From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 20 13:02:12 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 37A2A16A4CE for ; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 13:02:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: from copland.jeol.com (copland.jeol.com [65.215.44.133]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CBE0043D48 for ; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 13:02:11 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from lambert@jeol.com) Received: from gris.jeol.com (gris.jeol.com [192.160.103.77]) by copland.jeol.com (8.12.9p2/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i3KK2AE1070557 for ; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 16:02:10 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from lambert@jeol.com) Received: from bosch.jeol.com (bosch.jeol.com [192.160.103.90]) by gris.jeol.com (8.12.6p3/8.12.6) with ESMTP id i3KK29d9080062 for ; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 16:02:10 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from lambert@jeol.com) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 16:02:10 -0400 (EDT) From: Mike Lambert To: stable@freebsd.org Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: a tale of bad hardware X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 20:02:12 -0000 The short story: A bad "wall wart" p/s was causing FreeBSD to randomly crash. The long story: I have this old Dell XPS T700r (P3 700) that has been happily running FreeBSD since 4.4. Upgrades arrived in order: 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8... and then the random crashing started. New ram, still random crashing. New disk and disk controller, still random crashing. Different XPS T700r, still random crashing. Whole new Dell Dimension 4100, still random crashing. Install FreeBSD 4.9-RELEASE, still random crashing. Whole new Dell Optiplex 240, still random crashing. Upgrade to FreeBSD 4-STABLE, still random crashing. Thinks FreeBSD is broken. Starts spending more time using iBook. Notices old problem of KVM still occasionally, mysteriously switching from iBook to Dell (switching does _not_ coincide with FreeBSD crashes) Notices occasional KVM switching is now more than occasional. Hmmm... Maybe KVM bad? Maybe KVM P/S bad? Unplugs external "wall wart" power supply from KVM. KVM no longer mysteriously switches from iBook to Dell. FreeBSD no longer crashes (uptime: 33 days and counting). -- Michael Lambert Systems Admin, IT Dept JEOL USA Inc http://www.jeol.com