[mythtv-users] HELP! 64bit Mythbuntu spontaneously reboots (32bit didn't)

[Patrick Ouellette]

On Sun, Aug 05, 2012 at 04:44:54PM +1000, Kingsley Turner wrote:
> Hello again,
> 
> I think I've determined the culprit - sort of.
> 
> It wasn't the power supply...  $200 wasted.
> 
> I used to run xscreensaver with the opengl photo-panning applette.
> I was sitting around cogitating, watching the screensaver pan over a
> photo, and the box rebooted.
> I checked the schedule - it wasn't recording at the time.
> 
> So I disabled xscreensaver - and thereby "fixed" the reboots.
> 
> It's now been up for nearly 48 hours, which hasn't happened for
> weeks - it got to the stage where it would last 2-3 hours at most.
> 
> So of xscreensaver is causing the box to reboot (As JWZ says, there
> is nothing in xscreensaver that should cause a problem with X, (let
> alone a reboot)) - this means it's probably the nVidia blob right?
> 
> I'm using a motherboard with an on-board nvidia 9400 GPU.  The
> drivers are the Ubuntu module shipped ones "+updates".
> 
> Maybe I should change to the latest manual nVidia drivers ?
> 
> What do you think ?

I doubt the nVidia blob is the issue (might be, check the nVidia forums
for the issue), unless you just updated it and then the problem started.

CLEAN YOUR CPU HEATSINK -  Make sure CPU fan(s)/airflow are good.

I had a box doing something similar.  I replaced the power supply, and was 
pulling my hair out trying to figure out why it was randomly rebooting.
I installed the sensors package to monitor CPU temps and found it was 
overheating (getting to the ACPI BIOS critical temp).

My symptoms: seemingly random shutdowns/reboots with a decreasing time
between them.  Didn't seem to matter if I was watching a show or the
backend was idle.  I later found it would reboot during a CPU intensive
application (transcoding for instance) every time.

I also noticed the "upgrade" from Ubuntu 11 to 12 revived my automatic
shutdown command for myth backend so the backend would shutdown after
the timeout - I had disabled that (at least I thought I had) before the
upgrade.  After cleaning the CPU heatsink and  disabling the auto backend
idle shutdown the box has been rock solid.


-- 
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> Patrick Ouellette        |  I have been all things unholy. If God can work  <
> pat(at)flying-gecko.net  |  through me, he can work through anyone.         <
> Amateur Radio: NE4PO     |  -- Francis of Assisi                            <
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