Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: MCEs | From | Tony Vroon <> | Date | Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:23:18 +0100 |
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On Fri, 2008-10-24 at 14:45 +0200, Felix von Leitner wrote: > Now the most common causes for MCEs are apparently heat issues and bad > memory. I can rule out both.
Are you sure? I have had MCEs and instability for a while now, and using mcelog --k8 --dmi /dev/mcelog
I finally got a clear "this component is at fault" message, pinpointing DIMM 4 on CPU 2. I shuffled the DIMMs around and then used the machine again. The message shifted with the DIMM, to DIMM 1 on CPU 1. Memtest86+ doesn't appear to stress the hardware enough to provoke single or multi-bit errors though. (So, a few successful passes in memtest86+ does not rule out a RAM problem)
Temperatures can also get high at locations in the machine that have no sensors (specifically voltage regulators). To check for heat problems you could operate your tower case whilst lying on the floor, so hot air rises up past the PCI/PCIe cards instead of getting trapped underneath them.
Note that LKML isn't the friendliest place to get MCE debugging, as it will be considered a hardware fault and thus off-topic. Consider an MCE like a 'check engine' light in your car. It doesn't tell you what's wrong, just that it's bad and should be investigated.
Regards, Tony V. [unhandled content-type:application/pgp-signature] | |