[ale] Losing stability

[Randal Jarrett]

Might be something simple as needing a new battery on the motherboard.

On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 09:59 -0500, Tim Meanor wrote:
> Sounds like a flaky motherboard to me, though if you'd prefer to test  
> out the memory first, you might want to try memtest86 ( http:// 
> www.memtest86.com ).  It's a good memory testing program that runs  
> from a bootable CD.
> 
> -Tim
> 
> On Oct 30, 2006, at 9:25 AM, Charles Shapiro wrote:
> 
> > My main box at home is having Serious Troubles.  On startup it  
> > often will hang (no screen output) with the CD light lit steady  
> > until I press & hold the "off" switch to retry. Other behaviors  
> > include appearing to start up and then emitting random beeps  
> > through the speaker with no screen output, or giving random core  
> > dumps on various scripts in /etc/init.d.  I've also experienced   
> > spontaneous reboots and random hangs/program failures in X  
> > windows.  The "memory speed" number given in the initial startup  
> > screen sometimes changes from boot-up to boot-up as well.  The  
> > system is a home-brew about 4 years old and lightly used; leadtek  
> > WinFast K-series MB, athlon chip, cheap simple video card, single  
> > 512 MB DRAM stick. Processor temperatures appear to be within  
> > acceptable ranges, at least according to the "syshealth" part of  
> > the BIOS. I've enabled the full memory test in the POST, but so far  
> > that hasn't picked up any problems.
> >
> > I'm thinking that the problem is either memory or motherboard. I've  
> > removed, air-blasted, and re-seated the memory stick in a new slot  
> > without change in behavior. At  this point I'm considering getting  
> > some new memory and, if that doesn't change the behavior, replacing  
> > the motherboard.
> >
> > Does this seem reasonable? The clock appears steady, so I'm  
> > assuming the BIOS battery is OK, but perhaps that's a factor?
> >
> > -- CHS
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
-- 
Randy Jarrett  K4RSJ
Randy's Ham Shack
<rsj at radio.org>
FWD# 654871