From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat May 24 05:27:18 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 B647F37B401 for ; Sat, 24 May 2003 05:27:18 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 125E443F75 for ; Sat, 24 May 2003 05:27:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) h4OCRDAe087959 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Sat, 24 May 2003 13:27:13 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost)h4OCRDio087958; Sat, 24 May 2003 13:27:13 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew) Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 13:27:13 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman To: Robert Storey Message-ID: <20030524122713.GA29846@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Seaman , Robert Storey , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <200305242016.21540.y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="2oS5YaxWCcQjTEyO" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200305242016.21540.y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-7.5 required=5.0 tests=EMAIL_ATTRIBUTION,IN_REP_TO,PGP_SIGNATURE_2, QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT,REFERENCES,REPLY_WITH_QUOTES, USER_AGENT_MUTT version=2.55 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp) cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: bad kernel fried motherboard??? 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: Sat, 24 May 2003 12:27:19 -0000 --2oS5YaxWCcQjTEyO Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Sat, May 24, 2003 at 08:16:21PM +0800, Robert Storey wrote: > I've been offline for a few days because it seems my motherboard is fried= =2E I'm=20 > sending this message from another machine. >=20 > The really WEIRD thing - I had just recompiled a Linux kernel, then reboo= ted,=20 > got a "kernel panic". Tried rebooting again into single-user mode, but ke= rnel=20 > panic again. Next attempt to reboot into the old kernel, but this time=20 > nothing at all - no video, the motherboard just died. >=20 > My question - is there any possibility that a misconfigured kernel could = harm=20 > the hardware? Or is it just a strange coincidence that "kernel panic" was= =20 > followed by real hardware failure? >=20 > Sorry, I know this is off-topic, it was Linux not FreeBSD, but I'm still = sort=20 > of dazed. It's highly unlikely that booting up a FreeBSD or Linux kernel will lead to hardware failure due to bad or malicious coding --- the core people of both groups have too much invested in their products to knowingly permit such a thing, and they are not going to be easy to trick into accepting it either. On the other hand, compiling a kernel will exercise your system, raising the temperature of the CPU and memory, which tends to make failure more likely. Similarly rebooting a system (especially if you power it off) is a vulnerable time. But you could achieve the same effect by compiling any large package, or rebooting for some other reason. It's also the case that kit which does fail in this way is probably pretty marginal anyhow, and all you've really done is hasten the inevitable by a few days or weeks. Oh -- the kernel panic is the symptom of the failure, not the cause. Chances are it's the memory or CPU or video card that will fail before the motherboard, which you may be able to diagnose by judicious swapping of components. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK --2oS5YaxWCcQjTEyO Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE+z2UhdtESqEQa7a0RAjPKAJ9j2NqSU7UX/75gAjBw8KZVn2s96gCdHXes VQoxoD6BQGt0SpyNd4S8gWU= =JYx0 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --2oS5YaxWCcQjTEyO--