DF -- Random reboot problem?

[Robor]

Okay, this is kinda serious because it involves 12 P4-1.8/256MB DF clients mostly running 24/7 at another site. I'm the admin at my site and I've got 2 friends who admin this other site. Well, I assimilated 12 of their Dell GX-240's a week or two ago. Now they know about it so it's not like I did anything underhanded but one of them called me today and said he thinks the DF service is causing a problem.

Here's the deal... A user was reporting random reboots on her system. My friend goes up and looks at the system and finds nothing out of the ordinary. A quick check in Event Viewer shows the DF service reporting an error (can't give the exact message right now) then a bugcheck right before system crashes. He disabled the service and so far the user hasn't had any more random reboots.

Any ideas? I'm afraid I'm going to lose about 1/2 of my DF production.

 

[bunker]

No idea but here's a bump for ya. Maybe Fobot might know of something.

 

[Wiz]

Only that as you know a DC project can point out a marginal computer - I would tell them that this indicates that system has a problem that doesn't show up under normal operation and they could check it's cpu temp, power supply etc to see if there is something out of normal.

 

[CurtCold]

1 GX240 Here at work, and It's running 24/7 for the last week or so, and no problems here. I had problems on a 1.3T-Bird that crashed after folding for about 3 Days in a row, but I think that problem was screen saver related, and Video Card. 1.5 P4 in the GX 240 here.

Did have problems with Generic Ram also...

 

[m0ti]

I'm with Wiz on this one. Most likely it is a memory problem.

Try running it without the more ram option and it'll probably sort itself out (well that would be at half speed, but it's better than nothing). You might try a memtest application or something to see if he's got some RAM problems.

 

[Robor]

Thanks for the replies...

I honestly don't think it's a "DF Client problem" because I've got about 25 Dell clients running and this is the only one that's having reboot problems.

Any recommendations on a RAM testing application?

Thanks again!

 

[m0ti]

try memtest86

Best of luck!

 

[FoBoT]

what OS ?

i don't think out of the box commercial grade (HP/DELL/Gateway, etc) P4's would have a heat issue, i run several Compaq P4/Celeron 1.7Ghz desktop boxes 24/7 with DF and they don't reboot

i have about 7 that have been running 3-4 weeks straight with out a reboot/on-off cycle

do these Dell's have direct internet access?

if so, after you test the memory, take DF out of the picture and try the same PC with another DC client (SoB,SETI, F@H, whatever you are familiar with/whatever will fit the scenario) and see if you get different results.

if the PC has a hardware problem/heat issue due to the CPU being pegged, another DC client should cause the same result. if it doesn't happen, then either the amount of RAM DF is using or the way DF is using the RAM may be an issue (as m0ti and sid point out, DF seems to be especially sensitive to RAM issues)

last idea

pray to the DC gods for relief

seriously, best of luck in nailing this down/keeping your aquisitions online

 

[Terrahawk]

I'm all for the faulty RAM theory. I have an XP1700+ machine that has a reasonable cooler, a fresh install of Windows XP and it would run DF 24/7 except that it's a guaranteed reboot in 30 minutes. The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-7DX+ and it is one of a set of about three of these machines. The others are happily running DF 24/7 with no issues.

This one spontaneously reboots, and at the most inopportune times as well (it's the video projector display controller at my church and will happily crash in the middle of displaying things during a service even when not running DF). Unfortunately, I haven't had time to run memtest86 on it, but I bet it'll find errors. That'll teach us to buy cheap RAM.

 

[Insidious]

One note about memtest86....

It will report errors, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have bad RAM.

my motherboards will not pass memtest86, no matter what RAM is installed. I've had 3 different brands of 2 different sizes in a single slot, in two slots, underclocked, overclocked, over voltaged, undervoltaged.... it always fails test 5 or 7... can't remember (friggin AMD761 :| )

Anyway, best of luck Robor!

 

[Robor]

Are there any tests out there that will pass on clean RAM and fail bad RAM? If the DF client continues to cause a problem and regular office apps do not their solution is going to be the simple one - remove the DF client.

I will check out that memtest86 as well.

Thank again everyone!