[wplug] random lockups.
Matthew Danish
mdanish at andrew.cmu.edu
Tue Oct 8 14:08:26 EDT 2002
On Tue, Oct 08, 2002 at 01:34:21PM -0400, John 'el asesino del pollo' Harrold wrote:
> hey.
>
> i have a computer that is locking up rather randomly. it normally happens
> early in the morning when no one is around, or that is all i can tell from
> the logs. the logs show the results of cron running and that is it. the
> next log entry is from syslog restarting after a hard boot. so is there
> something i can run in the background that will tell me what is going on?
>
Random crash check-list:
* Hardware problems:
- Memory
- IDE controller/cables
- CPU temperature
- Motherboard components (northbridge, etc) temperature
- Video card temperature
- PCI/AGP card problem
- Hardware conflict problem
- Power supply failing
- Power company failing
* Software problems:
- Experimental kernel patches/modules/options
- Misbehaving power management software
- Corruption of important files
- Cracked box
- Cron job that runs ``crash-computer program''
* Other:
- Gremlins sneak into your home in the middle of the night and play
with your computer, often to its detriment.
- Time warps can cause your computer to think it has just restarted.
- Your computer is lonely and is misbehaving to get your attention.
Possible tools to use:
memtest86, hdparm, sysutils, lm-sensors, sensord, chkrootkit,
/var/log/{syslog,messages,etc} (look for weird messages), various
sections of /proc (look for error counts of IDE devices, or similar), a
large bat (gremlin-smashing!), a book on General Relativity (probably
useful for gremlin-smashing too), or a new game that lets you spend
hours with your computer (Unreal Tournament 2003, perhaps?).
--
; Matthew Danish <mdanish at andrew.cmu.edu>
; OpenPGP public key: C24B6010 on keyring.debian.org
; Signed or encrypted mail welcome.
; "There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact, it's all dark."
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