Motherboard shopping

[blu at vl.com (Tom Metro)]

Doug wrote:
> My computer...reboots at random times after it has booted. I need to
> take care of this issue, but I am not so good at diagnosing this sort
> of things...
> The board is a Sanyo...

Soyo?


> ...bought as a MicroCenter discount item.

The motherboard or the memory are probably the most likely sources of 
your problem, so short of replacing all three - motherboard, memory, and 
CPU - replacing just the motherboard or the memory might be the quickest 
solution. Perhaps borrowing memory from another system, and if that 
still fails, replacing the motherboard.


> I did the memory test for about a half hour, and nothing showed up.  

That's probably too brief to catch an intermittent problem, especially 
if it is temperature dependent. If you really want to try and reproduce 
the problem, you'll probably want to try a few different memory tests, 
run a kernel compile, and a few tests that heat up the CPU, while 
monitoring the temperature.

If you can reproduce the problem, here are some things you might try to 
resolve it: reset the BIOS to the factory or "safe" defaults; remove and 
reseat all your PCI cards, if any; make sure the heat sink is properly 
attached to the CPU and that temperatures are within the expected range; 
that the jumpers, if any, that control CPU voltage and clocks are set 
correctly; and that the motherboard northbridge chip (often has a 
heatsink) isn't overheating due to inadequate case ventilation.


> Given this experience, I would like a combination of board/chip/memory
> that is rock solid reliable.  I guess that means ECC RAM. 

ECC RAM will help you identify a fault, but won't inherently make a 
system more stable. The vast majority of commodity systems, even without 
ECC, are reliable.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/