__/ [graham] on Saturday 04 February 2006 09:19 \__
> On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 21:59:04 +0000, David wrote:
>
>> I'm really struggling to diagnose a problem with my linux box. Details
>> are;
>>
>> Problem: At irregular periods varying from minutes to weeks the box
>> crashes completely. Sometimes the crash manifests itself as the box
>> being totally unresponsive - screen display dead, magic keys don't
>> illicit any response, interface doesn't respond to pings, the only
>> solution is to power down after which it reboots fine. Other times the
>> box just reboots itself.
>>
>> Spec: SuSE 9.2, Intel PIII 800MHz, 192Mb RAM, running Postfix,
>> Fetchmail, Courier-IMAP, Spamassassin, Apache, and MySQL. Serves 4-5
>> users and mainly for mail only.
>>
>> I've run memory checks, disk checks, have removed and reseated all cards
>> and even leaving the box at runlevel 3 (ie. running without X) doesn't
>> seem to have any bearing on it.
>>
>> There is nothing at all in the log files about the crash. All I get in
>> the log is the Kernel restarting but nothing about what caused the
>> lock-up or self-reboot. No panic messages or anything helpful at all.
>>
>> I've no evidence to back this up, but I have a feeling that this only
>> happens when the box is "under stress" (although this is a relative
>> terms as avg CPU over 1 min is <2% and there are few page faults - both
>> according to KDE System Guard - by "under stress" I mean it's doing
>> something rather than just sitting idle).
>>
>> I'm coming to the conclusion that it must be a hardware problem but I'm
>> relatively new to linux admin and just thought I'd check if anyone had
>> any ideas? Is there anything similar to Windows "blue screens" that
>> might at least give a small clue as to what process has caused the crash?
>>
>> Thanks in advance, David.
>
> From the cpu I assume the motherboard is about 5 years old.
> I had a problem with a motherboard from that era where the capacitors were
> leaking. A few manufacturers suffered from bad capacitors around that time.
It's sounds quite probable:
http://news.com.com/PCs+plagued+by+bad+capacitors/2100-1041_3-5942647.html?tag=nefd.lede
<quote>
At issue are faulty capacitors on motherboards that store power and regulate
voltage. Defective capacitors found in the Dell Optiplex workstations, some
Apple iMac G5s, HP xw-series workstations made in 2004 and PCs with the
Intel D865GBF motherboard have been found to bulge, pop, leak and crust
over, causing video failure and periodic system shutdowns.
</quote>
It is not the same class of processors, but the symptons sound familiar.
Roy
--
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