Kris Reilly on Tue, 3 Dec 2002 19:20:05 -0500


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Re: [PLUG] Laptop reboots -- Comcast or static or age?


I'll put my money on the bad RAM theory.

I've had servers do this to me in the past.  Memtest86 should pick up
any errors.

-Kris

On Tue, 2002-12-03 at 11:26, Stephen Gran wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 01, 2002 at 09:43:25PM -0500, Mitch Maltenfort said:
> > 
> > For the past week or so, I've had an annoying problem with my Linux
> > laptop.
> > 
> > The beast occasionally reboots.  Usually this happens right at log-in, but
> > now it's begun during operations in graphics mode.
> > 
> > I figure there's three suspects, and any advice in tracking down which --
> > and how to fix it! -- would be appreciated.
> > 
> > 1) Comcast cable modem.  This is my first time using this system with
> > Comcast.  It was fine with DirectTV DSL back in DC.  Is it possible that
> > somehow the Comcast cable modem is triggering the problem?
> 
> Probably not - ethernet is pretty much ethernet.  
> 
> > 2) Sheer age.  This system, with its configuration, is about three years
> > old.  Still, I had a good run with an older Tosh laptop and that still
> > seems healthy.
> 
> Seems reasonable.  Laptops do wear faster than desktops and servers.
> 
> > 3) Static shocks.  Cold weather and carpeted apartment.  I grasp something
> > metal before sitting down to touch the computer, but still it gets jolted
> > occasionally.  I'm skeptical this is the case, because the problem is too
> > localized.  If I was screwing up my hard disk with shocks, I would expect
> > more random misbehavior.
> > 
> > So what could I configure, reconfigure, reinstall, etc. to square this
> > away?
> > 
> > Thanks in advance.
> > 
> > Mitch
> 
> I just had this same problem with my old thinkpad - finally traced it
> down to bad RAM (I hope it's the RAM and not the motherboard, at any
> rate).  Try memtest86 on it.  I left it running overnight and came back
> to a ton of errors.  Am waiting for new RAM to arrive to make sure, but
> it's a place to start.
-- 
Kris Reilly <kreilly@realmedia.com>
247 Real Media
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