Linux desktop/server rebooting on its own
 

Hi everone,

I have been running Fedora on my desktop machine and recently, It has been rebooting on its own. I need guidance as which log files, where can I look for errors?

There has to some errors I can look at to investigate the issue.

Thanks for any help.

take care :)

Happy New Year!!! :)


Computer Details -

Running Fedora 20

running VMware Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and Windows 8.

You can use the last command to look at the most recent log messages.

In the past I have occasionally had reboots caused by short duration power failures.

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Steve Stites

power failure is the first thing I thought about. This is the first I experience random reboot issues. Before, the computer never rebooted. thanks :)

It could be bad memory ... I recommend a memory checker suych as memtest86+, but note they don't always detect every possible problem.

Overheating is another possible cause. Have you cleaned the case and air vents lately?

I agree with you about overheating. And NO I have not cleaned the case and air vents. I have not touched it for a long long time. but this just started happening. :)

Not necessarily. A while back, I had a computer that rebooted at random intervals. When it rebooted, it was like a hardware reset, no error message, no shutdown; the thing would just blink and boot up. In the log files, I could find the point where it booted up. In the minutes leading up to the reboots, there was no unusual activity or error messages.

I determined, by swapping parts with a similar computer, that it was not due to the memory or the power supply. I figure it wasn't due to overheating because it sometimes would reboot within a minute of a cold start. My best guess: something gone wrong on the motherboard. I gave up. That computer is now spare parts.

Edit: Forgot to mention, it failed the same way in Linux or Windows, so I knew the problem couldn't be software.