Hello folks,
I installed FreeBSD 6.0 stable version on my laptop with the following configuration:
Pentium 4, 1.5 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 40GB IDE harddisk

The problem is that under heavy load - like trying to compile multiple apps at the same time - causes the system to go into sudden and spontaneous reboots. It happened thrice - I was compiling mozilla, abiword, and zsh the first time
compiling mozilla, octave and TeX the second and third times. Is there any known cause for the system going into reboots under heavy loads?
With regards,
Maidros

My guess is your hardware is dying. Check the kernel logs for errors. If you don't see any it is most likely you are either overheating or you could have issues with your power supply.

Thanks for the suggestions. Will check the kernel logs. But I do not think it is a problem with the overheating/power supply - unless some of my hardware is wrongly configured and is undergoing more stress than is correct for it. The same apps compile fine simultaneously under both Debian and Solaris and I have had more severe loads under both OSes.

I will look into the kernel logs. Thanks
Regards,
Maidros

aggreed... if the system just up and reboots for no reason, there is a high probability that the processor was overheating. It doesn't matter if you did it on Debian or Solaris...sometimes, some operating systems run hotter than others on given hardware...

My laptop runs freebsd 7-current right now, and has run 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 6.0 -betas, and 6.0 -stable. Along with many variations of Linux from Debian, Gentoo, Arch, RHEL, SUSE, etc... even Solaris 10 for a very short period of time(about 7 hours after 5 hours of installing) because it has terrible driver support...

Anyways, my laptop is an HP Pavilion ze5270, Pentium 4 2.4ghz, 512 MB DDR RAM, 40GB HDD, etc.. and it has never rebooted from compiling... although... i generally don't compile multiple huge things at once... that's just silly and makes it take longer than it would if you just build them in sequence....

Good luck though, I hope you figure that out... again... my guess would be that your processor is getting too hot with all that compiling... maybe try setting the notebook up on a couple points of support, but largely unrestricted on the bottom (such one of the cooling mats specifically made for laptops) and see if that helps?

Sudden rebooting is a classic symptom of processor issues.

mm... yes... such as... OVERHEATING.

proc fan will do it too....

-=SuperChicken=-

did you catch the part where this is a laptop?? You can't really add a proessor fan to a laptop.. :P

Sudden reboot can alss be due to the system asking for more current than the SMPS can support. So try increasing the Wattage (current supplying capacity) of your SMPS. (Repalce your SMPS with a higher power rated SMPS.
Hope it works
Dharam Paul Balley

this is a laptop... not some SMP machine...

It could also be dodgy RAM. I usually run memtest86 on unstable systems to check into that possibility.