Freezing or Rebooting, How do I troubleshoot?

[KHarvey]

So I have moved to TC as my primary OS at home.  For the most part it has been working out well, but I have ran into an issue that I can no longer ignore, but I am unable to troubleshoot.

I have been trying to narrow down the problem, and I think I have figured out possibly what causes it, but I don't know what to do next.  It normally locks up while playing a video, either a video saved on my computer (Xine) or a flash video (Flash 11) through either Chromium or Firefox.  When watching a video it can happen any where from every 5 minutes to every 20 minutes, meaning that it does not appear to be certain time frames.  Also I am able to watch the same video and have it lock up during different times of playback.  The problem also appears to happen while playing flash games through Chromium.
I do not believe this to be a problem with sound as I am able to listen to MP3's using XMMS for hours on end without it ever locking up or rebooting.  But if I watch a video I can almost always lock up the computer.

So my computer is a custom PC with AMD X2 Dual Core Processors.  I am running an NVidia  Quadro FX 1700 (Xorg).  My sound car is also NVidia (MCP64) with OSS.
I am running TC 4.0.2, with OpenBox, Xorg, Conky, and Tint2.  I have several other Apps installed, and can supply the complete list if need be.

When it locks up it normally plays a steady tone on my speakers, the mouse does not move, my clock and Conky do not update.  While looking at Conky I do not see any spikes in usage while it is locked up.  CPU is normally around 12%, memory is around 15%, network traffic isn't always apparent, and I have 0% swap usage.  The mouse does not work, and the keyboard does not respond, although I don't know any shortcut keys in OpenBox.  I don't remember if Caps or Num lock still work when it is locked up.  Next time it happens I will check.

I am unsure as to how to troubleshoot this as the computer is completely locked up, and a reboot would erase any logs that may have been written.  When I check dmesg I do have a couple of errors with nivida about Unknown symbols, also something about a Firmware Bug with the powernow-k8 no compatible ACPI_PSS.  Here is some of the output from my dmesg:

Code: [Select]


nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_bind_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_enable (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_backend_acquire (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_bridges (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_free_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_allocate_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_unbind_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_copy_info (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_backend_release (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_bind_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_enable (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_backend_acquire (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_bridges (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_free_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_allocate_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_unbind_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_copy_info (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_backend_release (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_bind_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_enable (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_backend_acquire (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_bridges (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_free_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_allocate_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_unbind_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_copy_info (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_backend_release (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_bind_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_enable (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_backend_acquire (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_bridges (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_free_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_allocate_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_unbind_memory (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_copy_info (err 0)
nvidia: Unknown symbol agp_backend_release (err 0)
Linux agpgart interface v0.103
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNED] enabled at IRQ 18
nvidia 0000:04:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNED] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
nvidia 0000:04:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
vgaarb: device changed decodes: PCI:0000:04:00.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=io+mem
NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  280.13  Wed Jul 27 16:55:43 PDT 2011
vboxdrv: Found 2 processor cores.
vboxdrv: fAsync=1 offMin=0xd259 offMax=0xd259
vboxdrv: TSC mode is 'asynchronous', kernel timer mode is 'normal'.
vboxdrv: Successfully loaded version 4.1.4_OSE (interface 0x00190000).
vboxpci: IOMMU not found (not registered)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LAZA] enabled at IRQ 20
oss_hdaudio 0000:00:07.0: PCI INT B -> Link[LAZA] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
usbcore: registered new interface driver oss_usb
powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ (2 cpu cores) (version 2.20.00)
[Firmware Bug]: powernow-k8: No compatible ACPI _PSS objects found.
[Firmware Bug]: powernow-k8: Try again with latest BIOS.
r8169 0000:03:00.0: eth0: link down
r8169 0000:03:00.0: eth0: link down
r8169 0000:03:00.0: eth0: link up

At this point I am not really sure what to do or where to go from here.  Do you have any suggestions or troubleshooting steps, or have you experienced this before and know a fix for it?  I have Googled a little bit but haven't really found anything.

[gerald_clark]

It might be a memory problem or an interrupt conflict.
Run memtest86 overnight.
If you have pci cards, check for interrupt conflicts in the BIOS.
Try moving the cards to different slots.

[Rich]

Hi KHarvey
First, if you are using any aggressive timing settings in your BIOS, over clocking, or any other such
"performance enhancing techniques", back off on those settings.
Second, if you have a different graphics card available, see if that stops the lock ups. If it does, then
you've isolated it to the card or the driver.

If that doesn't provide any answers, strip the system. Remove any hardware/software not required
to play video. If the lock ups disappear, start adding stuff back in until the symptoms return.

[curaga]

Virtualbox modules are known to be buggy, see if it crashes when those aren't loaded.

[KHarvey]

I apologize for the late response, I was able to narrow down the problem to the memory.  Thank you gerald_clark.
I had 2 out of my 2 memory sticks had several hundred bad modules.  Once the problem was narrowed down I found that it progressively got worse, so I was unable to post my findings.

I have since ordered more memory for my computer, and I just finished installing it.  So far I have been watching a movie for the past 30 mins, and surfing the internet non-stop.  No lockups, no problems.  This is awesome, so far everything is running perfectly.

I had tried swapping the video cards at one point in time, but all I had were NVidia cards, so I was worried that it was a driver issue. 
Also I don't overclock my systems, it normally introduces a level of complexity and makes it much more difficult to troubleshoot.

But now I have installed more memory so I will be trying out Microcore 64-bit and see if I can build it up the way that I am running TinyCore now.  Then I will test out VirtualBox.  My list of customization's is starting to get smaller and smaller.

This is a great OS, thank you all for your efforts in building it, and helping out people like me.

[gerald_clark]

You are welcome.