So Unstable and driving me mad!!

[Mark Haney]

WipeOut wrote:
> Mark Haney wrote:
>> WipeOut wrote:
>>> Mark Haney wrote:
>>>> Ah the joys of flakiness.  Try memtest86.  It's a good memory tester.
>>>>
>>>> Reseat all your hardware (video and memory are the biggest stability 
>>>> culprits).
>>>>
>>>> Do a fsck on the drive too, to make sure the fs isn't funky.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Thanks Mark!!
>>>
>>> I ran memtest86 off the Ubuntu install CD and it showed errors so I 
>>> tested each memory module (I have 4x1GB modules) individually and one 
>>> was throwing up errors.. Replaced just the working pair (2GB total) and 
>>> the system feels SO much faster and things that weren't working now 
>>> appear to be working..
>>>
>>> Will see how stable it is now for the next few days but I think that was 
>>> the problem and I am so glad I found it..
>>>
>>> Thanks again..
>>>
>> That's great  It's funny how often stability issues are memory related. 
>>    That's why I suggested memtest as well as reseating the RAM and video 
>> cards.  ESPECIALLY if you build your own systems, which I do.
>>
>>
>>
> 
> I have always built up my own systems too but never had memory "half" 
> work before.. Its always freaked the PC completely or worked perfectly.. 
> This issue seemed to not cause the whole system to fail, just the apps 
> had a tendency to become unstable..
> 
> Anyway, glad I was actually able to find something definitely wrong.. 
> Makes me feel much better.. :)
> 
> 

It's funny, I rarely ever see a system completely bomb because of funky 
memory anymore.  It always exhibits bizarre and unstable behaviour 
rather than simply not booting or a panicked kernel.  Some of that might 
be due to the way the memory bus is designed now.



-- 
Frustra laborant quotquot se calculationibus fatigant pro inventione 
quadraturae circuli

Mark Haney
Sr. Systems Administrator
ERC Broadband
(828) 350-2415

Call (866) ERC-7110 for after hours support