Twice a day or once a month or whatever, this computer goes dead. The LCD
monitor goes black and the keyboard becomes non-responsive (Caps Lock does
not light the LED). The USB ports also seem to go dead as
disconnecting/reconnecting them does not produce the audio bong. The fans
are running and the LED on the mother board is lit.

Pressing and holding the front panel power switch will shut it down and then
pressing it again will power it back up and it ALWAYS boots normally.

Have tried:

1/dismounting all the boards and reseating them (including RAM)
2/dismounting the processor and reseating it
3/cleaning out the dust bunnies
4/reseating all the connectors
5/pushing and tapping all over the place when it is normal trying to force
it to fail but that never happens.

Any ideas?

Charles Schuler wrote:
Twice a day or once a month or whatever, this computer goes dead. The LCD
monitor goes black and the keyboard becomes non-responsive (Caps Lock does
not light the LED). The USB ports also seem to go dead as
disconnecting/reconnecting them does not produce the audio bong. The fans
are running and the LED on the mother board is lit.

Pressing and holding the front panel power switch will shut it down and then
pressing it again will power it back up and it ALWAYS boots normally.

Have tried:

1/dismounting all the boards and reseating them (including RAM)
2/dismounting the processor and reseating it
3/cleaning out the dust bunnies
4/reseating all the connectors
5/pushing and tapping all over the place when it is normal trying to force
it to fail but that never happens.

Any ideas?

Sounds like a bad power supply. One or more sections are shutting
down. Replace it before something gets permanently fried.

Sounds like a bad power supply. One or more sections are shutting
down. Replace it before something gets permanently fried.

What I have just learned. While chatting on Skype, I clicked on
the video button (the one that starts and stops video transmission) and the
computer entered its dead mode. Amazingly, I can repeat this behavior! It
sometimes takes many clicks on that button, by the way.

I am thinking that the Skype software call to the video card (it is a NVIDIA
GeForce4 MX 440) is one heck of a clue. But, what is actually happening?
Is the card putting the processor into an endless cycle of interrupts? Is
the card jamming the bus?

By the way, the computer does not have to be running Skype to fail.

Thanks for your reply.