Strange system lockups - kernel saying disk error

[Dave]

On 4 Jun 2011 at 10:52, Kaya Saman wrote:

> Many thanks for the response!
> 
> On 06/04/2011 02:00 AM, perryh at pluto.rain.com wrote:
> > Kaya Saman<kayasaman at gmail.com>  wrote:
> >
> >    
> >> I have an ancient pre-HT PIV machine with<500MB RAM.
> >> ...
> >> Everything was running fine until round about 2 days
> >> ago when the system started locking up on me?
> >>
> >> ... is there anyway to fix the kernel error quickly?
> >>      
> > Did you apply any updates shortly before it started to fail?
> >    
> 
> No updates! I did however, install unrar through ports.
> 
> > If not, this is likely to be a hardware problem.  I'd suggest
> > checking the power supply and the fans, running memtest86, and
> > taking a close look at the electrolytic filter capacitors on
> > the system board -- the last because it sounds as if this system may
> > be about the right age to have been built with some bad ones. (If
> > any of the capacitors are bulging, either those caps, or the entire
> > board, need to be replaced.)  Power and heat problems can cause all
> > sorts of strange symptoms.
> >    
> 
> I guess, I mean I did mention that the system was old and also I've
> been running in 24/7 online for the past year and half as this box got
> passed down to me by a family member. It has a Gigabyte system board.
> Not sure about the capacitors; I'll check. I remember on other boards
> that went on me in the past with capacitor issues, a bunch of orange
> stuff starts leaking out of them when they blow up.
> 
> Also the chassis doesn't have any cooling fans either since it was
> bought extremely cheaply by the family member but not sure that's the
> culprit neither power problems as the system has run in high outside
> ambient temps in the past with no A/C in the room and also was working
> fine on the PSU installed with the 4 disks.
> 
> I guess it's hardware related somehow as something's blown up, either
> the PSU, system board or so......
> 
> 
> As I explained in the beginning if there's no clear way to fix the
> problem easily then I'll wait a bit. - I have a 16 disk Promise DAS on
> the way and will build a server using a Chenbro industrial rack
> chassis and Supermicro AMD based 8-12 core system board. These systems
> will fit better in the 2 racks I have in my living room. This should
> be a bit more stable and also give me higher capacity too!
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Kaya
> 
> 
> 

Hmmm  Hard drives do not like heat!   Check the PSU voltages with a 
meter, for accuracy and ripple.  Failing SMPS's can do all sorts of odd 
things.

Capacitor problems.  Been there done that.  They can be changed for very 
low cost, other than your time.

DaveB

You might guess by know, I know far more about hardware than I do about 
software, but for the latter to run well, the former must be good.