So, my SuSE computer was acting weird on 10/31/2011 and 11/1/2011. This is what happened (as best as I can recall the events): on 10/31/2011, it wouldn’t boot at all (no mem test beep at all – nor any text messages on the screen). Later that day, my husband and I tried it again but this time, there was a message, something about “Warning! System Boot Fail!” and something about set up and another one about hit F1 to continue and loading the defaults (didn’t know what it meant by defaults). So, I went into the bios setup for my husband to check and make sure all those settings were right. Then we restarted the computer. This time, my husband hit the F1 key and then SuSE booted up normally. After finishing what I wanted to do, I thoroughly cleaned up the keyboard (it was a little sticky – seemed like someone must have splashed their drink near my keyboard [it wasn’t me!] a long time back and it was just getting more sticky – the Y key was especially bad).
On 11/1/2011, SuSE started up just fine, however, a few moments later, the keyboard suddenly started blinking (the caps lock and scroll lock) and the mouse was unusable and the keyboard was unresponsive. We didn’t know what to do so my husband just turned off the power switch in the back of the computer. Then I rebooted and then it started up just fine.
Now, today (11/2/2011) the same problem occurred: no mem test beep at all and no display (text) on the screen. After holding in the computer’s start button, I had the computer shut down and stay that way for at least a minute or so, and then tried again. When I started it again, there was the usual mem test beep and after some text showed up, the same “Warning! System Boot Fail!” message came up and so I hit the F1 key to continue and SuSE started up fine after that.
I’m just wondering if you’ve ever come across something as strange as this? What, I wonder is going on with this computer now? Could it be the memory (again!?!)
On 11/02/2011 01:36 PM, gymnart wrote:
> Could it be the memory (again!?!)
could be…but, think i would start with trying a keyboard that wasn’t
‘sticky’…maybe there is a key or four which has had ‘sticky’ leak
down in the guts of the keyboard and they are sending a combination of
key down signals to the computer…and, maybe that is causing the boot
problem…
just try another keyboard…
then if the machine acts the same way, it could be a weak or dying cmos
battery that needs to be replaced (how old is your system) or it could
be RAM, check that by booting from the live CD or DVD you installed from
and pick “Memory Test” from http://tinyurl.com/3qde66h and let it run
overnight, at least…how much memory do you have?
it could also be a bad/dying power supply…or a flaky system
ground…or a leaking capacitor
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague> or a stuck power switch,
or the phase of the moon…
As for my system’s age, I’m not sure. It was put together with varying aged parts. Some new (the memory and hard drives and the mb is fairly recent as well as the power supply and graphics card) and some are older. My keyboard is definitely older though.
There was a time, some years back when I didn’t keep a backup keyboard and my old computer used to have issues with my favoured keyboard that had a USB connection. Though I seldom have issues now, I still keep a basic PS2 keyboard just in case. I need one to take around with me any way.
It doesn’t sound like openSUSE is the problem, but more likely a failing keyboard.
Try a new keyboard or even try the old keyboard on another machine too.
BTW:
(I never had memory fail on me yet)
On 11/02/2011 08:56 AM, gymnart wrote:
>
> DenverD;2399742 Wrote:
>> On 11/02/2011 01:36 PM, gymnart wrote:
>>> Could it be the memory (again!?!)
>>
>> …then if the machine acts the same way, it could be a weak or dying
>> cmos
>> battery that needs to be replaced (how old is your system) or it could
>> be RAM, check that by booting from the live CD or DVD you installed
>> from
>> and pick “Memory Test” from ‘Picasa Web Albums - carl fletcher -
>> 11.4_DVD_Install’ (http://tinyurl.com/3qde66h) and let it run
>> overnight, at least…how much memory do you have?
>>
>> it could also be a bad/dying power supply…or a flaky system
>> ground…or a leaking capacitor
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague> or a stuck power
>> switch,
>> or the phase of the moon…
>>
>> –
>> DD
>> ‘DD Caveat’ (http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat)
>> ‘DD Hardware’ (http://tinyurl.com/DD-Hardware)
>> ‘DD Software’ (http://tinyurl.com/DD-Software)
>> openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems
>
> Total memory (RAM): 7.8 GiB
> Free memory: 5.7 GiB (+ 1.3 GiB Caches)
> Free swap: 10.0 MiB
>
> As for my system’s age, I’m not sure. It was put together with varying
> aged parts. Some new (the memory and hard drives and the mb is fairly
> recent as well as the power supply and graphics card) and some are
> older. My keyboard is definitely older though.
I definitely suspect the memory, and I think the keyboard is a red herring.
When you see the keyboard lights flashing about once per second, that indicates
a kernel panic. Whatever condition happened was so serious that it is likely
that any attempted recovery might damage the file system, thus the kernel does
an abort. A power off is the only way to recover; however, once a given kernel
is debugged as much as any openSUSE distro kernel, the most likely cause of such
panics is a memory fault.
You should boot a distro CD or DVD and select the memory test, which is
memtest386+. Let that run for at least 12 hours. That test will usually find any
transient memory errors. The fix may be as simple as reseating the memory cards.
On Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:36:02 +0000, gymnart wrote:
> I’m just wondering if you’ve ever come across something as strange as
> this? What, I wonder is going on with this computer now? Could it be the
> memory (again!?!)
Could be memory, in any event, it’s almost certainly something hardware
related.
I have one machine that has a PSU that overheats, and when it does, I
have to physically unplug the machine in order to get it to power on
again.
One of these days, I’ll be able to afford to replace it.
On 11/02/2011 03:30 PM, Larry Finger wrote:
> I definitely suspect the memory, and I think the keyboard is a red herring.
>
> When you see the keyboard lights flashing about once per second, that
> indicates a kernel panic. … once a given kernel is debugged as much as any
> openSUSE distro kernel, the most likely cause of such panics is a memory
> fault.
you know what, i agree with you…
might try gently pulling out and then reseating the RAM prior to running
the mem test…
if you get errors say so and we can (maybe) help you figure out which
stick is bad, or maybe if a socket has gone bad…
–
DD
openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems
ok, I will try that out a little later. My area has been suffering occasional power outages now and then due to the recent storm damage and the power company’s attempts to repair it. Some tree limbs are still prone to falling onto wires and causing outages (and fires) too. I don’t want any outages happening during the mem test.
Meanwhile, this morning, (Nov. 3) “Tux” (the SuSE computer) started up just fine. If “Tux” has another problem starting up, I’ll know now what the problem might be.
Here’s an update:
My son-in-law gave me a spare keyboard that he had lying around from an HP computer that he and my daughter bought quite a while back so that works fine.
My husband reseated the memory cards and found one to be a little bit loose. After that, “Tux” seems to start up well.
On Nov. 15th though, the keyboard’s lights were blinking again and the mouse would not respond so I restarted the computer (by holding in the power button, let it shut down, waited a few moments, then pushed the power button again). Tux started right up and so far, no further problems. I haven’t done the memory test yet.
I saw that there’s a kernel update so I’ll do that soon.
