Sounds like hardware or memory perhaps. Try eliminating potential problem
areas one at a time. Make sure all connections are tight and inserted
correctly. Open the computer and verify or even remove and reinsert all
cards. Especially check the memory modules and cache module for a tight fit.
Look for possible corrosion on each card terminals. Look for mismatched
terminal coatings, (Tin and gold are a no-no).
A bad memory SIMM, DIMM, or individual chip on a module, Cache module etc.,
can cause those symptoms. One last thing is to not use Power Management both
in the BIOS and in Windows. How that might affect Linux, I'm not sure, being
a newbie myself.
A bad motherboard is a possibility. You need to be sure you are running a
stable set of video drivers for your video card. Check their site for that.
Make sure you are not having sharing problems, like sharing a parallel port
with another device that is unstable in that environment.
You describe a very difficult problem to isolate, from my personal
experience. All I can say is: good luck. I solved a similar problem by
upgrading my motherboard but that is pretty drastic.
HTH,
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Gregg Carrier
> Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 5:50 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [newbie] It crashed!
>
>
> I'm so bummed. Linux just hung on me completely. I guess I was
> tempting fate
> when I said it had never hung once. I was in KDE, with like 2
> Netscape windows
> open and........hangorama....
>
> So, here's what I did, being a newbie. I tried ctl-alt F* to
> switch to another
> console and possibly shut it down that way. I tried
> ctl-alt-bckspace to shut X
> Windows. Finally I tried ctl-alt-del to shut er down. Nothing did
> anything. :(
>
> So I turned it on and off. Linux did a disk check. All seems well now. My
> impression is, though, that you NEVER want to kill power to a
> Linux system and
> this story mght not have ended so happily. I really want to track down the
> source of this problem so it doesn't happen again.
>
> I get hangs ALL THE TIME in Windows. I mean way more than most
> even. A lot of
> time I think it's because I'm overdemanding (compiling while
> uploadiing and
> using Dreamweaver and a bunch of Netscapes etc) but often it happens for
> no reason at all with no Windows open. I have had
> Windows-knowledgable folks
> look at it to no avail. It keeps on crashing.
>
> So, among other hopes I had for Linux was that it would be truly stable.
> Really, I've been incredibly impressed. I am so hooked now. Even
> aside from
> stability, there are a ton of things I like better about Linux.
> My wife is the
> same. We almost never boot Windows anymore.
>
> Can I find out what went wrong? Is there a way to track this problem down?
> Linux hung in the exact same way Windows always does. No keyboard or mouse
> response at all and nothing to do but kill the power. I'm
> beginning to suspect
> it's a hardware problem since the problem has manifested itself
> in both OSes on
> this machine. Could Netscape have possibly crashed the whole
> system? Shouldn't
> I at least have been able to ctl-alt-del?
>
> I'm at a total loss. I'm hoping there's some way to find what happened
> through Linux. Can I trace this crash? Does anyone have any ideas
> at all? What
> should I suspect? Hardware? What makes a system hang with no
> responses at all?
>
> Thanks in advance for any help. Sorry for the long post, but a hung Linux
> system really rained on my parade.
>
> Gregg
>
