Re: [gentoo-user] Re: spontaneous reboots.. what to look for
On 16 Feb 2009, at 17:30, Harry Putnam wrote: Volker Armin Hemmann writes: Do the easy thing first. Clean your case, reseat all cards and memory modules and check all caps while doing so. Any of them deformed? The 'head' going up? Strange stuff around its feet? Congratulation, you need new hardware. Sorry to be a numb skull here but what do you mean by `caps' Capacitors. http://images.google.com/images?&q=bad%20capacitors But don't rely on this - a component can fail fail without it being visible. IME the most common cure for nonspecific hardware failures is replacing the PSU, but in your case I would also swap out the graphics card early. Stroller.
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: spontaneous reboots.. what to look for
On Montag 16 Februar 2009, Harry Putnam wrote: > Volker Armin Hemmann writes: > > Do the easy thing first. Clean your case, reseat all cards and > > memory modules and check all caps while doing so. Any of them > > deformed? The 'head' going up? Strange stuff around its feet? > > Congratulation, you need new hardware. > > Sorry to be a numb skull here but what do you mean by `caps' capacitors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor that little black&white or green&white or black&silver or all silver cylindrical thingies that are all over your mainboard. Some of them are on your cards too. And this little guys aren't known for their robustness. In fact they don't like heat - dying very fast when things get hot. (excpet polymer/'solid' cap).
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: spontaneous reboots.. what to look for
I believe he is referring to capacitors, you should be able to google for some pictures of common capacitors. They look like little barrels, usually dark blue as I look at my motherboard... They have special electrical paste in them, if it leaks, they are dead. Harry Putnam wrote: Volker Armin Hemmann writes: Do the easy thing first. Clean your case, reseat all cards and memory modules and check all caps while doing so. Any of them deformed? The 'head' going up? Strange stuff around its feet? Congratulation, you need new hardware. Sorry to be a numb skull here but what do you mean by `caps'
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: spontaneous reboots.. what to look for
On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 9:30 AM, Harry Putnam wrote: > Volker Armin Hemmann writes: > >> Do the easy thing first. Clean your case, reseat all cards and >> memory modules and check all caps while doing so. Any of them >> deformed? The 'head' going up? Strange stuff around its feet? >> Congratulation, you need new hardware. > > Sorry to be a numb skull here but what do you mean by `caps' Capacitors. They are small electronic compenents on your circuit board that hold charge and tend to help smooth out noise on power circuits, among other things. Sometimes they start to break down, overheat, etc., and if they do then you might be able to spot this change physically. In my experience the ones that go bad and that you have some small chance of fixing are generally little cylinders sitting upright so you see the circle on top. If you're old like me you might need a magnifying glass to look closely. They can be quite small and they are likely sitting all around your processor, etc. Good luck, Mark
[gentoo-user] Re: spontaneous reboots.. what to look for
Volker Armin Hemmann writes: > Do the easy thing first. Clean your case, reseat all cards and > memory modules and check all caps while doing so. Any of them > deformed? The 'head' going up? Strange stuff around its feet? > Congratulation, you need new hardware. Sorry to be a numb skull here but what do you mean by `caps'
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: spontaneous reboots.. what to look for
On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Harry Putnam wrote: > Mark Knecht writes: > >> Reseat memory and PCI cards, etc. Consider removing for a period of >> time any hardware not absolutely necessary to debug the problem. (I.e. >> - second video card, extra disk drives, extra network adapters, etc.) >> Run memtest86 for a few days if you can spare the machine. Run >> spinrite, etc., to look for drive problems. Open the box up and place >> a fan blowing extra air for additional cooling. > > That all sound fairly drastic... wouldn't any or all of those problems > leave some kind of track? Something I can look for short of tearing > up the whole machine? > If it's contact oxidation then no, you won't be able to see it visually. If you're nervous about this then save it for later. Do as Volker and Neil say. (PSU, smartmon) Run tests for a while. memtest is a must. Always pays to go slow but you might want to make sure you're backups are VERY good right now. Good luck, Mark
[gentoo-user] Re: spontaneous reboots.. what to look for
Mark Knecht writes: > Reseat memory and PCI cards, etc. Consider removing for a period of > time any hardware not absolutely necessary to debug the problem. (I.e. > - second video card, extra disk drives, extra network adapters, etc.) > Run memtest86 for a few days if you can spare the machine. Run > spinrite, etc., to look for drive problems. Open the box up and place > a fan blowing extra air for additional cooling. That all sound fairly drastic... wouldn't any or all of those problems leave some kind of track? Something I can look for short of tearing up the whole machine? I have had the experience of breaking something in the hardware by handling it when I really didn't need to. An expensive video card I had ( a few yrs ago) comes to mind The fit was so close that dicking around with it I broke off a small piece with some bit of circuitry in it. Of course I had problems with getting a viewable screen so ended up soldering it back in... (the piece, not card to pci slot.. hehe) That fell apart again in the same place later on and I ended up using a piece of bailing wire to wire it in place. Surprisingly it worked for a long time that way. Another time... I took my wifes' computer apart (bad idea), ostensibly adding memory and somehow broke one of the clamps holding the heatsink and fan onto the cpu. It could flop around quite a bit... but it actually worked like that. Eventually I wired it down too... Lasted a year or so. But in both cases it was quite a bit of grief. Before I retired.. I was a field construction boilermaker (weldor and rigger). For most of my time in that trade, anything less than 1/2" steel plate was viewed as sheet metal.. Most of the work was 1" and up. I didn't develop a nice light touch .. needless to say.
