Hi all, and especially to those able to help :-p

Ok, so first of, this isn't really an issue with some hardware under linux. My box used to work completely fine. But since it runs exclusively under linux, my logs are linux's, so the gurus out there may find useful hints in them.

My box (relevant facts):

MB : An elite K7VTA3 (chipset viaKT133)
Proc : Athlon 2000+
256 Mo Ram
Vid : ATI Radeon 7500
The harddrive is brand new

It actually runs under Mdk 10.1 community

Something happened recently (a power surge, perhaps) and since then, I've been experiencing random freeze. I'm pretty sure it isn't RAM related, since I have seen the behavior with both the old one and a new 256 Mo that originally was bought to expand the memory.
One thing of note is that the computer freezes up either within the first 10-15 minutes, or not at all. It doesn't seem to be related to how much ressources are in use (I've seen it freeze within Windowmaker, with no apps running, and I've also seen it go merrily along with 4 heavyweights (OOfice, mozilla, gimp and so on) running at the same time.

What I'd reaaly like to know is what is busted so I can replace it and be done with it - my second guess (first was the ram) would be the video card, but I'd be somewhat pissed to buy a new one and realize it still isn't working right :-(.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

==============================

The logs on last boot said what follows :

dmesg :

Linux version 2.6.8.1-10mdk (nplanel@n3.mandrakesoft.com) (gcc version 3.4.1 (Mandrakelinux (Alpha 3.4.1-3mdk)) #1 Wed Sep 8 17:00:52 CEST 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000fff0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000fff0000 - 000000000fff3000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 000000000fff3000 - 0000000010000000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
255MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 65520
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Normal zone: 61424 pages, LIFO batch:14
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.2 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 VIA694 ) @ 0x000f6bb0
ACPI: RSDT (v001 VIA694 AWRDACPI 0x42302e31 AWRD 0x00000000) @ 0x0fff3000
ACPI: FADT (v001 VIA694 AWRDACPI 0x42302e31 AWRD 0x00000000) @ 0x0fff3040
ACPI: DSDT (v001 VIA694 AWRDACPI 0x00001000 MSFT 0x0100000d) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x4008
Built 1 zonelists
Local APIC disabled by BIOS -- reenabling.
Found and enabled local APIC!
Initializing CPU#0
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=linux ro root=302 devfs=nomount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda1 splash=silent
bootsplash: silent mode.
PID hash table entries: 1024 (order 10: 8192 bytes)
Detected 1667.402 MHz processor.
Using pmtmr for high-res timesource
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Memory: 255692k/262080k available (1860k kernel code, 5692k reserved, 581k data, 200k init, 0k highmem, 0k BadRAM)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay loop... 3301.37 BogoMIPS
Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized
SELinux: Disabled at boot.
Capability LSM initialized
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 256K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: After all inits, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000020
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ stepping 02
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
init init/main.c:689
init init/main.c:702
init init/main.c:707
do_pre_smp_initcalls init/main.c:653
do_pre_smp_initcalls init/main.c:659
init init/main.c:711
init init/main.c:714
enabled ExtINT on CPU#0
ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000
ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000
Using local APIC timer interrupts.
calibrating APIC timer ...
..... CPU clock speed is 1666.0397 MHz.
..... host bus clock speed is 266.0623 MHz.
init init/main.c:716
init init/main.c:718
checking if image is initramfs...it isn't (no cpio magic); looks like an initrd
ACPI: Looking for DSDT in initrd ... not found!
Freeing initrd memory: 165k freed
init init/main.c:724
do_basic_setup init/main.c:634
do_basic_setup init/main.c:636
NET: Registered protocol family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfb240, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
PnPBIOS: Disabled
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Using IRQ router default [1106/3099] at 0000:00:00.0
spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xd8000000, mapped to 0xd0800000, size 1875k
vesafb: mode is 800x600x16, linelength=1600, pages=67
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:55ce
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x07 (Driver version 1.16ac)
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
audit(1103449855.560:0): initialized
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
devfs: 2004-01-31 Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x0
Initializing Cryptographic API
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
bootsplash 3.1.6-2004/03/31: looking for picture.... silentjpeg size 14344 bytes, found (800x600, 14296 bytes, v3).
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 92x32
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 8 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 32000K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:11.1
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt8233a (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci0000:00:11.1
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd000-0xd007, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xd008-0xd00f, BIOS settings: hdcio, hddMA
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: Maxtor 6E040L0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: WDC WD400BB-00CAA1, ATA DISK drive
Using anticipatory io scheduler
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 2d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 3d on CPU 0.
Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?
hdd: HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8520B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 80293248 sectors (41110 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(33)
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3
hdb: max request size: 128KiB
hdb: 78165360 sectors (40020 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(33)
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 p6 p7 p8 >
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
input: ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse on isa0060/serio1
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP: routing cache hash table of 2048 buckets, 16Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 32768)
NET: Registered protocol family 1
BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 2 devices found
init init/main.c:726
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
EXT3-fs: INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem.
EXT3-fs: write access will be enabled during recovery.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: hda2: orphan cleanup on readonly fs
ext3_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 852022
EXT3-fs: hda2: 1 orphan inode deleted
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 200k freed
Generic RTC Driver v1.07
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:11.2: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:11.2: irq 11, io base 0000d400
uhci_hcd 0000:00:11.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
uhci_hcd 0000:00:11.3: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:11.3: irq 11, io base 0000d800
uhci_hcd 0000:00:11.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
EXT3 FS on hda2, internal journal
Adding 512024k swap on /dev/hda1. Priority:-1 extents:1
Adding 248968k swap on /dev/hdb5. Priority:-2 extents:1
Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones
agpgart: Detected VIA KT266/KY266x/KT333 chipset
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 203M
agpgart: AGP aperture is 128M @ 0xd0000000
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on hda3, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on hdb1, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on hdb8, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on hdb7, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on hdb6, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Supermount version 2.0.4 for kernel 2.6
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
hdd: ATAPI 52X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, DMA
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

