor, 512 MB RAM,
MSI motherboard with VIA chipset, NVidia graphics card with 32 MB memory.
For the last few weeks I have been experiencing shutdowns after idle time of
a few minutes to an hour or so. The system won't respond to Alt-Ctrl-Del
and usually won't restart the first time using the front reset button.
Several restart attempts are usually necessary with the reset button.

It emits a nearly continuous shrill tone, similar to the single beep on a
good start-up, but repeating rapidly. I checked my temperatures and my CPU
temp is 129 oF, the system temp is 93 oF, and the cooling fans are running
properly. It is warm in my office due to poor air flow, but not
unreasonable.

All current fixes and system updates from Microsoft have been applied as
available. Until this recent problem, this has been a very reliable and
stable system and I am happy with the deal I got at the time I bought the
machine from ABS. What could be my problem? Thanks to any and all who have
an idea.

Definitely a hardware issue. If you haven't installed any new cards then
I would test the voltages from the power supply. You might just check
that all cards are fully seated as well. Also while you are in there
have a look at the capacitors on your main board for bulging and
leakage. There was an industry wide issue with capacitors a short while
ago. (I just went through a similar experience with an Abit board that
was 18 months old that started to act similar to yours and it was the
same capacitor problem).

Kevin wrote:
>
> Any help is greatly appreciated. I have a 2 1/2 year old system built by
> ABS running Windows XP Home Edition, 1.34 GHZ Athlon processor, 512 MB RAM,
> MSI motherboard with VIA chipset, NVidia graphics card with 32 MB memory.
> For the last few weeks I have been experiencing shutdowns after idle time of
> a few minutes to an hour or so. The system won't respond to Alt-Ctrl-Del
> and usually won't restart the first time using the front reset button.
> Several restart attempts are usually necessary with the reset button.
>
> It emits a nearly continuous shrill tone, similar to the single beep on a
> good start-up, but repeating rapidly. I checked my temperatures and my CPU
> temp is 129 oF, the system temp is 93 oF, and the cooling fans are running
> properly. It is warm in my office due to poor air flow, but not
> unreasonable.
>
> All current fixes and system updates from Microsoft have been applied as
> available. Until this recent problem, this has been a very reliable and
> stable system and I am happy with the deal I got at the time I bought the
> machine from ABS. What could be my problem? Thanks to any and all who have
> an idea.

"RED" <no@stinking.ads.com> wrote in message
news:3F0D4766.A5F70191@stinking.ads.com...
> Definitely a hardware issue. If you haven't installed any new cards then
> I would test the voltages from the power supply. You might just check
> that all cards are fully seated as well. Also while you are in there
> have a look at the capacitors on your main board for bulging and
> leakage. There was an industry wide issue with capacitors a short while
> ago. (I just went through a similar experience with an Abit board that
> was 18 months old that started to act similar to yours and it was the
> same capacitor problem).


Sounds like a distinct possibility. Thanks for your time. I'll take a look
inside this weekend and see what I can find.