So much for "Reboots are for recompiles".

[athelind]

I left the computer off for most of the day, as we were running around shopping, catching The Golden Compass, and cleaning house. I sat down for about half an hour of quick web-browsing, then left to watch the last two parts of Tin Man on Sci Fi.

When I came back four hours later, the thing had rebooted itself. For no apparent reason.

I think this is the second or third spontaneous reboot since loading Ubuntu a week ago Friday.

SOMETHING ain't stable. I don't know if it's the OS, or if long-term hardware problems that Windows just dumbed over are becoming more evident. After all, if I'd come back to a spontaneous reboot FNAR when this thing was still running Windows, I'd just have muttered something nasty about Microsoft.

I was HOPING that most of the hardware problems were centered in the 9-year-old hard drive that I yanked, but no such luck.

BLEAH.

Comments

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Most of the time when I've seen computers suddenly restarting themselves, it was either a bad motherboard, or a bad power supply. :p I'd check up on the two options.

[kreggan.livejournal.com]

I see memory being the cause, frequently. Athe, I'll see if I can remember the name of the memory exerciser for linux.

[bfdragon.livejournal.com]

If you wanted to kill some time, if you look in /var/logs/ there are all log files for various programs. dmsg and messages being generally ones from the system. If it's not a hard reboot, something might show up there. If it is a hard reboot, which seems to be more likely, unfortunately, that can be harder to track down.

[wy.livejournal.com]

Do you want me to come over and take a look, Aeth? Since I'm in the area and all.

I'd go with the 'bad power supply' hypothesis, though. Although at this point, it's almost easier to get a el cheapo $200 system and move your stuff over.

[taverens.livejournal.com]

Was the "Tin Man" any good?

[athelind.livejournal.com]

How does one check on such things?

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Well for the power supply the best method is to just put in a different one and see if the problem goes away. For the motherboard, all you can really do is check to make sure the main power connection to the board itself is in there good, and not wiggling around or anything. Also, look for any cracks in the frame itself.

'tis about all you can do without special equipment.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

This is all sounding like "time for a new computer" to me.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Fairly close. :p 'specially if its the motherboard.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- new mobo demands new CPU, new RAM, and, since I've got an AGP board, a new video card.

Honestly, even the cheapest bare-bones boxen out there will be an upgrade from my old Athlon.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Aye, I'm at exactly the same point with mine. Its old enough now that there just isn't any better upgrades to put in the beast. Come the new year I'm going to start building myself something new again. ^^