<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)"> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PersonName"/>  <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> Message: 7<o:p></o:p> Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:24:01 +0000<o:p></o:p> From: Yorvyk <yorvik.ubunto@googlemail.com><o:p></o:p> Subject: Re: Diagnosis: is this machine broken?<o:p></o:p> To: <st1:PersonName w:st="on">ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p> Message-ID: <20101129192401.1775e7b1.yorvik.ubunto@googlemail.com><o:p></o:p> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:36:03 +0800<o:p></o:p> Sandy Harris <sandyinchina@gmail.com> wrote:<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> > i have a machine -- Atom 1.6 GHz, single core but hyperthreaded, Intel <o:p></o:p> > board and 2 gigs RAM (the maximum supported). A while ago it began <o:p></o:p> > giving many errors, all disk-related, so I replaced the disk.<o:p></o:p> > <o:p></o:p> > Now it mostly runs fine and Checkbox (the tester on the Ubuntu system<o:p></o:p> > menus) reports all OK, but there are three worrying items. When I try <o:p></o:p> > memtest x86+ off the boot menu, it fails with a message about <o:p></o:p> > "insufficient low memory". At boot time, there are many error messages <o:p></o:p> > from udevd along the lines of "worker failed to respond". Finally, the <o:p></o:p> > drscheme application is horrendously slow; menus take several seconds <o:p></o:p> > to open.<o:p></o:p> > <o:p></o:p> > I wonder if there might be some motherboard or RAM fault that caused <o:p></o:p> > the earlier disk corruption. If so, replacing the disk will not have <o:p></o:p> > fixed it and problems are likely to recur. This is worrying.<o:p></o:p> > <o:p></o:p> > What is my next step in diagnosis here?<o:p></o:p> > <o:p></o:p> Maybe start by just reseating everything. If you have two sticks of memory, pull one, swap them, etc. and see which stick the problem follows. If you have only one stick you?ll have to find another to try. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> --<o:p></o:p> Steve Cook (Yorvyk)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <a href="http://lubuntu.net/" title="blocked::http://lubuntu.net/">http://lubuntu.net</a> <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> ------------------------------<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> I don't have any recommendation on how to continue diagnostics, per se, but you could start by looking at either System Rescue CD or Ultimate Boot CD forums. After, of course, booting and running their diagnostic tools. I'm still learning these various tools, so I'm no help there. But the UBCD has quite a collection of diagnostics tools available, including various memory tests, HDD tests, BIOS info tools, etc.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> I just killed 3 days trying to figure out how to bypass the GParted check during the Ubuntu Install, only to find out that the entire drive is so buggy it's black-listed in the Linux kernel (74 GB WD Raptor). (For the curious, you can zero out the $BadClus block in NTFS using ntfstruncate -- a very, very bad idea, but they're paying me to break this drive, so I wanted to give it my best.)<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> I discovered while looking into these tools that you can often recover much of the data from an otherwise dead drive using various tools. Unfortunately, I won't even be able to use partimage now before the drive dies, since the drive can't be mounted. I can see the device, though, so I might be able to use the dd command. I guess I should look into that. Anyway, if some part is dying, there should be tools galore to help you find it, and if it's the hard drive, you might be able to use these tools to make an image before it's dead.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> </div> </body> </html>