[Techtalk] mysterious system halts - how to prevent/fix/detect?

[L J Laubenheimer]

Jeff Dike wrote:

> julie at i2ii.com said:
> 
>>nothing.  swear to god!  haven't cracked the box since I bolted it in
>>the rack.
>>
> 
> A shot in the dark, but you might try running memtest86 on it overnight.
> 
> Maybe some memory has gone bad.  That's the only thing I can think of
> which makes any sense.


You've heard the power supply idea (low likelihood), the memory idea (much 
higher likelihood), have you also checked to see if your processor may be 
dying??  The whole thing sounds like a hardware problem, especially the freeze 
and hang part.

Also, if you plug a console monitor in, and get a lot of "matrix" type hex 
scrolling across your screen, it's a good bet it's processor or memory. Both can 
die from thermal problems if not properly heat sinked and cooled, which can be 
an issue in small rackmount boxen.  A good test suite can check your hardware 
and see if it has problems.

You don't say who the mfgr is, so I can't tell if it's someone that I've crossed 
hardware with before.

				Linda