Re: [tlug] Box Freezes Up: Bad Hardware: Can't Reset

[bofh@example.com]

'ello again,

On Mon, Jan 30, 2006 at 10:11:44PM -0500, Jim wrote:
> Shawn wrote:
> 
> > at the moment I'm tempted to suspect my memory has gone bad...  ?
> 
> Why? 

Don't know really, it was just a hunch.

> Earlier Shawn wrote:
> 
> > My box (FreeBSD) went offline yesterday. The screen was blank/black and frozen, 
> > and the reset button wouldn't work. 
> 
> That the reset button wouldn't work, strongly suggests a hardware 
> problem. Hardware problems require physical visits. Start preparing. 

I did, and am actually writing this now from rainy Tsukuba, where I came out
a couple of hours ago with a replacement box ready. Instead of doing the
nitty gritty picky hardware troubleshooting, I brought a box that had been
running Linux at home and had been online for about a month with no problems.
I swapped out the hard disk, and after a bit of troubleshooting the NIC (I
had PnP OS enabled in the BIOS, turned that off and things were ok.)
everything seems to be fine (knock on wood, fingers crossed).

> I don't think you have enough information yet to single out 
> memory as the culprit, even though it might be the problem. 
> To figure out if memory is the problem, swap it with known 
> good memory. Also, when you put known good memory in the 
> problem box, try the suspect memory in a known good box 
> also. 

Will do that after I take it home.

> > One thing against me is that the box is an hour drive by car (in Tsukuba) 
> 
> Start preparing for that trip _now_. Take a whole, compatible box 
> so that you put the old hard drive in the new box and take the old 
> box home for study/salvage/repair. 

Good to see that great minds think alike. ;-)

Thanks to those who responded with advice.

Best wishes,

Shawn