frequent unexpected (and not logged) reboots
 

hello there,
i'm running a gateway - router pc with slack13 32bit on a pIII pc...
i am useing huge.s kernel.

apart from a firewall script, i have installed ulog deamon.

I am also using the pc as a transparent proxy, a dns cache and a vpn server..

so i haven't installed weird stuff...

i have NOT installed X or any desktop environment.

i get unexpected reboots however.. and /var/log/messages does not state anything...
not dmesg does...

i am thinking of running a disk test on each disk ( one OS disk and one disk for the squid cache) and a memory test...

if you have any pointers about other places to look for some information (log file) or some good testing programs, please provide :)

thank you

PS: i am not sure its a hardware issue (like the PSU, disk or RAM) because i used to let this pc ON for several weeks even before i started configuring it... and i couldn't hear anything wrong..

now i get to hear disks spinning down and up again, and even that very first boot sound you hear when you switch on the pc.. i wonder why...

my old computer did similar things and it turn out it was the motherboard dying. well at least it should be motherboard as it died in the end.
secondly this actually happened to me, reset button on the case got damaged therefore it reseted it unexpectedly, i had to disable reset button completely.

Hi,

I would perform some diagnostics on the system. Starting with the 'RAM' by using memtest. Run it for a while, like overnight. That is unless you see errors at the start. You might need to clean the RAM edges along with the connector. Do a search here on LQ as I know this has been covered.

If you have the means then test the 'PSU' outputs. The HDD can be tested with the manufacture diagnostics.

When I got this new box about a year ago,I found that the box was intermittently turning on and off,after I had the box for a couple of months,turned out that the on/off button on the front had some hot melt glue snagging the switch,cleaning it and putting it back together solved that problem...I also got the RAM supplied in the wrong slots and the PSU fan has been starting up with a lot of noise,its taken a year for that to shut up... LOL

Bad memory, bulging/leaking capacitors near the cpu, choked cpu heatsink and failing fans are the most likely causes.