I finally updated my 32bit PC to wheezy in October. Shortly after, I
started getting kernel panics (blinking CapsLock/Scroll Lock for about
10 seconds, then it would re-boot itself).
I ran memtest for 14 hours; no errors.
It often happened while watching videos in iceweasel, especially when
seeking with the slider. It also happened with totem and an audio
program again when seeking. It also happen on 3 occasions right after I
clicked SEND in icedove. Often it would reboot on its own overnight. I
admit I thought it was all due to software for many weeks.
Then I started getting fsck errors during the re-boot. Then after
running OK for an hour or so it started re-mounting the hard drive
read-only without rebooting. I was seeing journal errors (ext3
filesystem). Then I saw a BIOS message saying a hard drive failure was
imminent.
I had a new drive that I wasn't using, so I set it up with ext4
partitions and copied everything to it, fixed up grub, and booted the
new drive.
It went back to kernel panics!
I stole a Gateway desktop from my kids (similar CPU and memory). I put
my harddrives (the new one), memory (4x1GB), gigabit LAN card and video
card (GeForce 7300LE) into it. No problems at all.
When swapping the video card I discovered that the fan was no longer
working. I thought maybe an overheating video card could be to blame but
it's run for 2 days now without a kernel panic.
That pretty much leaves the blame on the original machine's mother board
and power supply. I replaced the power supply a few years ago (Antec
Earthwatts 430W EA-430D). The machine is an HP Pavillion MutilMedia TV
PC, so there's an Hauppage TV tuner card installed. I didn't try
removing that. I don't use it but I still have remnants installed from
when I played with ivtv some years ago.
Any comments about all this? I kind welcome the excuse to buy a new PC
with a better video card and more memory (and 64bit), but it would be
nice to know what's wrong with the machine before I through it out.
Rick
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52eeb75a.9040...@timshel.ca
