Linux causes computer to restart spontaneously
 

Not sure if this is a software issue but I'm guesing so.

Problem is that the computer just keeps restarting whilst I'm working. There doesn't seem to be any common factor and it can be 5 minutes after I turn on or an hour. There is no warning so it's really frustrating. The only thing different from the normal distro setup is the ATI fglrx driver that I had to install to get DRI working so maybe it's an X problem?

I'm fairly new to Linux so not sure how to troubleshoot this one. Is there a log file that you can see what it was last doing before it died?

Any help would be very much appreciated - thanks!

Details of system are as follows:

Suse 9.2 Pro dual boot with WinXP
AMD 3500+
ATI AIW X600 using fglrx driver

Sounds like your processor may be overheating. Do you have an MSwindows installation as well? Do you have lm-sensors installed under linux? Do you have athcool installed?

This really really does sound like a hardware issue... Linux just does not behave like that, period. I don't think anyone here will be able to offer you a solution (unless you post in the hardware section) as it really is that rare and unusual. Lot's of things have to go pretty seriously wrong before linux can crash your PC.

GJ

I agree with raid, this is almost definitely a hardware problem. However, I would like to know if you DO have a windows installation. It is possible that your processor might not overheat in windows, because of some software settings. You can enable those settings in linux as well. In any case, if linux is causing your processor to overheat, you will want to resolve the problem with the hardware guys.

Thanks for the replies.

That would explain why it is so difficult to find anything on the net about Linux crashes!

I have a winXP media center editon that is really stable but, as you say, it could be using a different hardware set-up. It's strange because I use linux to run some really processor-intensive calculations for work and it doesn't seem to crash during those any more than just in general use or even when I'm not doing anything. Makes me think that it could be a hard disk problem.

I'll post a message on the hardware forum
Thanks.

guys i have the same problem....

sony vaio athlon based laptop.. been using XP for 1 year... now on FC3.... the system always overheats in FC3.... i notice i have no Power Management support in FC3... e.g. also i cant change the brightness of the screen in FC3.... never seen anyting like this before been using linux for years.... first time i seen something like this... how come XP gives me power management and FC3 doesnt??? the overheating gets worse when my Roaming Ant Screen saver kicks in.. the fan goes into hyper-mode and is really audible.. i have to pull the power cable... went i forget the power cable linux shuts down with no warning cos i have no power meter or warning system.... i had debian power support on a pentium desktop back in 1996 so this is all nuts to me... any ideas???

I don't know much about fedora core so I don't know what kind of proccessor support it has. If the laptop keeps over heating in linux the problem lies with linux not being properly setup to underclock the cpu when it's idle, which the ability to do that in linux is probably part of the power management piece. I'm running Ubuntu Breezy on my laptop and it got power management setup properly without my help so I have no idea how to help you. sorry. You may want to look around for how to setup a CPU clock manager.