[GLLUG] How worried should I be ...

[James Courtier-Dutton]

On Fri, 22 May 2020 at 16:38, Alain D D Williams via GLLUG
<gllug at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:
>
> The message below was put to all login sessions this morning. I have never seen
> this before. There is nothing more in /var/log/messages.
>
> The machine is 8 years old, always switched on, AMD 8150 Eight-Core Processor.
>
> Should I take this as a warning and look to replace the machine or just shrug my
> shoulders & mutter something about cosmic rays ?
>
> TIA
>
>
> Message from syslogd at mint at May 22 07:27:09 ...
>  kernel:[Hardware Error]: MC4 Error (node 0): L3 data cache ECC error.
>
> Message from syslogd at mint at May 22 07:27:09 ...
>  kernel:[Hardware Error]: Error Status: Corrected error, no action required.
>

If this is a one off, I would not worry about it.
Bits flip occasionally.
If you are getting it continuously, then power off the box. Reboot it,
and see if the problem goes away.
If it is always there, even after a cold power cycle, you have a hardware fault.