I honestly have no idea how to describe my problem other than my Mandrake 8.1 system (kernel 2.4.8-26mdk) locks up solid at random. It used to be only when mounting floppies, but now its gotten progressively worse by locking randomly. This used to happen once a week, then once daily...now it's twice or thrice a day.

When i first built my box, which is an athlon t-bird 1.1ghz, abit kt7-raid mobo, 512mb ram, 2 61gb maxtor drives (5400 rpm) and more, I dreadfully installed win2k, and it had the same problem: progressively worse. It got to the point where it would freeze 5-6 times daily, and no matter which OS i put on it, it would still freeze. The only solution that worked after 9 months of toying was a bios flash. Why would the problem come back again?

I'm really sorry I cant give more information, but I have no clue what's going on. I can't even get kernel 2.4.18 to boot, and I've already lost data and time from this problem. Anyone know what's going on? Thanks again.

icy

Have you checked to make certain that all your fans and coolers are running? My experience has been that the life of a cooling fan is about 12-18 months, but my systems run 24*7 and that of course wears moving parts out faster. Usually the bearings go, then the fan stops turning -- and when the CPU gets overheated, it usually just stops working until it cools down.

Most systems have at least three fans to check: one bigger one ventilating the case, another of about the same size that's inside the power supply, and a small one that sits atop the CPU chip on the heat sink. That last one is usually the one that goes out first, here, and when it stops turning all sorts of strange things can happen. While AMD warns that excess heat can destroy the CPU, I've not had that happen yet...

Any more, I keep a couple of spare fans on hand, as well as a spare power supply. I've also installed additional fans in all my machines -- and one of those added front-panel fans that fits in an unused drive bay is chattering at me right now so I know I'll be replacing it before long...

Thats a good idea JimKyle, but I just replaced the cpu fan about 4 months ago, and my case is currently open because i have been too lazy to screw it back together again. I have two other ones; an intake in the front, and an exit in the rear. Overall, my comp runs pretty quiet. However, even with it closed, the internal temp never goes above 35C. i added and took out a harddrive about a week and a half ago; do you suppose that could have something to do with it? (wouldn't make sense why it would be, but then again, computers sometimes piss me off, and this happens to be one of those times.) thanks.

icy

hello,
add append="mem=nopentium" to you lilo bootloader, if grub add to it the kernel - e.g. kernel /boot2418/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/hdb1 "mem=nopentium"

there is a memory fetch problem with athlons - there is a fix for it in the 2.4.18 kernel.


also, if you are using agp try turning it from 4x to 2x

Hmm....how interesting. I'll give it a try, and leave it for a while. I read another post on this, and I posted a reply, but the last post was in March, so I'm glad you posted this. Thanks for your help!

icy

PS: Is there a way to install Mandy 8.1 using a 2.4.18 kernel? Like merging the two, so instead of it installing the 2.4.8-26 kernel, it installs the 2.4.18 using the same interface? Sort of a stupid question, but your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

I think you will have to download a new kernel and do your own compile.

But why would you want to go back in the kernel series?

Well I'm using 2.4.8-26mdk right now, the kernel that came precompiled with Mandrake 8.1. However, I downloaded 2.4.18, and tried to compile; it worked once, then the other two times it didn't work at all. It wouldn't boot properly, and I followed the same steps as I did before. I would like to have the welcome message Mandrake enables; is that possible if i were to recompile again? Thanks.

icy

Stephanie, I think you may think as I once did. Look at the last digit as a whole number, not a 1 and an 8 but as an eighteen. I used to think that kernel 2.4.18 was older than 2.4.8 because of that.

If you already knew, sorry for the un-necessary info.