Well, the hard drive isn't exactly "beefy"- a mere 30GB hard drive.
It's physically pretty small, and seems to be functioning fine. I tend
to think it isn't my PSU, since I had other things hooked up to it
previously, and never had any issues with it. Also, the two different
servers were running completely different PSUs- both of them were
stock, but the first server that died didn't have anything else
running under the PSU... could have been a cheap product, but I'm
weary of pinpointing the problem too soon.

- David Shaw


On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:19:00 -0500 (EST), Todd Vierling <tv@duh.org> wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Mar 2005, Frederick Bruckman wrote:
> 
> > > Well, the RAM is the same (PC2100 Kingston, two 256MB sticks) that was
> > > in the machine for a long time (~3 years) when that computer was my
> > > gaming machine. It worked flawlessly (as far as I know).
> > > Now, that machine is my server. The only change in the computer is a
> > > different hard drive, and a lack of a DVD drive (I took it out). I'm
> > > trying to figure out why the RAM died now, instead of earlier. It
> > > could just be a similarity, but I'm trying as hard as I can to find
> > > any connection between the two servers and their RAM issues.
> >
> > Would that be a beefier hard drive? Hard drives vary wildly in current
> > draw.  It could be that your power supply is marginal, or failing, and
> > the larger hard drive pushed it over.  See if the motherboard voltages
> > vary while the hard drive is active, or just try a different PS.
> 
> ...with more wattage.  Many machines these days start out with too small a
> power supply for "power users" of the type you'd find running NetBSD; some
> off the shelf "beefy" systems ship with only a 230W[!!] supply.
> 
> My home server has three 7200RPM ATA HDs, a SCSI tape drive (with controller
> card), and a CD-ROM with an Athlon XP chip and compatible board.  Anything
> less than a 350W makes the supply heat up like crazy (due to current
> overdraw).
> 
> --
> -- Todd Vierling <tv@duh.org> <tv@pobox.com>
> 


-- 
System.out.println(String sig);
   [ David Shaw ]