Mint missing again

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

I still take pic’s Les. I have an enthusiast mobo from Gigabyte and it has a setting for everything you can set ! I can store 3 CMOS profiles and I forget what I put in them too. I think one makes the tea ?

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

I used to maintain Large PABX telephone systems that could sometimes run for years at a time. If we had to take one down for any reason we did it on a weekend because you could be almost certain that at least one of the PSU’s wouldn’t survive.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

On a Large ISDX system you got 2 computer shelves with a PSU each and then 1 per telephony shelf. Some systems had 16 of them.

[Richard]

I knew of a large installation with A and B planes working in hot standby. Lots of crystal ovens kept things how they liked to be kept. Then a ‘trade’s person did some work and shorted out the entire DC power supply with ‘unfortunate effects’ on the power. When the fire had been put out and some equipment rebuilding work had been started the system was slowly recovered. For a while it no longer had A and B planes just a single plane running cannibalised bits at every stage. The hardware replacement programme was major as crystal ovens, crystals and all manner of other kit needed replacing on the then live and unstable system.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

The large ISDX’s were only avalable in 50v DC to start with and they ran off a bank of lead acid cells, topped up by a couple of rectifiers running in parallel.

The A and B computers ran in hot standby mostly governed by a watch dog timer but normally they also switched sides at 12 midnight every day.

The switch over could be disabled though which lead me to an interesting fault.

A customer had reported that several extensions had suddenly got the wrong extension numbers so off I went. When I arrived there was an urgent alarm showing on the operarors console and she said it had been there as long as she had (two years). We had only recently taken over maintanence of this system so it didnt look good.

Anyway it turns out that computer B was completely dead and computer A had an urgent fault that meant it couldnt see the hard disc. Computer A would normally have updated its database from computer B at switch over but someone had switched that off in the distant past.

The upshot was that the system had been running on computer B until its PSU failed when it was forced to switch to computer B with a database that was at least 2 years old !

No wonder some extensions had the wrong numbers and that was the least of It. Took me 2 hours to order and fit a new PSU and 6 hours to figure out why computer A couldn’t see the disk.

I thought I was going to spend 10 min swapping a few extensions about ?

 

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

I found out that the system also switches sides if one computer has a more recent copy of the database than the other. I found that out because ounce I had reloaded the dead computer from disk the system switched and gave me a new alarm saying database mismatch.

Sorry to bore you with this but it was friday afternoon and I was trying to get down the pub ?

[Les.]

As I have mentioned in another thread, yesterday was spent “shuffling the shuttles”. My original “bought new” one now has the higher spec CPU and the later GT720(?) graphics card and new bios batteries in each one.

I ran the “second hand” machine with the 60 GB SSD I had off Dave 18 months ago, and that ran fine after setting bios to account for the changes. More elsewhere.

Then it was time for my original one, which has the 240GB SSD and was the one giving the problems that this thread is all about. Once the Bios was sorted, and the CD/DVD drawer opening problem was sorted, time to see if any better. (That is for another old thread resurrection though).

Anyway, bios reset, “Save and exit”, but instead of a full boot, it hangs at the pre-bios splash screen. Probably irrelevent, switch off and switch on. All seems OK.

But this morning, at switch on, it once more hung at that splash screen. Switch off and back on.normal boot up and into Mint.

So it looks like the problem is still there somewhere, is not due to a low bios battery, and probably not the SSD since it did not reach the full bios (I think).

Goodness knows where this is going. For the three weeks I ran with the “second hand” machine, it behaved all the time as best as I can recall.

Les

[Les.]

Well, it is now 6 days since I did all the swopping about.

At first switch on I mentioned I had to switch off then on again to make progress with boot up.

Every day since, the same has happened. This morning I tried pressing DEL to get into setup, but nothing happened. No keyboard response, just had to switch off and on again, and normal boot.

Not sure if this is a manifestation of my original problem, or some thing new. Safest to assume original problem.

In terms of changing parts, two items remain, either the PSU or the motherboard.

I will probably swop the PSU next. Will report back in due course.

Les.

[Les.]

Well, a month since I did the last “switcharoo” and every day (with one exception) it stopped at the splash screen, requiring sw off/sw on. The one occasion when it came on directly was when I forgot to isolate my desk after shut down previous night.

Anyway, I had concluded it was either the PSU or the mother board, so yesterday morning, I swapped PSUs. Fault remained. Damn!

Next turn is the M/B, but RETAINING all ancillary bits. No change!OK, as quickies, swap graphics (N/C), RAM (N/C) Remove all USB dongles (N/C)!

OK, change M/B back again, but this time back to my original lower spec Microprocessor. SOLVED!

So, all this last 6 months I have been deceived by the higher spec microprocessor that came with the used shuttle. It still works (for now) but requires the regular restart business.

Does anybody know of or  have an Athlon 11X2  or similar to fit my shuttle?

According to the book,            PROCESSOR
AMD PhenomTM / AthlonTM 64 X2 / AthlonTM 64 / SempronTM
Hyper Transport 3.0 support
Supports Socket AM2+

Of course being a shuttle, I would be loathe to fit one of the most powerful ones, the PSU would likely struggle.

Les.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/AMD_microcode

I wonder if your faulty AMD CPU is loading the correct micro code ?

The link above has some info for Linux.

[Les.]

WoF, somewhat over my head.

I have just ordered an identical Micom to my original “bought new”, and AMD Athlon X2 240e. The low power version.

Cost just over a fiver, post paid, from “down under”.

Cheers, Les.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Somewhat over my head to Les as its Linux. I was hoping it meant something to you ?

I know where I am with Windows microcode updates, and how Intel sometimes chooses to issue them that way, but that level in Linux is beyond me

[Dave Rice]

Think I may have an X3 here. I’ll have a look later.

[Les.]

Dave, thanks. Let me know if you find it.

I decided to review this thread a few minutes ago, as I have a nagging feeling something is not right. Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT looking for trouble!

At the start, the PC was not seeing the SSD.

I did a machine change (including back up bats at WoF’s suggestion), and it then changed to never booting directly without the Sw-OFF / Sw-On procedure.

During my review I re-read WoF’s comment ”  Of course it COULD be TWO problems causing similar results which is always a bugger  ”   —  Perhaps it was a combination of CPU and battery?

It is working OK for now, fingers crossed for the other shuttle to do EXACTLY the same when it gets a replacement CPU.

Of course all I will expect then is for a new series of Linux kernels to require new hardware, then I can start another 9 year adventure.

Hey Ho!  Cheers, Les.

[Dave Rice]

It’s an Athlon II X3 450 3.2Ghz ADX450WFK32GM Specs here

[Les.]

Dave, that sounds very much like the one that has “gone funny”. If it is in your way, let me give you something for it, but if you have a use, hold on, since this one from Australia is on its way (though maybe a slow boat FROM china).

Thanks, Les.

[Dave Rice]

It’s in the spares box, but it’s from the last Athlon II I had out there. Might as well be in yours.

PM me your address, should only be a quid postage.

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