STILL! Re: [GLLUG] desktop freezing??

[STeve Andre']

OK, you've pretty much proved that it is indeed a thermal problem.

It isn't likely to be the processor.  Thats one chip; the motherboard
has lots of chips and thousands of connections on it, all capable of
breaking and behaving differently depending on temperature.  Look
to see if you can't afford the price of a replacement motherboard.
They are falling, and the exact model you have is likely to be cheaper
now.

The only other thing to check is the ram.  Did you run something
like memtest86?

STeve Andre'

On Friday 07 December 2007 08:30:34 Benjamin Cathey wrote:
> Well, I had it for a week with the cover off and it was fine.  The day
> after I put the cover on it froze - and again the next day.  I guess I can
> turn the variable speed fans up to high but that kind of defeats the
> purpose of having spent the money on switchable speed fans.  Like I said,
> my Proc has a Zalman Huge heatsink and a Fan that mounts above it (on a
> bracket that attaches to the card screws - it seemed fine before.  Maybe
> the video card is overheating?  It's a 512MB Nvidia GeForce - Nice card -
> actually has it's own power supply hook up.
>
> Either way I guess I can turn up the fans to high and see.  Can't really
> afford a new MB and Proc right now.
>
> Let me ask this though - If you swap MB, Proc and RAM to something newer -
> how does Linux handle this change if I just plug the old HDD back in?  Will
> it see everything as okay (Using Ubuntu?) -  It took forever to get the
> configuration right and the software installed and I don't really want to
> reinstall everything again.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Benjamin Cathey
> System Administrator
> Cathey Company
> 4917 Tranter St.
> Lansing, MI 48910 USA
> Phone:     517.393.4720
> Fax:       517.393.4225
> Toll Free: 800.333.1972
> "Service is Our Profession"
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: STeve Andre'
> [mailto:andres at msu.edu]
> To: linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> Cc: Benjamin Cathey
> [mailto:benjamincathey at catheycompany.com]
> Sent: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:52:39
> -0500
> Subject: Re: STILL! Re: [GLLUG] desktop freezing??
>
> >->> On Thursday 06 December 2007 19:37:05 Benjamin Cathey wrote:
> >->> > >->> Try posting copies of the complete /var/log/dmesg and the
> > section of ->> > >->> /var/log/messages from about the last 10 minutes
> > before the freeze ->> > > until ->> you shut it down or reboot.  If you
> > have logins and things in ->> > > these ->> logs, you might want to blank
> > out IPs, usernames, etc.  This ->> > > will end up ->> in public archives
> > after all, so it's a good idea to ->> > > review them.
> >->> >
> >->> > I am not sure when it is happening or what to be looking for -
> > everything ->> > seemed fine after the new power supply and now it is
> > happening again.  The ->> > only thing I can figure is it MUST be
> > overheating because it was running ->> > fine with the new power supply
> > until I put the case cover back on. ->> >
> >->> > I turned the fans up to 'medium' speed - that SHOULD be enough.
> >->> >
> >->> > Where can I check to see if an overheat caused this??
> >->>
> >->> You are probably onto something.  I would run the computer for several
> >->> days with the cover off, to make sure that it is indeed a temperature
> >->> related problem.  If you can then see freezes after putting the cover
> >->> back on you'll have a good idea, but only if the computer is rock
> > solid. ->> I'd use a week to determine this.
> >->>
> >->> If this is the case, you have a part which is partly OK.  As long as
> > its ->> cold it's happy.  These things are a bitch to debug.  It might
> > not even ->> be the motherboard, though I'd  bet that it is.  At this
> > point I think I'd ->> try to find an identical motherboard and swap it
> > out.  You can easily ->> spend 50 hours tracking something like this
> > down.  An infra-red heat ->> imaging camera is useful for this.  I once
> > had a friend who's company ->> had one and I got permission to take a
> > problematic radio there, and ->> found that a tiny resistor in the
> > receiver was getting too hot and ->> causing distortion.  If I hadn't had
> > the camera it would have taken a ->> long tme to figure that out.
> >->>
> >->> Have you run something like memtest86 on the unit with the case on?
> >->> If it doesn't crash but finds errors that will say something.  If
> > you're ->> running with multiple sodimms or whatever, try running with 
> > just one. ->>
> >->> --STeve Andre'