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Date:      Wed, 2 Oct 2024 11:00:52 +0100
From:      Matthew Seaman <matthew@FreeBSD.org>
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: I can't get no crash dump
Message-ID:  <0192bcd7-b87e-49e5-885f-31d6ba0567ee@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <e83d4893fcaae0914b4b17c981cc5ea7@fjl.co.uk>
References:  <e83d4893fcaae0914b4b17c981cc5ea7@fjl.co.uk>

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On 01/10/2024 18:17, Frank Leonhardt wrote:
> I've got a host that's mysteriously rebooting. There's no clue in the 
> logs. It's not doing much - it's just a gateway. Just every few hours, 
> it reboots. (It was a BSD 12 upgraded to 13, and it's been sitting there 
> as a standby gateway for ages with no problem - ask it to do a bit of 
> work and it gets in a strop).

There may well not be any crash dump to find.  An older box that starts 
suddenly rebooting is frequently down to hardware problems.  Commonly:

   * Fans and cooling not working effectively

   * PSUs not putting out the expected voltages correctly

In either of these cases, the system can just power off without warning. 
  If you're lucky there might be something written to the console, or 
you might hear fans spinning up to max.  Cleaning out any accumulated 
dust and making sure internal connectors are firmly seated might help. 
As will applying a new layer of CPU grease beneath the heatsink(s).

To test if the PSU has gone flakey, you might be able to diagnose it by 
adroit use of a voltmeter, but usually the best test is to swap out for 
a known-good PSU.

There are unfortunately other components that can fail and cause the 
effect you're seeing, but those tend towards the "replace the whole 
machine" sort of solutions.

	Good luck

	Matthew




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