periodic freeze and reset

[Roland Smith]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 05:14:42PM -0400, Jim Capozzoli wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 3, 2007 at 6:52 PM, Ghirai <ghirai at ghirai.com> wrote:
> > Hello list,
> >
> > My desktop running 6.2-STABLE is freezing then resetting shortly after.
> > This behaviour happens every couple hours, for no apparent reason.
> >
> > I checked messages, etc, there's nothing there.
> >
> > This is getting annoying... :/
> >
> > I'd appreciate any hints/where to look/what to look for.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> Maybe the problem isn't freebsd but your hardware.  How long have you
> been running 6.2-stable?  How long ago did this start occurring?  Is
> it i386, amd64?  Maybe you have bad memory.  And as a good user, I'd
> probably have to suggest that you upgrade to freebsd 7-release at
> least.

Run a memory tester like memtest86 to see if you have bad RAM. 

Keep a monitoring program like mbmon running in an xterm, to see if 
1) the CPU or case temperature aren't too high, or
2) the voltages are low.

If (1) happens it could be caused by a broken or stuck fan or a plain
dirty heat exchanger, while (2) is probably indicating a power supply
which is short-circuiting or about to break down. 

Sometimes cleaning the inside of the computer can sometime help with
these problems. Do remove the power cord when you do this, and don't
open up the power supply!

Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith                                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/
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