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

[Kingsley Turner]

On 10/07/12 07:22, Kingsley Turner wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I recently re-installed Mythbuntu 12.04 64bit on a machine that was 
> running Mythbuntu 11.10 32-bit PAE (without this issue)
>
> Everything seems to be working - it records, plays back, does everything 
> OK - except that sometimes the box reboots itself?!
>
> There doesn't seem to be any particular trigger that I can work out - last 
> night it crashed while recording as soon as I stopped watching something. 
> It also looks like it crashed overnight while recording, but not playing 
> anything.  Of course it's also been up for sometimes two days without a 
> hitch.
>
> I'm not really sure what to do here.  I am using the Mythbuntu installed 
> nVidia blob driver, and I have tried changing this to the driver with 
> updates rather than the non-updated driver.  This hasn't made any 
> difference to stability - I mention it only because previously I used the 
> nVidia driver installed manually (rather than the Ubuntu package).
>
> Typically I would believe this was caused by bad RAM or suchlike - but 
> that seems a stretch given the 32bit OS never exhibited any stability 
> problems at all.
>
> So - I really don't know what to do!  The WAF is plummeting (if the 
> Tour-de-france highlights weren't repeated a few hours after the 
> crash-mid-schedule I would have really been in the dog house.)


Just a follow-up on this -

I found an identical motherboard, and some RAM to re-test this.
I had already replaced the PSU, to no effect (except to the wallet).

With the new motherboard, and the new or existing RAM - exactly the same

So I removed the nvidia blob supplied with Ubuntu, and installed from the 
nVidia supplied driver.
This did lead to a change: instead of simply rebooting, now it gets GUI 
lockups.  Killing X etc. has no effect, but the backend seems to be running 
OK.  I could ssh in and reboot it.

Just now it hard-locked everything during some TV playback, with a repeating 
audio loop (about 1 second long, very weird).
Running an xscreensaver GL based hack seems to cause the problem within an 
hour or so, or otherwise longer.  This time I had "chmod -x" xscreensaver 
before reboot, so that was out of the equation too.

That leaves only the CPU and two DVB cards that have not been swapped out.

I was under the impression CPU's didn't break?
I re-did the thermal paste when I swapped the motherboard; but I also 
checked the thermals before, and it was all fine (about 45C IIRC).

Any further advice?

Ditch the DVB cards for a while and test ?


cheers,
-kt