Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

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Clayton

22 Apr 2005 22 Apr '05

14:01

I'm having a problem with my computer here at work, and thought maybe someone here might have some insight or idea what is going on. I've got SuSE9.2 installed. System config is a P3 1GHZ with 1GB RAM and a 40GB HD partitioned into a 1GB swap and 2 ~20GB Reiser partitions. Video is ATI Radeon 7000 configured (aka a hacked Xorg.conf) to use dual head. The computer works fine with no errors, but at random intervals ranging from a couple hours to a week or more it will reboot. No warnings... it's as if someone pulled the power cord out. My messages log has these entries immediately prior to the system rebooting: --------------------------- Apr 22 14:59:01 develop /usr/sbin/cron[31995]: (root) CMD ( rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly) Apr 22 15:11:20 develop -- MARK -- Apr 22 15:31:20 develop -- MARK -- Apr 22 15:35:39 develop syslogd 1.4.1: restart. --------------------------- I cannot find any warnings or errors anywhere to indicate why I'm getting the reboots. I'm thinking maybe a hardware problem, but cannot find any indication of what it might be. I've ran memtest and other hardware tests overnight or over a weekend, but all tests came up with perfect passes. The only thing I can think of is maybe a corruption in my swap partition? Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Is there somewhere I can look in the OS to maybe get a hint as to what is going on? Or maybe a test I havent thought of? A log file I could look at? Clayton

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Silviu Marin-Caea

22 Apr 22 Apr

14:37

New subject: [SLE] Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

On Friday 22 April 2005 17:01, Clayton wrote:

...

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Is there somewhere I can look in the OS to maybe get a hint as to what is going on? Or maybe a test I havent thought of? A log file I could look at?

Ugh, maybe the power source is not big enough? For the hardware you describe, even a 300W should be sufficient. But I don't have other ideas. It's most certainly a hardware problem.

Jerry Feldman

14:39

New subject: [SLE] Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

On Friday 22 April 2005 10:01 am, Clayton wrote:

...

I'm having a problem with my computer here at work, and thought maybe someone here might have some insight or idea what is going on.

I've got SuSE9.2 installed. System config is a P3 1GHZ with 1GB RAM and a 40GB HD partitioned into a 1GB swap and 2 ~20GB Reiser partitions. Video is ATI Radeon 7000 configured (aka a hacked Xorg.conf) to use dual head.

The computer works fine with no errors, but at random intervals ranging from a couple hours to a week or more it will reboot. No warnings... it's as if someone pulled the power cord out. The first thing I would check is your power. I recently found that my desktop system at home had a loose power connector and rebooted as I was putting in a USB connector. Check the power strip. Sometimes, you might have a fluctuating power that you may not notice. Sometimes, problems like this can be solved by simply replacing the power cord or power strip. -- Jerry Feldman Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9

Clayton

15:00

New subject: [SLE] Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

...

The first thing I would check is your power. I recently found that my desktop system at home had a loose power connector and rebooted as I was putting in a USB connector. Check the power strip. Sometimes, you might have a fluctuating power that you may not notice. Sometimes, problems like this can be solved by simply replacing the power cord or power strip.

I swapped out the power supply late this afternoon... I'm hoping it's the source of the problem. Thanks for the idea. Sometimes you don't think of the obvious.

Randall R Schulz

15:16

New subject: [SLE] Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

Clayton, On Friday 22 April 2005 08:00, Clayton wrote:

...

...
The first thing I would check is your power. I recently found that my desktop system at home had a loose power connector and rebooted as I was putting in a USB connector. Check the power strip. Sometimes, you might have a fluctuating power that you may not notice. Sometimes, problems like this can be solved by simply replacing the power cord or power strip.

I swapped out the power supply late this afternoon... I'm hoping it's the source of the problem.

Thanks for the idea. Sometimes you don't think of the obvious.

Sporadic and unpredictable crashes and resets can also be a symptom of an overheating processor. It can be the early warning that your CPU is damaged and not long for this world. If you haven't done so recently, examine the CPU heat sink to make sure it's free of dust build-up. If you have a relatively new processor that has a fan attached directly to the heat sink, you can get pretty rapid build-up of dust in the heat sink fins and furthermore it's easy to overlook this since the fan obscures your view of the heat sink itself. Check it out. You may be able to rescue your CPU. (I didn't figure it out until the CPU was well and truly fried!) Randall Schulz

Stan Glasoe

15:10

New subject: [SLE] Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

On Friday 22 April 2005 9:01 am, Clayton wrote:

...

The computer works fine with no errors, but at random intervals ranging from a couple hours to a week or more it will reboot. No warnings... it's as if someone pulled the power cord out. <snip> I cannot find any warnings or errors anywhere to indicate why I'm getting the reboots.

