FC5 INstallation Killing Computers
Matthew Miller
mattdm at mattdm.org
Sat Aug 19 14:46:39 UTC 2006
On Sat, Aug 19, 2006 at 09:43:28AM -0400, Robert Gann wrote:
> The strange thing is that all of these computers were working properly.
> Three were running Windows XP Pro or Windows Server 2003. One was
> running FC4. They all died during the FC5 installation. My thoughts, in
> rough order are (1) some problem with the electrical poser in the room
> (although three on Windows installations on 32 bit machines done at
> about the same time have caused no problems), some kind of issue
> involving overheating, if somehow, FC5 is not correctly controlling the
> fans, or (3) FC5 has trouble with dual AMD computers, at least with the
> motherboards we are using.
It's possible the RPM transaction processing ends up being more
CPU-intensive than the Windows installation, and the added stress is what
causes the problem. The theory about FC5 not controlling the fan correctly
is remotely possible (the FC5 installer uses a kinda-old-by-now kernel,
after all), but usually the fans should fail-safe and just go on full. And
in either of these cases, the built-in protection in the CPU should cut in
and turn off the system before you get an actual dead machine.
>
> The behavior of the computers is really odd. The one that went “poof”
> near the start of the installation is totally dead (this one had running
> FC4 and I was doing a fresh installation). After trying to do the
> installation a couple times with the other computers, I cannot even turn
> them on. Letting them sit for a while (a period like overnight) which
> would allow the computer to completely cool and discharge its
> capacitors, I can get it started. However, it only runs for a little
> bit. For example, with Knoppix, I cannot get past the “Hit Any Key to
> Boot into Knoppix” screen. I checked one that I did get into the BIOS,
> and the BIOS indicated that the power supply voltages were correct.
>
> Most of these computers were plugged into UPS units, although these are
> a bit old.. I’ve requested Maintenance to check the power in our lab.
> The 32 bit computers have 400 watt power supplies and the 64 bit
> computers have 450 watt power supplies. They have lots of cooling fans,
> and the cooling units on the CPUs are very robust. These computers have
> all worked fine in the past running FC4, Win XP Pro, and Win 2003 Server
> for 2 – 3 years.
>
> If I had to guess it is going to turn out that the power in our lab has
> problems and that Linux is less tolerant of that than Windows.
>
> Being an old timer I remember something called the “Hacker’s Test”.
> It had a number of things you had to do to qualify as a true hacker. One
> was to break hardware with software. I never thought it was possible,
> except by mis-configuring video cards pr or over-clocking a CPU.
>
> I’m going to try to test the lab current and the power supply current
> this weekend if I can get in to campus. (I live about 20 miles from campus.)
>
> Thank you very much for your thoughtful replies. They are greatly
> appreciated.
>
>
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--
Matthew Miller mattdm at mattdm.org <http://mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux ------> <http://linux.bu.edu/>
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