Wednesday, September 22, 2010

System restart when CD/DVD disk is inserted on the player

Have you ever encounters a system that restarts whenever you insert a CD/DVD disk on its player? If not then this solution might help you solve the problem right away.

The situation is that the unit functions normally, except when you insert a disk on the player, at first you suspect that it’s a problematic OS, the CD/DVD player is problematic or the system is infected with a virus.

Before you spent hours in troubleshooting the problem, I suggest that you try replacing the power supply of your system, I have encounter a few problems of this kind that point to a problematic power supply unit(on other cases Windows hang-up or system keeps on resetting), especially if it is a not a branded one.

The explanation maybe to the problem, is that power supply unit cannot meet the needed current supply of the CD/DVD player, when it tries to initialize. That is why I mentioned on my other post regarding how valuable to spent a few bucks in purchasing a branded a power supply unit for your CPU

Bad CMOS Battery may cause unusual Windows problem

The units are Pentium III and a Pentium IV, both units has drained CMOS battery. The problem I encountered is that Windows XP hangs up at start up if you just bypass the CMOS bad error by pressing F1 upon turned on.

It took me sometime to figure out what is the problem, I even mistaken it as a software problem, but later I discovered this thing happen if you bypass CMOS setup at startup without particularly setting up the date, I don’t really know exactly what cause it, maybe BIOS has problem interacting with Windows if date is not properly set.

PC cannot establish network connectivity!

I just want to discuss a particular network problem I encounter just recently, it's actually an additional connection to the router, the cable is just newly bought and crimped from the store.

The problem encountered is when you plugged the cable, network icon indicates a limited connectivity and shows an exclamation point. It took me sometime to trouble shoot the problem, but later I found out that CAT5 cable is not crimped based on standard configuration.

The hard part in identifying the problem is that LAN cable is newly purchased so it's the least you suspect.In case you encounter similar problem described above, try to inspect the connector visually or adjust network connection properties to 10 mbps full duplex(default setup is auto), if PC established network connectivity then it's confirmed that connector was not crimped in accordance to standards.

It is important than you observe proper cable configuration when crimping new connections to ensure a problem-free network.

Standard CAT5 LAN connector configuration:

Just another LAN problem with a twist

Its another busy week, one problem I encounter that I want to post here is about a LAN connection problem on a problematic RJ45 connection.

The problem indicates a no connectivity even if LAN cable is inserted(take note that this is a previously working connection), on the first look of the situation there are possible scenarios that may have caused it, it maybe cause by problematic LAN cable or RJ45 connection,a LAN card problem or perhaps a software problem.

The first thing I did is checked and re-crimped(without replacing the connector) both ends of the LAN cable(visually connection looks fine) but problem still the same. I go ahead on replacing a different LAN card(PC is using a PCI LAN card), when I rebooted the system it detects the new hardware and load the corresponding driver but still a no connectivity exist. What else is left, a cable or a software problem? this will requires a lot of work if I will replaced either of the two, so I look for other ways to confirmed the problem.

Before I continue, I just want to add more info about this particular problem, the problem occurs after the two PC has switched location.The reason I include this fact because this will be bring twist to the problem. I re-inserted that problematic cable to another PC, it's actually the one being previously switched and to my big surprise the connection did work fine.

I re-insert both PCI LAN card to the other PC, still no connectivity exist. The LAN device used on the particular PC where the particular connection work is on board(strange?), I replaced both RJ45 connectors on the problematic connection and connectivity backs to normal.

Conclusion
A not so good RJ45 connection exists from the very beginning the LAN cable was installed its just it works on the original PC which is using an on board LAN, the problem was only discovered when the user switched PC.

PC Turns On When Power Is Plugged In!

Have you ever encountered a system that automatically turns on, when power was just plugged-in in your AC outlet or the AVR was just turned on? Well this may be the same case I experience weeks ago.

Its a socket 775 MOBO, actually the brand is Asrock! I was troubleshooting an intermittent unit, I notice that when I turned on the AVR, the unit automatically turns on and it display a CMOS battery bad. Although the system works just normally(except for the time and date), it is not just normal. So I replaced the CMOS battery, and to my surprise the unit does not turned on automatically anymore,the system now turns on via its switch, therefore the previous problem was caused by a drained CMOS battery.

Strange problem can sometime remedied on an unexpected manner, that's what makes my profession challenging, you will encounter unusual problem all the time.

That's all folks, until on my next post and belated happy new year to all!

Installation tip when installing device drivers on a fresh formatted PC!

I have notice that during installation of device drivers on a new PC(mostly IBM PC compatible),you always have to restart for each driver that the software install(bundled software with your motherboard).To save some time, instead of restarting you can just click "I will restart later...", then click start > click logoff instead of shutdown> click logoff again> and click the user that appears on the screen and you will redirected back to your desktop and it will continue installing the next driver.Repeat the process until all drivers are installed.

Note: This procedure is also applicable even if you are simply loading a device driver on your PC