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. > > > -- > fedora-list mailing list > fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx > To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list > -- Matthew Miller mattdm@xxxxxxxxxx <http://mattdm.org/> Boston University Linux ------> <http://linux.bu.edu/>
