Hey all,

 

Just looking for some advice on where to start really.

 

I have for approaching 9 months, maybe longer, had these intermittent crashes that I could not pin down.

I now believe co-incidentally that the 2 drives I have since replaced while showing issues were not the culprits (but were on their way out)

 

The system is maybe 6-8 years old. I've been a forum member for nearly 7 but I built it before that.

 

I've had several drives die, almost die etc and they've been replaced as and when. The rest is the original equipment.

 

The crashes seem to only occur when it's in use. Now this can be me streaming a video from it, copying something to it myself, my post processor moving files across but it's gotten to the point where the crashes are multiples times a day. At one stage it could run a parity check while I was doing other things, now it just locks up and crawls to a halt. I cancel parity and it's good to go again.

Though the most regular crash is a complete lock up, can't get to //tower or mines name, can't get in via explorer. I've left a monitor plugged in and nothing seemed suprising, the few times I've SSH'd in nothing happens until after I end the putty session.

 

Now looking at the SMART reports below I've got two drives throwing errors I don't recognise, one is a new drive but I'm guessing that this is down to the hard reboots I'm having to do to get the system back up and running each time it bombs out.

 

Quote

WDC_WD20EARS-00MVWB0_WD-WMAZA3020880-20171211-1914.txt

WDC_WD60EFRX-68MYMN1_WD-WX51D6427226-20171211-1914.txt

 

 

I'm getting to my wits end (well more precisely the wife is) with this lot recently, and I could just do with a nudge in the right direction. I've had a long run with only minor issues, so I'm turning to the experts!

 

Thanks all

wintermute-diagnostics-20171211-1914.zip

6 minutes ago, Shadey1 said:

The crashes seem to only occur when it's in use.

 

6 minutes ago, Shadey1 said:

Though the most regular crash is a complete lock up,

Power supply on its way out?

That's not even something I had considered! Time to go see how I can check that!!

Thanks for the idea!

Temperature (dust) and power (old capacitors) are quite common reasons for older machines to become unstable.

 

In some situations, the power issues can also come from corroded connectors. As the resistance in the connector increases because of corrosion, the voltage drop will also increase. And increased voltage drop means more heat in the connector. Which speeds up the corrosion. Some connection designs can even slowly introduce dust layers that slowly lifts up the springy parts of the connector - all from long time with tiny vibrations.

11 hours ago, Squid said:

 

Power supply on its way out?

 

9 hours ago, pwm said:

Temperature (dust) and power (old capacitors) are quite common reasons for older machines to become unstable.

 

In some situations, the power issues can also come from corroded connectors. As the resistance in the connector increases because of corrosion, the voltage drop will also increase. And increased voltage drop means more heat in the connector. Which speeds up the corrosion. Some connection designs can even slowly introduce dust layers that slowly lifts up the springy parts of the connector - all from long time with tiny vibrations.

 

Thanks both, I'm going to take it apart tonight and clean it thoroughly,  and check my connectors.

 

I'm also going to do the math on what my PSU should be W wise. I've had this nagging feeling since you suggested it that it might not be enough, that coupled with it dying under strain set me off. I probably built it on the cheap all those years ago not planning in for all the extra drives.