Hi all,
I came to my PC this morning and found that at some point over night it had rebooted itself. In Windows world this wouldn’t be such a big-deal, since that would be classed as a “feature”, but here I am a bit worried that something might have gone wrong.
Before I go on, I don’t have a massive knowledge of Linux, so maybe the answers are easy to find…
First, I looked in /var/log/messages and /var/log/boot.msg but to be honest I’m not sure how to read these files.
Can someone point me in the right direction? Or somewhere else that I should be looking? Let me know if I should post the two log files too.
Did it happens once ?
Or on regaler basis ?
But I mean always at the same time or day or weekly .
Because it only happens once it good be just a power failure .
dobby9
I am having a similar issue. The machine is on a UPS so it is very unlikely to be a power failure issue. It happens probably 2-3 times per week. Sometimes 2 or 3 days in a row and sometimes one day in 4 or 5. I can’t find any configuration or cron that may be causing an issue. Is it possible that it is something in OpenSuse or is it almost guaranteed to be hardware? I should add that it isn’t rebooting, it is just shutting off.
On 01/26/2011 09:36 PM, toughs wrote:
>
> I am having a similar issue. The machine is on a UPS so it is very
> unlikely to be a power failure issue. It happens probably 2-3 times per
> week. Sometimes 2 or 3 days in a row and sometimes one day in 4 or 5.
> I can’t find any configuration or cron that may be causing an issue. Is
> it possible that it is something in OpenSuse or is it almost guaranteed
> to be hardware? I should add that it isn’t rebooting, it is just
> shutting off.
>
>
absolutely sounds like hardware (unless you have reason to suspect
software–like errors during install, for example)…
probably either a heat or weak power supply issue…
after shut down, open up the box and carefully vac out the cat hair,
chicken bones and whatnot…if the box is over (say) three years old
i’d also take the heat sink off the cpu and apply and new, very thin
layer of heat conductive thermal grease (if you don’t know all about
that, then google the how-to, try “Tom’s Hardware”)…
if that those two things do not solve the problem i’d next be very
suspect of the power supply…it takes some VERY small part of a new
york second of insufficient power to trip a shutdown…i’m talking
about inside the machine…the UPS might be supplying lots more than
needed, but if the internal power supply is weak, or over taxed you
can count on problems…
if you box is over about four, or have you added hard drives, or a
(say) graphics card that pulls more juice then you probably need a
new, more powerful PSU…add up the needs for every juice sucking
thing in the box OR attached to a USB port and not externally
supplied…add it all up and then buy a supply at least 50% larger…
and, let us know how you get on…
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5
“release 1”, Thunderbird3.0.11,]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11
On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:31:31 +0000, DenverD wrote:
> probably either a heat or weak power supply issue…
That would be my guess as well without more information. Many PCs these
days have thermal sensors that will shut the machine down if it overheats
in order to protect the hardware.
Yes, but they won’t reboot, that’s usually a BIOS setting for action after a power failure. In case of processor overheat shutdown the machine stay shut
I agree it is most probably an overheating issue, but it may not even be the computer. I have a similar setup - a pc with a overdimensioned power supply connected to an UPS connected to a voltage regulator connected to a surge protector connected to the wall socket. Oof… Try saying all that quickly.
Anyway, three ou four times I found it off, without any notice of a power shortage. The last time there was a distinctly suspicious smell. The back of surge protector had started to melt due to defective contact in one of the pins into the wall socket. The regulator couldn’t keep the voltage level, the ups would kick in until the battery depleted and the computer would turn off.
With the computer off the defective contact would cool down, the voltage level would get back to something the regulator could cope with, the ups would charge back and in the morning I would find everything apparently normal, except for the computer off.
One easy way to overrule processor overheating problems - usually due to a poor interface between processor and heatsink - is to enter BIOS and watch the temperature it reports, usually under a ‘Hardware’ option or such, together with fan speed and perhaps other indicators.
In BIOS AFAIK the processor runs at 100% speed (no throttling), so if the thermal solution is compromised the temperature would rise (slowly but constantly) until it turn off. Just make sure that thermal protection is enabled in BIOS.
This happened with my daughter’s computer after I changed the case - a smaller and sleeker horizontal one she liked but not so well ventilated. The processor, an Athlon X2 5200+ would heat up to about 85 degrees celsius and then shut off.
The solution was a new larger heatsink/fan (with a polished base) and thermal paste correctly applied. Worked as a charm, no more shutdowns and the CPU temp stay into acceptable levels.
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5
“release 1”, Thunderbird3.0.11,]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11
On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 03:36:02 +0000, brunomcl wrote:
> hendersj;2282841 Wrote:
>> Many PCs these
>> days have thermal sensors that will shut the machine down if it
>> overheats
>> in order to protect the hardware.
>
> Yes, but they won’t reboot, that’s usually a BIOS setting for action
> after a power failure. In case of processor overheat shutdown the
> machine stay shut
Well, yes, but that’s what the OP is saying is happening.
> I agree it is most probably an overheating issue, but it may not even be
> the computer. I have a similar setup - a pc with a overdimensioned power
> supply connected to an UPS connected to a voltage regulator connected to
> a surge protector connected to the wall socket. Oof… Try saying all
> that quickly.
