May 19, 200719 yr Author It locked up with drive spin down turned off so it doesn't seem like that's the problem. I don't know what to do now.
May 20, 200719 yr I read the entire thread but perhaps some of this has already been tried: * Reseat memory, cards, cpu, and cables * Try different drive cables - size matters, though in this case shorter is better * Check temps * Check that all fans are operative * Make sure your CPU heatsink is properly affixed to the CPU * Remove as much of the gear as you can and still have a functioning box - i.e. take out drives that aren't used, any additional cards, ... All of the above are basic hardware ideas. If it is the SW itself, I can't help. Bill
May 20, 200719 yr I read the entire thread but perhaps some of this has already been tried: * Reseat memory, cards, cpu, and cables * Try different drive cables - size matters, though in this case shorter is better * Check temps * Check that all fans are operative * Make sure your CPU heatsink is properly affixed to the CPU * Remove as much of the gear as you can and still have a functioning box - i.e. take out drives that aren't used, any additional cards, ... All of the above are basic hardware ideas. If it is the SW itself, I can't help. Bill 99% likely it is a hardware issue... the unRaid OS is basically Slackware 2.6 and it is run on many thousands of machines. If something was up, lots of people would be complaining. If there was something up with the unraid "md" (multi-device) driver, the odds are we too would be seeing lockups... since we are not, it points to hardware. Good point about the CPU heatsink. I had a stock Intel heatsink come loose from the CPU... Boy did it run hot until i fixed it. (not in the unRaid server, but in an HTPC I am configuring.) Most likely suspect in my mind would be the RAM... Disk cables would be more likely to cause errors but unlikely to crash the entire box. bad RAM would cause crashes... Now, there is a possibility that the driver module for his network card or his disk controller is causing the lockup, but if it was at fault, everyone using that same driver would be locking up... so... odds are it is not software.
May 20, 200719 yr It could be software if the specific hardware being supported is not common. Somewhere in the thread I saw a mention of some special support, so perhaps that is something to look at. I'm still using the "special" version you made for my mobo. Sometimes the best way to debug flakey computer builds is to start over. Disassemble everything, wait a couple of hours/days, then come back and try again. These types of things can be horribly stressful, especially for neophytes. Heck, I was trying to install a new Dell machine into my home network today and got frustrated and I'm an IT Manager! LOL! I took a deep breath, looked again, and realized I was doing something stupid. Hey, at least I figured it out. Bill
May 21, 200719 yr Author I ran two passes of memtest86 on the system without errors and it's beening running mprime for 3+ hours without an error. The only other thing I can think of that I haven't considered is my NIC. I'm not using the one built in my mobo because it's only 10/100. I'm using a Netgear PCI GA311 Gigabit card. I'll try taking that out and using the built in NIC and see what happens.
May 21, 200719 yr Author Crap! Since I re-formatted by USB thumb drive and used it to run the test software, I can't get it to be recognized again as a boot device in my BIOS. I even used the HP formatting tool before putting unRAID back on it. It's recognized on two other compters since, but not my unRAID system... *sigh*... Screw it! I'm tired of wasting time with this. I'm just going to assume that there is some small, weird hardware gremlin that doesn't jive with unRAID. I REALLY want unRAID to work so I will try one more time. I just ordered the following system from Newegg: MOBO: Gigabyte GA-945GZM-S2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128033 CPU: Intel Celeron D 336 Prescott 2.8GHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819112205 RAM: Corsair ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145526 I really hope this works. I would have preferred to go AMD, but I want the best shot of this working. If this does work out, I'll try some AMD stuff for my next build and report my findings in hopes that we can get some AMD compatibility going.
May 25, 200719 yr Author The new system is up and running and has stayed running for over 24 hours. The old one managed that a couple times, but it was rare. This one staying up right off the bat makes me pretty confident it should stay stable. Thanks for everyone's help!
May 28, 200719 yr Author Well it's been running for over 72 hrs without a hitch, so it loooks like a success. I'm glad to have a stable system now so I can start transferring files and trying out the data recovery.
May 31, 200719 yr Stability is good! FWIW, our original MD1200 prototype system which stores all our company backups as well as all kinds of media has been running without a single problem for over 18 months - except for one "white label" hard drive which failed - you get what you pay for
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