Left idle a few minutes and freezed up

d4d4n9 · 11-17-2003, 10:13 PM

Hi all,
I have a problem with MDK9.1. Sometimes when I left the box idle for a few minutes, it freezed up. I could not move the mouse, so I have to reboot the system. Initially, I suspected the culprit was power management or screensaver. I disabled them both, but problem still arised. Does it come to standby or hang like windoze usually did.
Any way, what should I do ?
Thanks in advance.

adz · 11-18-2003, 09:16 AM

The only thing I can think of is to maybe check the /var/log/syslog file for the last entry before it froze. That may give you a hint. Or run top and leave it running until it freezes which might give you something else to go on.

dalek · 11-18-2003, 01:07 PM

You may want to check this to.

Start thingy then Configuration the KDE then Power Control then Display Power Control. Make sure the Power Off and Suspend are disabled. The Standby will turn off the monitor. Does on mine anyway. The other two will make mine crash to.

Maybe one of these will help

d4d4n9 · 11-18-2003, 06:38 PM

Thanks for both of you

I will look for the /var/log/syslog file to find the culprit.
As for desktop, I use Gnome and have disabled both power management and screensaver but may be I should look more deep into it.
One other problem that I observed is sudden reboot without apparent cause. How do I prevent it to happened.
Thanks in advance.

adz · 11-18-2003, 06:54 PM

What does the reboot look like? Does the power simply cut out and then back in or does it acutally go through the reboot procedure?

d4d4n9 · 11-18-2003, 08:03 PM

Yes, it actually went through that reboot procedure with memory and hardwares check just like cold booting.

dalek · 11-18-2003, 08:08 PM

Do you have a UPS connected to that thing? Better yet, do you have UPS software running with a external modem hooked up?

Happy, really confused but happy anyway.

d4d4n9 · 11-18-2003, 08:24 PM

Thanks dalek,
No, I do not use UPS because the electricity is seldom tripped and I did not use modem then. The rebooting procedure just happened out of the blue.

dalek · 11-18-2003, 08:40 PM

As root type in

Code:

ps aux

and see what is running. See if there is something running like UPSMON, nut etc etc. Either a Cron job is doing that or a program is telling it to shutdown. You can check to see if there is a Cron job set up. It is usually under Configuration and then Other. See if there is something in there. I'm shootin in the dark here.

Strange. Ghost maybe?

Later

adz · 11-19-2003, 02:41 AM

I don't mean what was the BOOT like. What was the REboot like. Did it say "sending all processes the TERM signal" and so on. I'm just trying to make sure it's not hardware related (ie not the power supply or the motherboard).

d4d4n9 · 11-19-2003, 02:56 AM

@dalek,
I will do your advice and back later with you with results.

@adz,
I knew that if I intentionally do the reboot, I will get reports that the system is shutting down like you wrote. But it was not, it was just like if you push the reset button. I got memory report and primary master and so on. Or was it a glitch in power supply or in motherboard.
Thanks in advance.

adz · 11-19-2003, 03:36 AM

Sounds like a hardware problem. This is probably also the cause of the freezes. Do you run another OS on the computer? If so, does that work?

dalek · 11-19-2003, 04:18 AM

Is this a recent install? Do you have this in Windoze to?

I had the same thing when I installed the NVIDIA drivers. I had to make some corrections to the modules.conf file and another change then it was stable. Basically X was crashing and taking the rest with it.

Could be memory, power supply etc as well. Is it possible that you are overheating the CPU?

Later

d4d4n9 · 11-19-2003, 06:44 PM

Thanks adz and dalek,
Well, may be it was a hardware problem, but I did not experienced this if I load windoze OS. Could be an overheating the CPU ( PIII 500MHz ).
I will open the case and try to look for CPU fan that may be need dusting

Back with you later.

adz · 11-19-2003, 07:42 PM

Linux is generally more sensitive to buggy hardware. So it might be spazzing out over a problem that might only slow windows down.