Fwiw surge protectors are useless at accomplishing what they pretend to accomplish. If there's a spike in the voltage, and actual spike, nothing short of a fancy-ass power conditioner is gonna stop it. "surge protectors" are useless at that, they can't react quickly enough to trip. Also, the thing that kills electronic devices typically isn't too high of a voltage, it's too *low* of a voltage. And that's something I found to be a huge problem in Chicago, the power is low and sometimes *way* low. Voltage regulators don't do well with shitty too-low voltage. The only actual solution I know of is to run a fancy-ass power conditioner, and they probably cost more than a normal-priced computer.

Marsupialized wrote:My problem, my fairly brand new (about a year) old computer will randomly reboot out of nowhere, for seemingly no reason. at all. Happening more and more often.How can I figure out what is making it do this and stop it from doing this?What make and model is the computer, and what operating system are you running (Windows 7?)? That's how we start this thing.

Marsupialized wrote:Windows 7 Dell Studio xps 7100In the event viewer it's just telling me Kernel Power Event 41, which just means that it rebooted, dosen;t tell me WHY it rebooted, how do I find out WHY it's doing it?As suggested by others here, this is most likely a hardware issue. Power supply or RAM being the probable culprits.Testing the power supply theory either involves measuring the voltage on the rails or swapping out the power supply with another one (easiest option, though involves buying a power supply unless you have a friend with an extra one which will work.)A visual inspection and gentle tug and push on the RAM (make sure you're grounded first) might indicate that some of it is loose, which might cause the constant reboots. There is some software that can test RAM as well (Try Memtest), though it's not as reliable as a hardware test of the RAM. RAM is cheap and easy to replace if you have a bad stick. Since your computer is roughly a year old, if you purchased it new, you may still be under DELL's warranty. They are an absolute bitch to go through, as calling them up usually involves going through some customer support center in India where they will walk you through a bunch of useless diagnostics tests which they are reading to you out of a three-ring binder. The one thing they may have you do which might prove slightly useful is perform a clean boot of the system to determine if any third party software is causing the crash (unlikely, but possible.) You can find instructions for doing this here.If you are under warranty, the thing to do is play ball with Dell a little bit, then ask to speak to a native speaker, ask to speak to a supervisor, tell them you're sure it's a hardware problem and that they need to look at your computer. They will then give you an address to send it to, and they will either fix it or replace it. Sometimes they will only think they fix it, and you have to send it to them again. But, none of this costs you anything ultimately, as they provide you with shipping pickup tickets to print, etc. If this is not an option, then I would go ahead and do it the following way (easiest to hardest) - if you get no result on one step, go to the next:1) Run Memtest2) Run a Full Virus Scan (if you can do so without it crashing)3) Open up the computer, gently inspect the RAM.4) Do a Clean Boot and run it that way to see if it still crashes.5) Do a Hijack This log and get an opinion at Geeks to Go (free tech support advice forum)6) Replace the Power Supply7) Replace the RAMOptions in green represent cash outlay. If you want, I can also look at the HiJack This log once you run it, but the guys at Geeks to Go will be much, much quicker at spotting an anomaly or issue than I will. I haven't worked in tech support since 1997 or so, and while I keep up with computers and technology and such, I'm a little off the game.

'sup - the bonjour thing is probably not causing the reboots, but it does cause other issues. Like if your computer ever says that it can't connect to the Internet, for no goddamned reason at all, and a reboot fixes it--that is caused by bonjour. I always disable it. I can go into details on how to disable it but it won't fix the reboot issue. If anyone has the "random no internet connection" problem lemme know and I'll explain in further detail.Power supplies fail all of the time because the power from com ed sucks ass. I always put in some sort of network connected monitoring device on the battery backup system wherever I work, and I get several emails a day from these devices telling me the voltage is fucked up or something, and then another one a few seconds later that it's OK. Every place I've worked in IT, same deal. Power supplies really take a beating.So even expensive ass crazy overbuilt power supplies for servers and shit fail all of the time. That's why servers and network equipment tend to have redundant power supplies in them. Just like hard drives. If only one fails, you have a backup to keep the server online until a replacement part can be installed. Sure, cheap ass power supplies can fail more frequently I guess, but even expensive ones do too.Follow sleepkid's advice because there are some good tips on how to exhaust most of the free ways to possibly fix it before you buy anything. I'd say chances aren't that great it's anything but the power supply, but definitely try to do that stuff in case it works. If you need to buy a new PSU, MicroCenter and Tiger Direct will both have them, and they are only a few blocks apart from each other on Elston, so you can easily comparison shop. I actually kinda like Tiger Direct a little better. MicroCenter used to rule but got a little douchey and I haven't shopped there in a while.

