Random Reboots but only at work, not in my home???

[pettsium]

Hi.

I'm new to the forum and in no way an expert, so apologies for my lack of knowledge.

I'm running a Philips X58 freevents laptop, Intel core 2 duo, 2Gb RAM. I have Windows Vista and Ubuntu 7.10 as a dual boot system.

My problem is this. My laptop refuses to work for more than an hour when I am in the office. It will randomly reboot throughout the day, and after reboots will hang on the Intel screen before it reaches the Grub Loader. Specifically after it says mouse initialized. This is about three quarters of the way to loading before the grub screen appears.

When at home it works fine. I will run it all day at the weekend (18hrs+) with no reboots at all. and the tasks I perform are exactly the same. The difference at home is that I use a wireless network and at work an Ethernet connection. But even with the Ethernet cable out the same behavior occurs. There is no discernible difference in temp between the two environments. I have tried unplugging it and running off battery at work and still get the reboots.

I am baffled. Please shed light on this weird behavior.

Thanks in advance, Andrew

[bapoumba]

Any particular electrical or magnetic equipment around at work ?

[pettsium]

Thank you for your swift reply. This problem is really bugging me!

There are other desktop pc's around and laptops but no equipment that would give off a stong magnetic field. Other peoples laptops seem to work just fine in the shared area.

Could it be an electical/magetic issue?

[bapoumba]

Well, I'm not sure, but if your laptop behaves that way on battery and without the ethernet cable plugged in, and works fine at home, must be some form of a field (magnetic or other, I'm not to knowledgeable in this area). Any neon lamp, other sort of light bulb, big electrical outlet behind the wall ?

[pettsium]

Don't think thee is any equipment that could be causing it. I have just managed an hours work and it has rebooted. Last night it ran at home for 8 hours.

What else could it be? Need help people!!

[BUSHYBOB]

Try running it at home with the wireless router switched off. It may be something looking for the wireless router.

[pettsium]

Switched off router last night and laptop worked fine.

Really not sure what could be causing this. SMNP was mention by one of our tech guys, can this cause reboots across a network?

[acron1]

Is this only happening with Ubuntu or does it also happen when you are using Windows at work?

I must say that if it happens in Windows as well electrical/magnetic interference, as the other poster suggested, seems to be the logical explanation.

[NewbieNeedsHelp]

Couldn't figure out why my desktop was doing that at my brother's house. One time I noticed the lights dim. Turns out that when my sister-inlaw turned on the clothes dryer downstairs, the power draw in this older house was a problem. Went to Micro House and bought a $ 100 UPS, (APC brand, don't buy Belkin, they're junk), ... problem solved. Maybe the AC or some other electrical device is kicking on at work.

[wpshooter]

Are you SURE that you are using ALL of the exact same hardware equipment/perpherials, mouse, external keyboards, printers, etc., etc. that you are using when you are at home ?