[ale] Losing stability

[Charles Shapiro]

Yeah, so far my operating plan is to grab memtest86 (Thanks!) and see if I
can find a Smoking Gun, then (probly) pay a visit to newegg or fry's.

Good to have the input though. If memtest86 shows Troubles it'll save me
considerable uncertainty. Alas, if it comes up clean I won't really have
learned much, I'm thinkin'.

-- CHS


On 10/30/06, Bob Toxen <transam at verysecurelinux.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Oct 30, 2006 at 10:08:16AM -0500, Randal Jarrett wrote:
> > Might be something simple as needing a new battery on the motherboard.
> It's unlikely to be the CMOS battery.  A good way to check is, duh,
> pop up the CMOS screens and see if the data looks correct.
>
> Bob Toxen
> bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
> http://www.verysecurelinux.com        [Network&Linux/Unix security
> consulting]
> http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com [My book:"Real World Linux Security
> 2/e"]
> Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software consulting since
> 1990.
>
> "Microsoft: Unsafe at any clock speed!"
>    -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002
>
> > On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 09:59 -0500, Tim Meanor wrote:
> > > Sounds like a flaky motherboard to me, though if you'd prefer to test
> > > out the memory first, you might want to try memtest86 ( http://
> > > www.memtest86.com ).  It's a good memory testing program that runs
> > > from a bootable CD.
> > >
> > > -Tim
> > >
> > > On Oct 30, 2006, at 9:25 AM, Charles Shapiro wrote:
> > >
> > > > My main box at home is having Serious Troubles.  On startup it
> > > > often will hang (no screen output) with the CD light lit steady
> > > > until I press & hold the "off" switch to retry. Other behaviors
> > > > include appearing to start up and then emitting random beeps
> > > > through the speaker with no screen output, or giving random core
> > > > dumps on various scripts in /etc/init.d.  I've also experienced
> > > > spontaneous reboots and random hangs/program failures in X
> > > > windows.  The "memory speed" number given in the initial startup
> > > > screen sometimes changes from boot-up to boot-up as well.  The
> > > > system is a home-brew about 4 years old and lightly used; leadtek
> > > > WinFast K-series MB, athlon chip, cheap simple video card, single
> > > > 512 MB DRAM stick. Processor temperatures appear to be within
> > > > acceptable ranges, at least according to the "syshealth" part of
> > > > the BIOS. I've enabled the full memory test in the POST, but so far
> > > > that hasn't picked up any problems.
> > > >
> > > > I'm thinking that the problem is either memory or motherboard. I've
> > > > removed, air-blasted, and re-seated the memory stick in a new slot
> > > > without change in behavior. At  this point I'm considering getting
> > > > some new memory and, if that doesn't change the behavior, replacing
> > > > the motherboard.
> > > >
> > > > Does this seem reasonable? The clock appears steady, so I'm
> > > > assuming the BIOS battery is OK, but perhaps that's a factor?
> > > >
> > > > -- CHS
> > > >
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> > --
> > Randy Jarrett  K4RSJ
> > Randy's Ham Shack
> > <rsj at radio.org>
> > FWD# 654871
> >
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