[nycbug-talk] FreeBSD rebooting every 120 seconds =-(

[N.J. Thomas]

* Jim Brown <jpb at sixshooter.v6.thrupoint.net> [2005-12-27 12:30:39 -0500]:
> > This morning I came back in to find that it is rebooting roughly
> > every 2-3 minutes or so, but only when I access the disk.
> 
>   - excessive heat
>   - memory chips failing
>   - an installed card (video, hard disk, usb, serial, etc.)
>   - static buildup

I think (but I'm not sure) it is a heating issue.

I ran memtest86+ on the machine right now and it went through two
complete passes with no errors.

However, someone noticed that one of the fans on the side of the case
(this is one of those fancy see-through cases with two fans built into
the side covers) was not running...so I cracked open the cover for a bit
and lo an behold, the machine ran for about 2 hours before rebooting
again.

This is an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.5GHz) system, and I understand that
AMd chips run hot, so I think cooling is more critical than in Intel
systems.

I went into the BIOS right now and I saw that the CPU temp was hovering
between 50 and 54 degrees Celsius. It has an alarm more that will warn
you if your CPU is above some pre-defined temp, but since it allows you
to set this temperature between 50 and 75C, I'm not exactly sure what
"normal" is.

In any case, just to rule out unseated cards...I'll open this box up,
reseat everything and clean out the dust bunnies on the inside of the
machine (there is quite a bit in there).

Thomas

-- 
N.J. Thomas
njt at ayvali.org
Etiamsi occiderit me, in ipso sperabo