I've been having issues with my system hanging, becoming unresponsive. I think it's related to another problem I have, that often the computer won't boot at all, won't soft-off, and I can't hear for the POST because I don't have a speaker in the computer and I don't want to stick just anything in there.

Now, why I'm posting this here.. these hangs occur in both Windows and Linux, I have no idea what the cause is. I was wondering if I would be able to diagnose the problem with Linux somehow, some software or log that might be generated with certain problems.

Most likely it's heat related. I'd say 9/10 random lockups are due to heat. But that's a number I pulled out of the air.

It could also be memory or something else... but look for heat first.

gkrellm should report the heat of the CPU (if I remember correctly).

First I would pull all the cards, memory cards, CPU and reseat them. When insert isa,pci,agp cards hold the down the oppisite end of the holddown screw while securing the card with a screw. Also there is a boot tool called memtest. Might give that a try to see if it is the memory modules. Other things can be a power supply starting to fail. Like incorrect volatage output. If one is running to low it can cause the components needing the power to overheat because of the lack of proper voltage.

Brian

So far I've taken apart my southbridge fan and video card fan, cleaned them out really good and oiled it and got back together... I didn't realize how loud they were getting until I fixed them. My processor is water cooled and seems te refuse to get over 32c.

Those didn't fix the problem, but they needed to get done. I've booted with a full ram test a few times now and it's always cleared, but one thing I'm trying in particular right now is I went through my BIOS and turned off an option called 'PEG Link' and set 'Hypertransport' to 1x. It's helped so far, but I've had my computer run fine and dandy for over a day a few times already.

It seems the risky time is within the first hour or two when I boot up... I'll have to shut down eventually, so I'll find out if changing any option(s) has helped later. If it doesn't help, I'll try the suggestions.

I'd also like to point out that I have two power supplies, one booting the other with a 5v relay I had laying around. One is running 3 hard drives, 6 80mm fans, and a CD drive, and the other is exclusively on the motherboard (and whatever depends on it, plus another 80mm fan). The PSU driving the hard disks/fans is a 350, and the one on my motherboard is a 450. The 450's a bit old, and has been around a bit, but it's operating at less than half it's (averaged) capacity... This configuration keeps both supplies pretty cool and stable.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux-Hardware and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.