5.3-release fine with 512MB RAM, reboots at times with 1.5GB (but no panic)

[Kris Kennaway]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 12:45:07PM -0800, Jim Pazarena wrote:

> I too have a similar problem. I have 7 identical systems. all with
> identical MoBo's SCSI hard drives and RAM.
> 
> One machine reboots frequently with 5.3 where with 4.9 it "never"
> rebooted. 6 machines are fine. 1 reboots. I changed memory sticks.
> (which incidentally always pass an extensive memory test). I even
> changed the power supply on the computer.
> 
> The last thing I am going to change is the MoBo. Perhaps it has some
> timing issue discovered only with 5.3. Luckily when I needed 7 MoBos,
> I purchased 8 and have a spare.
> 
> This is mystery, because as I said, 4.9 worked fine on this machine.

As you noted, 5.3 uses the hardware differently.  For example, it uses
ACPI, which is sometimes buggy as implemented by the mobo
manufacturer.  Try looking for an updated BIOS, disabling ACPI in the
freebsd boot screen, etc.

Also make sure you're truly seeing a spontaneous reboot and not a
panic.  Sometimes users are confused about the difference (when
FreeBSD panics it tells you as such on the console).

Kris