Hello Folks,

I've recently started to experience problems with my AMD XP3000 system running RedHat Linux version 2.4.20-18.9 and hope someone on here could offer me some advice. My system has recently started to shutdown (crash!) unexpectedly. I can be working away, then all of a sudden the screen freezes, the mouse pointer stops moving, and after about 2 seconds the screen goes black and the system switches off. I can't put this down to anything I'm doing, and feel that it may be hardware related. Does anyone out there know where I should start looking, is there a log file I could look at which would assist me in determining the problem?

Thanks in advance, I appreciate your help.

It does sound hardware-related. Have a look at the various files in /var/log , especially kern.log .

First check for thermal problems. Remove cover from box and clean all dustbunnys out. Make sure the processor heat sink is clean of dust, and the fan is working properly. Make sure all air inlets/exhausts are clear of dust. Make sure all fans are working. Remove all cards (particularly including memory), blow out the card slots using a can of compressed air, reassemble.

If that doesn't fix it, then in order your problems most likely are: (1) bad voltage regulator on mobo (new mobo probably); (2) bad memory; (3) bad power supply.

Sounds like your thermal shutdown may be activating! As others have said, give it a good clean inside! Check your temperatures in hardware monitor in your BIOS :-) Of course, it may be the powersupply, had any lightning storms in the area recently? Try another powersupply as even a new one is cheaper than a new motherboard!