From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 6 22:21:03 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 53C0A1065675 for ; Thu, 6 May 2010 22:21:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sean@gothic.net.au) Received: from visi.gothic.net.au (visi.gothic.net.au [115.64.131.102]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A27DB8FC19 for ; Thu, 6 May 2010 22:21:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: from visi.gothic.net.au (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by visi.gothic.net.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B67ED63D for ; Fri, 7 May 2010 08:05:38 +1000 (EST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at gothic.net.au Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]) by visi.gothic.net.au (visi.gothic.net.au [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10026) with SMTP id B4oZM35aoCUB for ; Fri, 7 May 2010 08:05:34 +1000 (EST) Received: from [10.168.1.156] (dhcp156.gothic.net.au [10.168.1.156]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: sean) by visi.gothic.net.au (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 77219D632 for ; Fri, 7 May 2010 08:05:34 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <4BE33D36.6050400@gothic.net.au> Date: Fri, 07 May 2010 08:05:42 +1000 From: Sean User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.5pre) Gecko/20100430 Thunderbird/3.1b2 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org References: <1005062053260.2629@smasher> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: bad RAM? prove it with a crash dump? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 06 May 2010 22:21:03 -0000 On 7/05/2010 2:50 AM, Sean C. Farley wrote: > On Thu, 6 May 2010, Atom Smasher wrote: > >> i suspect i've got bad RAM but memtest has run through several dozen >> iterations without a problem. my (3 year old) laptop will run for a >> few days or weeks and then crash/freeze/hang. i've enabled crash dumps >> and i'm wondering if/how the dump might be able to (dis)prove that the >> RAM is bad. any ideas? >> >> thanks... > > Do not discount other hardware problems: video cards, bad capacitors and > power supplies. Sadly, I mention these as a subset of my experience. :( > I have even had a faulty left mouse button that would lock my X server > (many years ago). While holding the button down (scrolling through a > menu), the mouse would release and acquire too quickly for the server. > And to add the most obscure, the USB wireless kb/mouse adapter (or the keyboard/mouse itself) randomly crashing any operating system. Completely new PC with all components except that, reinstalled OS, change of OS, and it still crashed randomly. Swap the logitech adapter and the wireless keyboard/mouse that were locked to it, and all stability problems disappeared. > Unfortunately, it is harder to find the problem in a laptop where you > cannot easily (if at all) switch out pieces of hardware to find the > problem. > > Have you investigated whether or not the laptop is overheating? > > Sean