I'm thinking maybe a hardware problem, but cannot find any indication of what it might be. I've ran memtest and other hardware tests overnight or over a weekend, but all tests came up with perfect passes.

The only thing I can think of is maybe a corruption in my swap partition? Not sure why this would be an issue unless your system is constantly using swap. To check this you could, as root, 'swapoff' for a while ( a week or more? ) to see what happens. If it does reboot while swap is off the reboot will re-enable swap.

...

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Is there somewhere I can look in the OS to maybe get a hint as to what is going on? Or maybe a test I havent thought of? A log file I could look at?

Clayton

Several things that come to mind are heat from dust clogging fans and heatsinks and vent holes; loose connections of hard drive, CD/DVD, floppy drive cables (power and data) that need to be reseated; PCI cards that have become or are poorly seated and need to be reseated; loose keyboard or mouse cables; and other stuff you'd need to power down and open the system up to check. Combinations of software drivers and programs that are bad or in conflict can cause a reboot. Always fun trying to nail those down when there aren't any errors in log files. Sometimes the video display driver can either lockup or cause a reboot. Both Silviu's and Jerry's suggestions on power are excellent. Power supplies are known to slowly lose their ability to maintain correct levels within +/- 10% on the +/- 5V and 12V lines. Gkrellm and sensors programs may show these for you. And again, loose connections that may be intermittent like Jerry's power cord. Stan

it clown

21:20

New subject: [SLE] Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

My pc use to do the same then i got a new power supply. On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:10:29 -0500 Stan Glasoe wrote:

...

...
The computer works fine with no errors, but at random intervals ranging from a couple hours to a week or more it will reboot. No warnings... it's as if someone pulled the power cord out. <snip> I cannot find any warnings or errors anywhere to indicate why I'm getting the reboots.

I'm thinking maybe a hardware problem, but cannot find any indication of what it might be. I've ran memtest and other hardware tests overnight or over a weekend, but all tests came up with

On Friday 22 April 2005 9:01 am, Clayton wrote: perfect

...
passes.

The only thing I can think of is maybe a corruption in my swap partition? Not sure why this would be an issue unless your system is constantly using swap. To check this you could, as root, 'swapoff' for a while ( a week or more? ) to see what happens. If it does reboot while swap is off the reboot will re-enable swap.

...
Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Is there somewhere I can look in the OS to maybe get a hint as to what is going on? Or maybe a test I havent thought of? A log file I could look at?

Clayton

Several things that come to mind are heat from dust clogging fans and heatsinks and vent holes; loose connections of hard drive, CD/DVD, floppy drive cables (power and data) that need to be reseated; PCI cards that have become or are poorly seated and need to be reseated; loose keyboard or mouse cables; and other stuff you'd need to power down and open the system up to check.

Combinations of software drivers and programs that are bad or in conflict can cause a reboot. Always fun trying to nail those down when there aren't any errors in log files. Sometimes the video display driver can either lockup or cause a reboot.

Both Silviu's and Jerry's suggestions on power are excellent. Power supplies are known to slowly lose their ability to maintain correct levels within +/- 10% on the +/- 5V and 12V lines. Gkrellm and sensors programs may show these for you. And again, loose connections that may be intermittent like Jerry's power cord.

Stan

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Felix Miata

23 Apr 23 Apr

05:10

New subject: [SLE] Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

Clayton wrote:

...

I'm having a problem with my computer here at work, and thought maybe someone here might have some insight or idea what is going on.

...

I've got SuSE9.2 installed. System config is a P3 1GHZ with 1GB RAM and a 40GB HD partitioned into a 1GB swap and 2 ~20GB Reiser partitions. Video is ATI Radeon 7000 configured (aka a hacked Xorg.conf) to use dual head.

...

The computer works fine with no errors, but at random intervals ranging from a couple hours to a week or more it will reboot. No warnings... it's as if someone pulled the power cord out.

A motherboard with that CPU fits right into the heart of a period when many motherboards were built with substandard capacitors: http://www.overclockers.com/tips00140/ -- "Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:39 NIV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/

Brad Bourn

25 Apr 25 Apr

22:20

New subject: [SLE] Problem with computer rebooting at random intervals...

Same symptoms here and it was a motherboard... amd64 cpu and power - supply were just fine.... B-) On Friday 22 April 2005 11:10 pm, Felix Miata wrote:

...

A motherboard with that CPU fits right into the heart of a period when many motherboards were built with substandard capacitors: http://www.overclockers.com/tips00140/ -- "Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:39 NIV

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/

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8 comments

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participants (8)

Brad Bourn
Clayton
Felix Miata
it clown
Jerry Feldman
Randall R Schulz
Silviu Marin-Caea
Stan Glasoe