[nflug] Hardware Issue

[David J. Andruczyk]

--- Frank Kumro <fkumro at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is a general question not linux specific. My main workstation
> has
> been locking up and fails to boot sometimes. Now locking up means the
> mouse still moves but no programs are launched, etc. This machine is
> custom built and I cannot figure out what the problem is. After it
> locks up or anytime when I try to reboot the computer it hangs on
> detecting ide drives then trys to intel pxe boot. After I disconnect
> all ide drives, boot with no ide drives connected, reconnect them,
> then boot it works. Now does this sound like a HD issue? (I have no
> problems with this drive when its running, I just copied over 40gb to
> its last nite and it was flawless) Or could this be an issue with the
> MB IDE controllers? Any advice would be great because I need this
> machine up, i have alot of coding to do (need to pay the bills).
> 

I've had problems identical to that and the cause in my case was faulty
RAM,  Running memtest86 pointed out the bad modules,  and upon
replacing them all was good. If your disk is failing you'd see warnings
in /var/log/messages typically wiht IDE bus resets and status messages
(parity, hardware, softweare errors and whatnot).    Other typyes of
lockups and spontaneously reboots can sometimes be a sign of
overheatings (dying CPU fan? )

memtest86 can be found on many liveCD's these days (knoppix live CD's
and ubuntu install CD's have it on there as a boot option.




Dave J. Andruczyk

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