Re: Unix machine re-boots at random

Bill,

Thank you for responding. I forgot to mention that I also re-seated all the
boards already. I happen to have an extra mother board that is identical and
probably another processor too. Looks like I'll be working on this thing
over the weekend. I didn't write the full PANIC error down, and know that I
should have.

I was just hoping that someone could pin this problem down based on past
experiences. I know that these types of problems are often difficult to
diagnose by any other means that replacing parts or eliminating them.
Unfortunately, I have people using the server all day long.

I appreciate your response.

Frank


"Bill Vermillion" <bv@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:Ixo9K8.K29@xxxxxxxxxx
In article <qau%f.69466$dW3.30457@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
FrankS <fshank@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This machine is my current server that will soon be replaced, but, would
still like to fix for a backup. PII 400MHz. My problem with this machine
started last Thursday with a "PANIC" error message. From my past
experience
with this I replaced the 128 MB of memory and replaced it with two 256 MB
sticks. When I plugged the machine in there was nothing, no power. I got
a
new power supply, and it started up. Thought everything was fine.

This machine has been running 24X7 since 1999 and has never had so much
as a
hiccup. Now, it could run for 8 hours straight or as little as 30 min. It
just re-boots without any delay between boots (as if the reset button was
touched). Something may have gone wrong when I turned it off and let the
machine cool down for a day while getting the new memory.

Does anyone know where the most likely place for this problem is?

Mother Board?
Processor?
Raid Card?
Memory?
Power Supply? (I suppose I could have bought a brand new defective one)
Comtrol?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Well you have elminated most of the easy steps with memory and
power supply.

The first step in testing things like this is to pull all the cards
out and see hwo it runs, and then add them back one at a time.

I had at least two incidents in the past [most years ago] where the
serial board sub-system made the machine go bonkers.

One was giving errors that in the manual it said those could be
caused by hardware or software. No one had any more info. Pulling
the serial system and replacing them with a Specialix cured that
completely.

The other was a falied Stallion - that probably got hit by
lightning - and that was the only failed part.

If you can't make it run stable with all except the cards needed to
boot up out, then it's probably the mother board.

One thing you might try, and I've seen this only once, is to take
out the CPU and reseat it. That's pretty rare, but worht a shot.

If none of those do it, it's probably the motherboard.

What kind of message did you have besides PANIC. There is usually
more info at that point, often including register dumps. That
would be helpful for others to diagnose [but not me].

Bill

Bill


--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com


.