[CentOS] Emergency rescue help needed

[Anne Wilson]

On Thursday 29 January 2009 20:23:40 Lanny Marcus wrote:
> Assuming that the Diagnostic tests you run on the hard drive and RAM
> are OK, if the box was made by Dell, Compaq/HP, etc., they probably
> have Diagnostics you can run on the mobo/cpu that you can Download
> from their web site. If not, hopefully from the web site of the mobo
> manufacturer.
>
It's a home-build.  I've been doing this since about 1990.  The drives are 
Hitachi, and I seem to recall that once before I tried to run the Hitachi 
diagnostics, without success.  My request for help/information from them was 
ignored.  However, at the time I got the drives they had a good warranty 
period, which is something I always check as a guide to how much confidence  
the manufacturer has in them.

> You said that the UPS is fully charged. I wonder if you need a UPS
> with larger capacity and if your UPS is working properly. 

I don't think there's any problem with the UPS (APC).

> Depends on
> how long the frequent outages were that day. My observation is that if
> the power goes down (especially when we have Thunderstorm activity) it
> may come back up and then go down again, sometimes in 1 or 2 minutes
> or less.
>
The village has had several weeks of being powered by emergency generators 
stuck in fields.  We've had very many power dips and momentary losses, then in 
the space of last week we had an 11-hour outage, followed a few days later by 
a 4.5 hour one and two short ones soon after that.  I think it was the 
rapidity of those outages that caused the problem.

> The cheap PSU's are vastly over rated, with regard to their capacity.
> The one I bought for this Dell Dimension 2400 a few weeks ago says
> "550 watts". The motherboard repairman told me he believes the true
> capacity is about 50% of that.....
>
I buy only recommended brands, and watch the load.  However, that box has a 
PSU that came with the (not cheap) box, so I don't know the quality.  I think 
it should be replaced.  I can't remember its rating - I'll check tomorrow when 
I pull the box out.

> If your data is critical, the backups should be stored off site. There
> are some companies mentioned on webhostingtalk.com who provide backup
> service to their servers over the Internet.
>
Critical only to me - personal stuff.  All the same, I take your point.  I 
will move the backups to a safer spot.

> In my own box, the vast majority of the symptoms, if not all symptoms,
> disappeared, after I unplugged the connectors and reseated them. Then,
> the new PSU.....   In my wife's box, a strange intermittent problem,
> where the BIOS couldn't see the hard drive when booting, disappeared,
> when I replaced the EIDE cable.
>
> When you have the cover off, put your hand on the Shroud over the CPU
> and see whether or not it is hot or cool. If it is hot, that's not an
> indication of good cooling.  The Capacitors on the motherboard should
> look alike and not be hot to the touch.  GL

I'll check those at the same time.  Thanks for the reply

Anne
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