Arch Linux

oldmerovingian

Member

From: Denver, Colorado

Registered: 2010-03-19

Posts: 60

Random Crashes[SOLVED]

Every once in a while, my computer will freeze and the caps lock and num lock keys will just blink.  If I am playing music, it will just start skipping as well.  I have been using Arch for two weeks or so, and this has happened maybe 3 or 4 times.  It seems to happen when I am using Pandora or Youtube, but I cannot recall if they were on at each event.  Below are my specs, and if anyone could help me figure this out I would be very thankful.

Sony Vaio
Core 2 Duo 2.26
3 gigs of ram
ATI Radeon HD 3400

I am also using the xf86-video-ati driver

EDIT: It turns out the ath9k module does  not support 802.11n networks, and my router at home was set to mixed which included n.  After dropping it down to 802.11g only, the kernel panics stopped.  See here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=95395&p=1

Last edited by oldmerovingian (2010-04-22 20:52:40)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,774

Re: Random Crashes[SOLVED]

It could be many things.  Unfortunately, the blinking lights indicate a "Kernel Panic" -- The Linux equivalent of the ubiquitous Windows "Blue Screen of Death".

The good news is that the system stays alive long enough that it is able to send the message and, probably, was able to send a message to your logs before throwing in the towel.  After rebooting, look through your logs (everything.log, kernel.log, system.log, whatever...) for the panic message and see what module caused the corruption.

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oldmerovingian

Member

From: Denver, Colorado

Registered: 2010-03-19

Posts: 60

Re: Random Crashes[SOLVED]

Bump?

I would really apprciate any help anyone can give with this situation.  This is a production machine, and I cannot use it for school if I cannot trust it.  God forbid it should crash while I am writing a paper and I lose some or all of it.

I have taken a look through some logs, but do not see any issues which would cause this, but then again I do not know what to look for.  I am willing to post any logs that are needed to help me figure this out.

Thanks in advance.

davidm

Member

Registered: 2009-04-25

Posts: 371

Re: Random Crashes[SOLVED]

Check your memory and run memtest on it.  Also I'm not sure how old your laptop is but I know my P4 Desktop system likely suffers from bad capacitors and this causes some random crashes for me.  See this wikipedia link for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Last edited by davidm (2010-04-10 20:18:38)

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oldmerovingian

Member

From: Denver, Colorado

Registered: 2010-03-19

Posts: 60

Re: Random Crashes[SOLVED]

Well I am not going to give up on Arch, and since this does not happen on Ubuntu I know it is not a memory or hardware problem. 

I reinstalled Arch today and am using openbox instead of GNOME and am using no desktop effects.  It crashed twice today.  Both were when I was using Chromium.  (It has happened before with Firefox.)  I doubt it is the ati driver since Ubuntu uses the same one now, so I am thinking it may be flash.  I have removed flashplugin and am going to run this and see what happens. 

If that doesn't work, I am not quite sure what to do.

sharonk868

Member

Registered: 2010-04-14

Posts: 1

Re: Random Crashes[SOLVED]

Check your memory and run memtest on it.  Also I'm not sure how old your laptop is but I know my P4 Desktop system likely suffers from bad capacitors and this causes some random crashes for me.  See this wikipedia link for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Such a very amazing link!
Thanks you for the post.

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oldmerovingian

Member

From: Denver, Colorado

Registered: 2010-03-19

Posts: 60

Re: Random Crashes[SOLVED]

Well I got it to freeze with flash completely disabled.  I am fresh out of ideas now. 

Doesnt seem to be a temp problem, as a matter of fact, it runs several degrees cooler than Ubuntu. 

I think I read on another post that networking was some issue with someone.  This seems like a stretch, but I suppose it is the next thing to look into.

hokasch

Member

Registered: 2007-09-23

Posts: 1,461

Re: Random Crashes[SOLVED]

edit: didnt read..

Last edited by hokasch (2010-04-14 17:10:45)