[sclug] OT: hardware issue

[David Newcomb]

Last time I had something similar to this it turned out that the CPU
was getting too hot and the error rate was going through the roof.
I added a heavy duty heat sink and all was well.

Just a suggestion.

On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 Darren Davison <darren at davisononline.org> wrote:

> sorry this is not linux specific, but I know there are some highly clued
> up individuals here that may be able to advise on this.
>
> My main desktop machine at home appeared to freeze up a few days ago
> with no video output (at all).  Freezes happen occasionally on this
> ubuntu box so I hard powered off and back on.  I got no apparant output
> from the box and the monitor remained in sleep mode.
>
> All the fans in the machine were on, as was the motherboard light, but
> no evidence of a POST from the mobo - no beep and no BIOS loading (with
> no video output, it's hard to tell though).
>
> First assumption was a knacked mobo.  So I changed it for a new one of
> the same model.  Got exactly the same response when powering on.
>
> Next assumption was the gfx card.  So I changed that too.  Again - same
> response when powering on.
>
> So I started to do stuff at random since I was a bit lost at this point
> and with no better way to diagnose it, had little to lose.
> Interestingly, I found that if I took the gfx card out, the machine
> appeared to boot normally (after some warning beeps, probably about no
> video/mouse/keyboard) but the hard drives were in play and they made all
> the right noises.  Sure enough I could ping it and then login via ssh.
>
> About a minute later, it seemed to freeze again and pings were lost so I
> powered off.  Now it won't repeat that one off boot even with the gfx
> card still out of it.
>
> The only thing I can think of now is some fault with the PSU - supplying
> incorrect voltage/power, or a dodgy power cable from the PSU to the
> board.  Am I likely to be in the ballpark?  I just can't think of
> anything logical that explains all of the above symptoms and I'm getting
> a bit hacked off at replacing expensive components without better
> confidence that it's likely to fix it.
>
> Cheers!
>



Regards,
David
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