[linux-audio-user] Re: disaster day #1

On Mon, 06 Jun 2005 20:10:34 -0400, Dave Phillips wrote:

> Greetings:
>
> I've been having some problems with my desktop machine during and
> after booting into Planet CCRMA RH9. At first I started getting some
> kernel panics booting into the system, then I started having trouble
> during operation of the system. X would suddenly freeze shortly after I
> started it, usually after the first mouse move.
>
> Okay, so I don't panic because I have another drive in the same box
> running FC3, so I figure I'll just boot into that system instead and
> transfer files before everything heads south. At first everything seemed
> fine on that drive, but soon after I started using it FC3 started showing
> the same symptoms with sudden reboots and total freezes of the machine.
>
> I've been able to transfer a lot of stuff to my laptop via the local
> network, but mounting the RH9 drive is very dangerous, things can freeze
> at any moment. Alas, there's still stuff on that drive that I'd like to
> retrieve.
>
> So there's something wrong with the box. Can anyone point me in the
> right direction to begin troubleshooting this machine ? Could it be RAM ?
> The graphics card ? Or what ?? And how can I test things on the hardware
> side, i.e., what utilities are indicated ?
>
> Any and all suggestions vastly appreciated.
>
> Best,
>
> dp

I think there could be many causes for this.

You could check your memory by booting into memtest86+

Disk diagnostics..

try smartctl -t long /dev/hda (or whatever the disk is).

Lastly, if you are using an Asus a7n8x or similar nforce-2 based
motherboard, it could be the same problem that I had. See:

http://atlas.et.tudelft.nl/verwei90/nforce2/index.html

Though I think this problem has been fixed in recent kernels.

If it is happening regardless of box when you connect to that disk, then I
think it is most likely that the disk is broken.

James
Received on Tue Jun 7 04:15:08 2005