Core Hard lockup problem solution

[unk95]

Hello Everyone,
I have been using LinuxMCE for about 10 months and have had some very nasty core lock-up problems. All of a sudden my core would just freeze up, on the keyboard the green led's would be flashing and all my MD's would also be frozen. With frozen I mean the system would not respond to anything; keystroke or moving of the mouse. This happened for a while- anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days that the entire system would freeze up. I went ahead and changed out the power supply, CPU, motherboard, nic cards, network switch, you name it nothing worked. I disabled the flicker screen saver, like many have recommended, added 2 extra 4 inch cooling fans and still the core would just go and freeze up. My final step was replacing my brand new bought 4 x 1Gb of RAM (Crucial Balistix PC2-6400 800Mhz) (which I was sure could not be the problem since it was brand new and even tested OK in the memory test) with a slower 2x1GB DDR2 667MHz. Ever since the memory swap the core has run and and run with NO lock-up or freezing up. I have it running 24-7 and it runs nicely over 2 weeks with no issues.
My Dad is also an avid LinuxMCE user and reported similar RAM problem to me today - that his system became unstable  due to a memory.
SO the point of this post is just a quick heads up to anyone with core problems and to anyone building a core to be aware that LinuxMCE is very picky about the RAM you use - I do not know if it was the motherboard/ram combination but a different Ram solved a big problem in my system.

here are my current and working specs for my core
MSI K9N SLI Platinum motherboard
AMD 3.0 gh dual core Windsor CPU
7300GS 256MG Nvidia graphics
2 x Giga Lan onboard
2 Hauppage PVR 150
2x 1 GB 667 MHZ Ram
200 GB PATA Segate for the os
500 GB SATA Samsung for media
EIB
Antec EA430 Power supply

[colinjones]

Interesting, check out this thread for my issue which sounds very similar. http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7134.0

Did you see the same issues in dmesg or kern.log? Would be very interested to know! Also, did the same fix work for your father? What was/is his hardware?

[darrenmason]

When you say the RAM tested OK in the memory test - how long did you run the tests for?
I am wondering if the RAM may have been faulty at certain temperatures - which were only being reached after a while of running.

I don't think there is anything particular to linuxMCE that cares about what type of RAM used. It may however have components that are  less forgiving of memory errors.

[unk95]

When I was using the NEW Crucial 800mhz RAM I ran the Memory test for abour 2 - 3 hours if i remember right. I do not think that my problem is a heat/thermal problem with the RAM as I had one of the extra cooling fans blow air directly on them. Also I have 4 1Gb sticks of that RAM and to trouble shoot is use different 2 stick combination's. I also inserted different 2 stick combinations in different slots (the MSI motherborad has 4 slots) all with the same result a lock-up/freeze.
I never checked the logs - will do it in the future - if a problem comes up again.
I would also like to mention that after the lock-up and a reboot LinuxMCE would not boot all the way but get stuck at the fsck - where the automatic check disk would not fix the problems. I would have to start the HD with the Kubuntu Live CD and manually run a fsck. That would fix numerous errors. After that MCE would start again - to lock-up shortly there after until I changed the memory.
i hope this helps
volker
ps i will post my dad's hardware info later as he live 7 hours ahead of me