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The only way to do it is to eliminate suspects methodically - bit by
bit. It could be a bust hard-drive, but it could equally be the
hard-drive controller on the motherboard.<br>
<br>
1. Do first a RAM test (memtest86+ should be a good candidate). Let
it run for few hours to be sure of the results.<br>
2. Inspect visually the motherboard to make sure you don't have bad
capacitors - they can be causes of apparently random crashes.<br>
3. Install (at least temporarily) a new or good power supply. Power
supplies gradually and predictably wear out and output less and less
power. A flaky power supply will cause all sorts of apparently
unrelated faults. If it works fine for at least few days with the
new power supply - then it probably is the power supply.<br>
4. Test the hard-drive with the manufacturer's diagnostics software
(Seatools for Seagate and Maxtor hard-disks, and so on). Ultimate
Boot CD will contain the majority of diagnostic software for various
hard-disk makes in one place. Ideally, try to connect the hard-disk
to another computer for the test - to eliminate the possibility of
the motherboard controller playing up and skewing the test.<br>
<br>
One of the above should quite likely reveal the culprit. If they
don't, post back here and me or someone else will likely come up
with some more suggestions.<br>
<br>
Hope the above helps,<br>
<br>
Sebastian<br>
<br>
On 11/12/11 21:59, Tim White wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:1323640749.70260.YahooMailNeo@web29512.mail.ird.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255,
255); font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<div><span>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Hi all</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Don't know
if you
remember me – I came to a few meetings right at the start
of the
group, but then moved to Manchester 2 or 3 years ago and
have
followed you all as a lurker since then. Anyway, I was
wondering if
the Chester hive mind can offer any advice on a problem
which is
doing my head in at the moment... Apologies for the long
story.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I have a
desktop PC,
about 7/8 years old, Athlon processor, Radeon graphics
card, which
has happily run Linux for years starting with PCLinuxOS
and then
Debian 5 and 6 stable. In the past 2 or 3 months it got a
bit flaky
and would not update to the latest (Deb stable) kernel
either through
Synaptic or apt-get. Then last week it wouldn't boot at
all and
reported segfaults at boot.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">So I tried
to:</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> Re-install
a
Clonezilla system backup (from before the errors started
happening) </div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> Install a
newly
downloaded Deb 6 CD</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> Re-
install from my
previous Deb 5 and 6 CDs, which I know ran OK</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> Install
other linuxes
– SUSE, Fedora CDs</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"> Run live
CDs – Suse,
PCLinuxOS, probably others.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">They all
fail, either
in the install or on first boot. Usually the error message
is about a
segfault, sometimes about a corrupt install but I suspect
that is a
false message. So, I think a hardware problem. </div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">BUT I can
run Puppy
from a USB stick which loads into RAM. I have tried
changing the HD
(SATA and IDE) and CD drives, no difference, and run
memtest, all OK.
I don't understand. Why can I run from USB / RAM, but not
hard disk
or CD? Of course, I'm trying to avoid the conclusion that
the thing
is terminally broken. I can't afford a new one, I've just
bought a
new bike! Does anyone have any suggestions?</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Cheers</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Tim</div>
</span></div>
<div> </div>
<div>==<br>
All General Statements Are False</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
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