Unexplainable sudden reboots

Jeeves · 03-15-2006, 08:35 AM

Hi everyone,

I don't know where else to look so I am truning to you guys in the search for help. I am running Gentoo 2006.0 and a 2.6-15 kernel version. Recently my computer has been rebooting on it self. I have looked at a lot of places for the source and came up totally empty. Temperatures are ok. PSU is ok as well. Logs show no errors whatsoever and so on. Memory is fine.

The problem is that I don't know where the problem is coming from and that I cannot reproduce it. First I thought that my external USB HDD was causing problems when plugged in and not turned on. So I unplugged it and my PC was running fine for days after that. Now he suddenly rebooted this morning.

As I said, I cannot find the cause. The only thing that I know is, that once my PC reboots it is caught in a vicious circle of rebooting on a faster and faster rate. In the end I will not even see my bootloader any more and it reboots during POST.

Any input is greatly appreciated and if you need more info please ask.

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. KT880 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. KT880 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. KT880 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. KT880 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. KT880 Host Bridge
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. KT880 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21152 (rev 03)
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
01:04.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 05)
01:05.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 05)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. G400/G450 (rev 04)

Thanks in advance,
Sebastian

jomen · 03-15-2006, 03:30 PM

This is the output of "lspci" you gave there ?

You could look at:
/var/log/messages
for anything which might have caused this.
If you cannot boot (long enough...) - use a live-cd like the install-cd or knoppix... to look at the file and see it contains info about why or by whom a reboot was demanded.
? No error-messages when it does this ?

Jeeves · 03-16-2006, 03:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jomen

This is the output of "lspci" you gave there ?

You could look at:
/var/log/messages
for anything which might have caused this.
If you cannot boot (long enough...) - use a live-cd like the install-cd or knoppix... to look at the file and see it contains info about why or by whom a reboot was demanded.
? No error-messages when it does this ?

Thanks for the input. Yeah, it was the lspci that I gave in my previous post.

var/log/messages contains no errors and I don't get any errors whatsoever.

I have switched the Powersupply of my PC because I supsect that it was the cause. The deal is that the powersupply causing the problem is only 2 months old and a expensive brand name one. I am claiming warranty right now.

vbisis · 03-16-2006, 04:45 AM

I'm not sure wether this has something to do with your problem, but I had about the same trouble on opening UT2004 every one in a while. I couldn't reproduce an I changes the powersupply, but the reboots tsill happened.
In the end my computer sometimes stopped on recognition of ide-drives at the bios screen after a reboot and I had to switch it off and back on again, pushing the reboot button didn't help.
Anyway, I have an epox nforce3 Board and the Windows tool to automatically check, download and install new bios version didn't find any new version. I checked by myself und updated bios manuelly.

Since the I havn't had any problems anymore. So it actually was a somehow broken bios, although there haven't been any errors execpt those rare reboots.

Jeeves · 03-16-2006, 04:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vbisis

I'm not sure wether this has something to do with your problem, but I had about the same trouble on opening UT2004 every one in a while. I couldn't reproduce an I changes the powersupply, but the reboots tsill happened.
In the end my computer sometimes stopped on recognition of ide-drives at the bios screen after a reboot and I had to switch it off and back on again, pushing the reboot button didn't help.
Anyway, I have an epox nforce3 Board and the Windows tool to automatically check, download and install new bios version didn't find any new version. I checked by myself und updated bios manuelly.

Since the I havn't had any problems anymore. So it actually was a somehow broken bios, although there haven't been any errors execpt those rare reboots.

Hmmm, that kinda seems like it is a related problem. I will see if a new BIOS helps, but I am still thinking that it is the PSU's fault since a 350W No Name PSU works and the 550W brand name does not