[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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