Re: new entry in /var/adm/messages ?

From: Chris Newport (me_at_see-my-sig.invalid)
Date: 10/29/04 

Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 18:09:31 +0100

On Friday 29 October 2004 2:33 pm in comp.sys.sun.admin Josh McKee wrote:

> On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 09:45:43 +0100, Chris Newport
> <me@see-my-sig.invalid> wrote:
>
>>On Friday 29 October 2004 4:19 am in comp.sys.sun.admin Keg wrote:
>>
>>> I have been getting a lot of memory errors on some
>>> older E450's and E4500's over the past year and I normally wait until
>>> I start getting several in a 24-hour period.
>>
>>This is more likely due to power supply capacitors drying
>>out than bad DIMMs.
>
> Is this a normal occurrence on these systems? I have an E4000 that's
> been giving me correctable errors for months despite my having pulled
> and replaced the memory during that time.

It is a common problem on ALL older systems.
Electrolytic capacitors dry out with time, resulting
in noise and nasty spiky stuff escaping onto the
system power rails. Some supplies take longer than others
to degrade. There are a lot of variables involved, such
as the exact design of the PSU, quality of the capacitors,
temperature, load, and additional smoothing on system
boards. The degradation is gradual, sneaking up on you
until the system becomes terminally unreliable.

If you have a maxed-out system with worn fans and clogged
filters in a warm room the problem will occur sooner.

Replacing all of the electolytics in a power supply
is a fairly easy job for a competant engineer with
reasonable soldering skills. 

-- 
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