From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 28 08:31:04 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 673F637B401 for ; Fri, 28 Mar 2003 08:31:04 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail.rz.uni-ulm.de (gemini.rz.uni-ulm.de [134.60.246.16]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 680B343F85 for ; Fri, 28 Mar 2003 08:31:03 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from siegbert.baude@gmx.de) Received: from gmx.de (lilith.wh-wurm.uni-ulm.de [134.60.106.64]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail.rz.uni-ulm.de (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id h2SGUtVT014049 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Fri, 28 Mar 2003 17:31:01 +0100 (MET) Message-ID: <3E846ECE.4050105@gmx.de> Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 16:48:30 +0100 From: Siegbert Baude User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de-AT; rv:1.3) Gecko/20030327 X-Accept-Language: de, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jason Hunt References: <20030327233929.GA67949@lethargic.dyndns.org> <3E839745.8000602@gmx.de> <20030328044941.GA428@lethargic.dyndns.org> In-Reply-To: <20030328044941.GA428@lethargic.dyndns.org> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.73.1.0 X-Enigmail-Supports: pgp-inline, pgp-mime Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-19.3 required=5.0 tests=AWL,IN_REP_TO,PLING_QUERY,REFERENCES,USER_AGENT_MOZILLA_UA autolearn=ham version=2.50 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.50 (1.173-2003-02-20-exp) cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Freebsd - restarting itself?! X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 16:31:05 -0000 Hi Jason, >>>If there was not a clean shutdown, I would start looking for faulty >>>hardware, assuming the power was not interrupted. Any machine that >>>spontaniously reboots on its' own usually has a bad power supply, but it >>>could be very well be the motherboard, or even something else. Further, >>>as many other people have said, just because the hardware is new does not >>>necessarily mean it is problem-free. >>> >>> >>> >>Look especially for the condensators on the motherboard. There is a >>wide-spread problem with a Taiwanese company having produced bad >>electrolyte. The resulting condensators are found in motherboards of >>nearly all manufacturers and (as I can say out of my own experience) >>give exactly the behaviour, you described. >> >> >> > >This is off topic (sort of), but out of curiosity, could problems like >that on a motherboard cause problems relating to memory? If so, I bet >this explains my problems at work lately with an NT4 server giving me >the BSOD all the time with memory errors. > First, when I wrote condensators, I meant electrolytic capacitors, sorry for the Germanism. Look where your faulty capacitors are placed on your motherboard. There are several of them around the processor socket and some next to the memory banks. They supply these parts with current, if the "demand" heavily changes, as these fluctuations can't be compensated by the power supply unit. My faulty capacitors were placed around the processor and I've seen exactly the above-mentioned behaviour of spontaneously reboots. If your faulty ones are for the memory modules, all kinds of memory errors could be caused by this. BTW, if you think about replacing the capacitors, make sure you get low-ESR-capacitors, normal ones won't work. I got mine from farnell.com. Ciao Siegbert