Oh hey, also, forgot to add--one more cheap ass potential fix--do you have it plugged into a surge protector? Try swapping that out or just plugging directly into the wall and see if the problem still comes back. Sometimes those things shit the bed. Especially if it's one that you have had for like 15 years and it's caked in dust. I've almost gotten electrocuted by one of those fuckers at the rehearsal space when my amp was plugged into a faulty surge protector.

scott wrote:Fwiw surge protectors are useless at accomplishing what they pretend to accomplish. If there's a spike in the voltage, and actual spike, nothing short of a fancy-ass power conditioner is gonna stop it. "surge protectors" are useless at that, they can't react quickly enough to trip. Also, the thing that kills electronic devices typically isn't too high of a voltage, it's too *low* of a voltage. And that's something I found to be a huge problem in Chicago, the power is low and sometimes *way* low. Voltage regulators don't do well with shitty too-low voltage. The only actual solution I know of is to run a fancy-ass power conditioner, and they probably cost more than a normal-priced computer.Truth! Yeah surge protectors are really just a way to plug more than one thing into one power outlet, with some snake oil added on.

Here's a thread of someone getting that error and how they got rid of it.Says the error is the CPU waiting too long for some other hardware component, kind of like a IRQ that never ends and panics the kernel. Software can cause that, hardware can cause that. This guy got rid of some app and says it cleared up. Maybe there's a silver bullet in that thread.-r

Dude, I told you on the way to practice last week that it was probably a bad power supply. I have like 5 spare power supplies sitting around here. Let me know when you have some time and I'll bring one over and swap it out for you. It'll take about 10 minutes to do. ETA: you should do this sooner than later.

scott wrote:The only actual solution I know of is to run a fancy-ass power conditioner, and they probably cost more than a normal-priced computer."Dirty power" (fluctuating voltages on the AC line) is another thing that can mess up your power supply, and even cause damage to your computer in extreme cases. Residential buildings are especially bad for this kind of thing. Somebody in your building turns on a hair dryer and the voltage will suddenly drop, then they shut it off and the voltage will spike briefly. Refrigerators and AC units are some of the worst offenders of this. There's nothing you can really do to stop these kinds of fluctuations. They're always happening throughout the day, and every time they place that little bit of extra stress on your computer hardware. Some buildings are worse than others depending on the wiring. It's even worse if this activity is happening on the same circuit in your house (like in the next room), but it's really not worth it to have to shut down your computer every time somebody plugs in an appliance. As Scott said, a power conditioner is really the best solution. They used to be real expensive (the super high-amperage professional ones still are) but the smaller, "consumer" ones have come way down in price lately. Most decent USPs (uninterruptible power supplies) on the market today have built-in rectifier circuits that fix those power issues. The weekend before the BBQ this summer, I bought one of these power conditioner/UPS on sale for like $230. (Thanks to Goosman for helping me mount that heavy-ass fucker into my rack cabinet.) A thing like this is well worth the investment because besides eliminating the power spikes and drops, it will keep the internet connection on (for about 30-40 minutes) if the electricity goes out.

This is totally off topic in that it offers no help. But it reaches the right audience (computer geeks) and bumps a good thread. His prediction about the next revolution in computers back in 1990 is kinda staggeringly spot-on