Re: won't boot; kernel panics; crc error; memory dump -- help?
On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 10:05 am, nori heikkinen wrote:
> hey all,
>
> i'm getting a series of very, very strange errors -- and erratic, at
> that.
>
> brief background: a couple weeks ago, my computer just went down.
> magically. i posted to this list about it[1], ran a memory test, and
> ended up discovering some bulging capacitors on the motherboard. this
> article[2], and many of my friends, said this meant the mobo was bad.
> so i got a new one. also upgraded to DDR while i was at it, and got a
> new case & power supply, since the new mobo used J3.
>
> at this point, the only things that are NOT new in the computer are my
> two PCI cards (sound & video (which i have both of on-board, but i like
> my sound card, dammit)), the two IDE hard drives, and the two IDE cd
> drives i have. hda - d respectively.
>
> but still, it does not work! more information you say? when i push the
> power button, one of a handful of things happens:
[snip]
>
> this is a new motherboard, though -- and i see no bulging capacitors, or
> any obvious sign of damage. i have a warranty on it, but is it the mobo
> that's bad?
>
> basically, i'm confused as heck at this point. what could a possible
> culprit be? as far as i can tell, my hard drive is just fine. i can't
> even run memtest86 on this new memory, as bootable CDs don't so much
> work (see "trying to boot into Knoppix," above). i'm miffed.
I believe it is possible to run memtest86 from a floppy disk if that is any
better.
>
> any suggestions?
This sounds almost certainly like a hardware problem.
Try some basic hardware checks:
- Make sure all fans are running (particularly processor fan).
- If possible, check what temperature the CPU is running at (sometimes it
says in the BIOS setup program).
- Try removing and re-seating RAM, PCI cards etc.
- If you have more than one module on RAM, try one at a time.
- Make sure your power supply is sufficiently powerful for the system (on
each rail, particularly 5V, not just total).
- Remove all unnecessary components (e.g. PCI cards, extra drives) and see it
it runs more stably.
- If you have spares, try swapping out parts one at a time.
Andrew Walbran
Reply to: