[ILUG] Unexpected system restarts

[Kingsley G. Morse Jr.]

I agree with Lisa.

You can find memtest86 on a "live" CD called the
"Ultimate Boot CD". It also has other hardware
tests and can be found at

    http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/

However, an easier first step might be to look in
/var/log/messages for any unusual activity when
the system restarted at about 22:00.

All the best,
Kingsley

On 10/01/08 10:12, Lisa Muir wrote:
> if you have a spare hour, run memtest86
> 
> am seeing a huge amount of ram failures in the last year or so, far
> too much cheap ram on the market causing manufacturers to sacrifice
> quality processes for price drops.
> 
> Lisa.
> 
> On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 8:43 AM, John Kinsella <John.Kinsella at ul.ie> wrote:
> > Hi
> > I'm running Ubuntu 8.04  on a new-ish DellPC.
> > Noticed this morning that system had restarted about 22:00 last night.
> > kinsella at jkcray:~ >uptime
> > 08:38:13 up 10:19,  5 users,  load average: 0.11, 0.15, 0.27
> >
> > This has happened a couple of times in the last month.
> >
> > Its possible that builders working late knocked power off on the power
> > connection.
> >
> > If that is not the case can anyone advise where to start when looking for
> > the cause?
> > (System logs seem the obvious place -
> > kinsella at jkcray:/var/log >ls -lt|more
> > total 47344
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm    24210 2008-10-01 08:40 auth.log
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm   149106 2008-10-01 08:40 messages
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm    13867 2008-10-01 08:40 syslog
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm   156365 2008-10-01 08:16 kern.log
> > -rw-rw-r-- 1 root   utmp    1920 2008-10-01 08:15 wtmp
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm    30594 2008-10-01 08:08 mail.info
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm    30594 2008-10-01 08:08 mail.log
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm    30206 2008-10-01 08:06 daemon.log
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm      505 2008-10-01 08:05 user.log
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm    28993 2008-10-01 08:05 debug
> > -rw-rw-r-- 1 root   utmp     384 2008-10-01 08:04 btmp
> > -rw-r----- 1 root   adm        0 2008-10-01 07:58 dpkg.log
> > drwxr-xr-x 2 root   root    4096 2008-10-01 07:57 apt
> > drwxr-xr-x 2 root   root    4096 2008-10-01 07:57 cups
> > -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm   221282 2008-10-01 07:40 syslog.0
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root   root   66669 2008-09-30 22:20 Xorg.0.log
> > -rw-rw-r-- 1 root   utmp   97536 2008-09-30 22:20 wtmp.1
> > -rw-r----- 1 root   adm      344 2008-09-30 22:20 acpid
> > drwxr-xr-x 2 root   root    4096 2008-09-30 22:20 gdm
> > -rw-r----- 1 root   adm    32818 2008-09-30 22:20 dmesg
> > -rw-r--r-- 1 root   root  335587 2008-09-30 22:18 udev
> > -rw-rw-r-- 1 root   utmp  292876 2008-09-30 18:47 lastlog
> > )
> >
> > (The system was not particularly heavily loaded and I didn't leave any
> > number-crunching processes running.
> >
> > Thanks for any advice.
> >
> > John
> >
> > --
> > John A. Kinsella                Ph:     +353-61-202148          (Direct)
> >                                        +353-61-333644 x 2148   (Switch)
> > Mathematics Dept.               e-mail: John.Kinsella at ul.ie
> > University of Limerick          FAX:    +353-61-334927
> > IRELAND                         Web:    http://jkcray.maths.ul.ie
> >
> > --
> > Irish Linux Users' Group mailing list
> > About this list : http://mail.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug
> > Who we are : http://www.linux.ie/
> > Where we are : http://www.linux.ie/map/
> >
> -- 
> Irish Linux Users' Group mailing list
> About this list : http://mail.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug
> Who we are : http://www.linux.ie/
> Where we are : http://www.linux.ie/map/