Here's an obscure one to confuse the computer novices...

Is there anyone else on this forum who's using a recent version of Linux on an AMD64 processor PC? The reason I ask is that mine is being VERY flakey at the moment, with both Firefox and Konqueror core-dumping whenever the mood takes them.

My PC is fairly new, but has been running OK otherwise - AMD64 processor not over-clocked with it's temperature showing as well within limits (roughly 50C), 1Gb memory, 320Gb SATA disk, nvidia 6000-series graphics (i.e. nothing fancy).

I've tried UBUNTU and Mandriva - Firefox frequently crashes in KDE but rarely in Gnome. Konqueror worked OK for a long while, but has recently begun to not start, dropping a core dump on the desktop.

There's a danger I might end up with Win XP if I can't get this sorted! It's really annoying me...

cheers,
David

Silly question probably but are you using the generic i386 compiled version of the distribution, or the AMD64 version?

Get your correct version here if not

Have you checked the RAM for errors, sometimes this causes random things to happen.. You will need to find a bit of decent software to do this and run it over night.. Might be worth a try.. It solved a simular problem to yours on my AMD at work, we replaced the RAM...

Dan

I was running Ubuntu on my AMD XP2000 processor. It seemed to run ok although I have now installed Vista which suits me better.

I'm running the proper AMD64 version of the systems I've tried...

Can anyone suggest a memory checker?

David

Have you been applying the distro patches and updates? I'm using Suse 9.3 and 10.1 and both have been experiencing Mozilla issues during the last month where it hangs (very IE in behaviour) or crashes. Konquerer also went through that phase but is now stable again. I've applied the updates it seemed to get better so I'm wondering if there were some bugs in some that I applied a month or so ago.

Mine is just an AMD 2200 something or other so not the same as your setup but mine was stable until recently.

I have the added disadvantage that the machine is only a few months old, so I couldn't say it's OK with any confidence.

HOWEVER - I've been running memtest and you've never seen so many error messages!

I've just unplugged the upper bank of memory and the lower bank tests OK, so either the upper one is faulty, or it wasn't seated properly. Testing continues.

My current theory is that most of the time everything ran in lower memory, with random excursions into the upper levels... time will tell...

cheers,
David

UPDATE: I took out the lower bank and put the upper one in its place - errors again. will have to talk to the supplier tomorrow...



[Edited on 6/12/06 by David Jenkins]

I think it's the 2nd memory module - if I take it out and run on 512Mb I get no errors reported, and Linux runs properly with no crashes so far (touch wood).

If I put the 2nd module in place of the 1st (so it's only running on 512Mb again) I get the errors. I haven't tried booting Linux with that module, as I don't want to risk screwing up the system!

DJ

I've got an AMD 64 bit Laptop with Kubuntu on it, but I went back to 32bit distributions after I couldn't get certain apps to install on 64. (Can't quite remember now, but I think it was apps like Wine)

Might be worth running the (K)Ubuntu Live CD for a while and seeing if it reboots itself. You don't have to have anything to do with the hard disk, but it may narrow down the options.

Cheers,

Neil.