Greetings Managers-
I have a DEC 3000-500X which has been really flaky over the last 3-4
months. The machine had been very stable up until recently.
The first symptoms were a series of kernel panics:
kernel inst fault=4, status = 4, pc = fffffc00004183cc
panic (cpu 0): trap: illegal instruction
trap: invalid memory read access from kernel mode
faulty virtual address: 0x000001a20000325c
pc of faulty instruction: 0xfffffc000044e888
ra contents at time of fault: 0xfffffc000044e860
sp contenst at time of fault: 0xfffffc000056f330
This failure mode includes all the crash dump stuff.
In addition, the machine has a tendancy to wander off---ie, it
screen freezes and the operating system just hangs (no core, no
crash...nothing).
THEN The power supply failed. The machine would just stop (no
lights, no fan) and still be plugged in and switched on. DEC
replaced the power supply ($600+ bucks later). This problem has
ceased, but the constant hanging and crashing persists regardless
of the amount of memory (originally 224MB) and the particular
SIMMS (I pulled the MBBs with all 224MB and put in a DEC3000-500(not an X),
and they ran like a champ).
I had DEC (software support) look at it, and they decided that I need
a new motherboard... this is a $4800 part. Come on DEC, we ponied up
over $40,000 with academic discount...
Additionally, it has developed a habit of overheating since the
the new power supply...at least that's the way it appears. If I
close up the case, it will go off into "space" within 20min. I am
running this thing with the lid off (not good) which seems to help
some, but it will do this when office gets warm; like this morning
for instance :-( All of the fans do seem to be running.
Is there anything I can do? I will gladly summarize. I saw a similar
posting a while back, and I have tried many of those ... fiddling with
simms, etc. Is there any hope.
Thanks,
Sean
*************************************************************************
* Sean O'Connell *
* Computer Projects Manager *
* Duke University Institute of Statistics and Decision Sciences *
*************************************************************************
* Phone: (919) 684-5419 *
* Fax: (919) 684-8594 *
* Email: sto_at_stat.Duke.EDU *
* Mail: 220 Old Chemistry Building *
* P.O. Box 90251 *
* Durham NC 27708-0251 *
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Received on Tue Nov 26 1996 - 18:28:39 NZDT