Shuttle SB61G2 problems

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14 Aug 2008
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12
My old SB61G2 has recently developed some problems. A few months ago it would reboot on its own once in a while. Sometimes whilst it's booting up Windows, sometimes just as I've logged into Windows and sometimes after logged in for hours/days. It doesn't blue screen at all so I don't think it's a Windows XP issue.

In Sept I updated the BIOS to the latest version and about 6 weeks ago I replaced the RAM, from 2 x 512MB Geil to 2 x 1GB of unknown brand.

A couple of weeks ago another problem developed. The display would get corrupted, with dots on the display and machine would freeze. Sometimes a reboot would fix this, sometimes the display is still corrupted when rebooted at it's on the logo screen prior to POST. Then a power off for a few minutes is required. I have been using the onboard Intel graphics for a few years.

Yesterday I decided to do a few simple things to tey and cure the problems. I cleared the CMOS numerous times include taking the battery out, stripped the Shuttle to clean and ensure connectors are seated well. I have also used Memtest86 to verify the RAM are fine. But seems like these have made things worse!

The following have developed on top of the previous issues, even though my set up has not changed:
- wouldn't go beyond the Shuttle screen at start up (just before POST), therefore not POSTing, even though I press DEL, ESC and TAB keys
- wouldn't send a display signal after powering on but remains powered on.

To get round the latest 2 new issues I took out 1 of the 1GB DIMMs. At first it still rebooted on its own then now it's been stable for about 10 hours.

Spec of Shuttle: original 200W PSU, 2 x 1GB of unknown brand RAM, P4 2.4GHz 800MHZ FSB, Samsung HD501LJ 500 GB HDD, Pioneer DVR-112 DVD-RW.

Can anyone suggest what's wrong?

Thanks.
 
I've done a lot of searching online and it seems quite a few Shuttles suffer the same problems but no real fix.

Some have suggested PSU. Is there any way to confirm its the PSU? I don't think I'm putting great load on it. A few years ago I had a ATI 9800 Pro and 2 SATA HDDs in and it handled them all. I also used a multimeter to read the voltage on one of the Molex connectors, was about 4.7V.

I've read could be the CMOS battery voltage, which I'm not sure how it can affect stability of a Shuttle. Speedfan is telling me it's 3.22V.

I am thinking whether the latest BIOS I put on in Sep is dodgy. But I am scared that if I reflash and the machine crashes then I've bricked it.

I did think possibly dodgy onboard graphics due to the screen corruption. Again not sure how to confirm this. I did test with my old 9800 Pro last night. Graphics ok but still had booting and POSTing problems.

Finally RAM. I've also upped the voltage to 2.75V to bring the Shuttle back to life and taking 1 of the sticks out. I know Shuttles are very sensitive to types of RAM.

My next plans it to clear the CMOS again, put another stick of 1GB back in and keep the voltage at 2.75V and see if things improve.

Any other suggestions? Thanks.
 
It's probably restarting and not giving you blue screens because its set on "automatic restart". You can change that in control pannel > system > advanced > startup and recovery settings. That should help you work out what is wrong.

Also, you really could do with doing some detective work and finding out what voltage your RAM is rated at. I recently fixed a system by increrasing the RAM voltage to 2.8v which it was rated at, and it had been running fine at 2.6v for about a year before it started crashing.

PK!
 
I have tried looking up info regarding the RAM but it's unbranded therefore it's not possible.

Increasing the voltage to 2.75V and running only on 1 stick has made the system stable for now.
 
I've never tried them, but do the memory scanners you get on the memory manufacturers website tell you what you've got in there at the moment?

PK!
 
I have an SB75 which was doing exactly the same thing, no idea how to fix it but replaced the motherboard with a SB61, would be interesting to see what works properly :)
 
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