Randall Schulz wrote:

On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 19:37:25 +0000, Martin 53N 1W wrote:

Randall Schulz wrote:
...

Also, do you still have the problem for a different WU?

Yes, the problem crops up every now and then. Often over night, just so I
can't notice it right a way and restart the client, of course.

Another test is to disable cron for the night so that no overnight jobs get started. If that clears the problem then you have some 'system load' related problem, which often is hardware related.

[...]

suffering 'an unexpected' result. However, cosmic ray hits might flip a
bit in your machine once every few years or sooner. ECC is a good idea for
multi-GByte RAMs!

Nonsense. They're just like insurance: A scam!

That depends on the application. Home non-critical web surfing and you shouldn't have a multi-GByte machine anyhow. For a business or 'mission' critical system, ECC RAM is a good easy first step to catch 'occasional' glitches. Cosmic rays are real!

Good luck for tracing the problem,

Thanks. But I'll probably never know for sure what it is.

All the more reason to investigate further and report what you find. At least log what happens and when so that we get a few clues.


I wouldn't put up with any computer which in any way was suspected of being 'flaky'. Its just not worth the suspicions and wasted time. Either it gets fixed, or it gets destroyed being tested or fixed!

Good luck,
Martin