[ale] Losing stability

[James P. Kinney III]

Test the ram in another, compatible machine. This will isolate the ram
from the rest of the system.

If the ram checks OK, unplug the existing power supply and use a known
good compatible one and test the entire system. A 4 year old or so power
supply is about the age of the first big run of "counterfeit capacitors"
that hit the Asian manufacturing supply chain. The use of those in mobos
was pretty fatal pretty quick. But the caps in the PS were not cycled as
much and so they lasted longer. 

V=IR  As things age, R increases. Since the system is designed to run
with a (nearly) constant V, I will decrease by default. Under a certain
point, there is simply not enough current to do the work anymore and you
start getting flaky behavior.

On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 13:40 -0500, Charles Shapiro wrote:
> Heck, I ain't going to make it out to Fry's 'til next Saturday or so.
> And a positive finding from memtest86 would be a useful datum. I just
> downloaded & burned the CD and can slap it on my machine tonight
> without too much pain. So for me it's a reasonable bet.  I'll also
> open the machine (again) and look MB and possibly the video card over
> for burned caps, although from what I've read that's not too
> definitive either, since they can be blown without outside symptoms.
> Again, a positive diagnosis would be useful, even though a negative
> finding doesn't necessarily show that there ain't a problem.
> 
> Thanks for your help. More when I know more.
> 
> -- CHS
> 
> 
> On 10/30/06, Matt Kubilus <mattkubilus at gmail.com> wrote:
>         I'm just saying, save your time and just swap the RAM with a
>         known
>         good.  I've had memtest86 tell me bad RAM was fine many
>         times.  But
>         hey, what do I know, I've just seen it happen dozens of times.
>         
>         -M
>         
>         On 10/30/06, Matt Kubilus <mattkubilus at gmail.com> wrote:
>         > To prove a systems accuracy you will generally measure four
>         things:
>         >
>         >   * True positives - The system says it is so, and the
>         system is correct 
>         >   * False positives - The system says it is so, and the
>         system is wrong
>         >   * True negatives - The system says it is not so, and the
>         system is correct
>         >   * False negatives - The system says it is not so, and the
>         system is wrong 
>         >
>         > If RAM failure is the positive condition then memtest86 can
>         be said to
>         > have a high rate of false negatives.  Or so a system auditor
>         might
>         > say.  The company I used to work for was regulated by the
>         FDA.  Any 
>         > new software & hardware systems would have to meet certain
>         reliability
>         > requirements defined as above; in other words, a huge pain
>         in the
>         > rear.
>         >
>         > Good luck getting your system back up! 
>         >
>         > -Matt
>         >
>         >
>         > On 10/30/06, Jim Popovitch <jimpop at yahoo.com> wrote:
>         > > On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 12:50 -0500, Matt Kubilus wrote:
>         > > > memtest86 is only really useful to prove that the memory
>         is bad, not 
>         > > > that the memory is good.
>         > >
>         > > It's orientation is binary, right?  If not bad, then
>         good.  Or am I
>         > > missing something?
>         > >
>         > > -Jim P.
>         > >
>         > > 
>         > >
>         > > _______________________________________________
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>         > > Ale at ale.org
>         > > http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>         > >
>         >
>         >
>         > --
>         > Don't be a pioneeer.  A pioneer is the guy with the arrow
>         through his
>         > chest.  -- John J. Rakos
>         >
>         
>         
>         --
>         Don't be a pioneeer.  A pioneer is the guy with the arrow
>         through his 
>         chest.  -- John J. Rakos
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-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC        
770-493-8244                    
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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