[4.8-RELEASE - Stable, 5.1-RELEASE] Panics when system loaded

[Andrew Kinney]

On 27 Oct 2003 at 13:08, Jaco van Tonder wrote:

> buildworld and my machine panicked. Tried a few more times with random
> panics. Same random panics occur if I build the kernel. After a bit of
> struggling I managed to get a GENERIC kernel built with debug symbols
> on the latest source. I did not manage to build or install world on
> the new sources, but the panics happen regardless of what kernel is
> running.
> 

Last time we had random trap 12 panics, it was because we had 
some bad RAM.  The RAM wasn't bad enough to fail post, but it did 
occasionally flip bits on the data registers of one of the chips. Not all 
RAM test software can catch that, but the Dell diagnostic software 
did.

Of course the same thing can happen if your BIOS has overly 
aggressive RAM timings set.

Since your problems occurred regardless of the kernel, it would 
certainly imply a hardware problem.

Sincerely,
Andrew Kinney
President and
Chief Technology Officer
Advantagecom Networks, Inc.
http://www.advantagecom.net