bump !

I would go into non-graphical mode to see if it is x related,this link explains how to do it for mandrake<I don't use mandrake>
http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/nvidiainst.html
run something like updatedb and see if it freezes there.Check your xorg log, should be in /var/log

Sorry this reply is so long in coming; but I'd like to hear from the original poster exactly what the cause was. So consider this a bump, too.

The reason I'm posting here is I just got this set of messages with the exact same reason code pair -- first in little bunches, then finally in giant floods. I'd really had them for about two days now, and finally, the machine will not restart. I'll learn someday to pay attention.

I think I just fried an Athlon XP 2800+ ... it had been running progressively hotter and hotter, finally averaging around 70-73 deg C. I'd figured out how to write to (I think, it's from memory now) /proc/sys/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM to get the software shutdowns to be more reasonable. I mean, AMD says this chip shouldn't max out until 85 C.

After removing & re-thermal-pasting the heat sink on the CPU, I realized it's too late: I must have melted something inside. But the CPU shows nice and cool now under BIOS :/

The behavior is very weird. It's almost like I fried something on the CPU that interfaces with the PCI bus; but I know unexpected interrupts can come from anywhere. Later attempts to reboot make it to various stages before I get a lockup.

New CPU ordered; we'll see if I fried the CPU, the mobo, or both. I'll try to remember to post the results here

Well, that was quite a long time ago, but if I remember correctly, the problem came from the graphic card (it had taken a shock, and it was an ATI to begin with).
When I changed it for a new one (nvidia this time), thare was no more problems.

Sorry I can't give you more details. The box is my mother's (still using it with no problem), and I live too far away to look it up.

Thank you. I just replaced with new CPU, it wasn't the CPU. Same bloody symptom. Now I have two Athlon XP 2800s that behave the same way. Good to have a spare, I suppose.

The mobo is now very odd on restart. If I reset the CMOS values to zero (power off, shorting the jumpers), it'll start. I went thru quite a few cycles of trying to set CMOS values, no restart. Hrmm.

I musta done this ten times before simply setting time and date (no adj for CPU, memory, etc) and restarted. It restarted with a BIOS warning: "BIOS checksum failed: resetting to defaults". Hrmm. I wonder if the battery's borked. Or perhaps I really did fry the mobo.

Good news is that Socket A mobos are really cheap, so that'll probably be my next try, after I replace that CMOS battery and give this mobo one last desperate try.

But now I have two choices, thanks be unto you :-)

Will post whatever finally fixes this. I fried something. Yeah, it could be the graphics card, but the CPU temp soaring so high makes me think I probably burnt one of those PCB connections underneath the CPU socket.

Oh well, gotta take a guess. Thanks for answering back.