Boot up error(s)

[mayerg]

I received a Wild Dog Performance with Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) 64-bit, a Quad core (Q9550) and 8Gb memory a few days ago. I have been experiencing intermittent boot up errors such as "Out of Memory - System Halted" or, more commonly, "CRC Error - System Halted". It gets through the "System76" splash screen, and the "GRUB loading stage2" screen quickly. Then shows, "Starting Up...". Next, after a brief pause, it displays one of those errors. Unless I'm mistaken, it beeps once at the very beginning when it works, three times if it's going to fail. After hitting the reset button or shutting down and restarting, it sometimes boots and sometimes doesn't.

Taking a page from my video issue, I specifically checked the memory and it all seems to be seated properly with all of the white connetors fully in the locked position. All other components and connectors also seem to be in proper position.

All info online that I've seen frequently talks about this issue with dual-boot. No such case here, Ubuntu-only.

Anyone with any ideas?

Regards,

- Gary

[Guille Damke]

It seems that something inside got loose, probably a RAM module or the Graphic Card. Wait for more input anyway, but I think you'll have to open it and check that everything is set in place and tight.

[thomasaaron]

I second that. Also, make sure your hard drive cables are set (both at the drive and at the motherboard. It sounds like something took a bump.

[mayerg]

For the past week now, I have performed additional troubleshooting on the machine. I have seated and reseated everything... twice. I have run memtest and was told my memory passed. During the course of my testing and getting boot up errors, here’s some additional information that I’ve gathered:

The “CRC Error” comes up ~90% of the time when there is an error. In addition to the “Out of Memory” and “CRC Error”, I also get auto-reboot right after it displays “Starting up…” and then pauses for a few seconds, I get “Invalid Compressed Format (err=1) - System halted” , and I have seen where it just hangs indefinitely after displaying “Starting up…” While it always fails when it triple-beeps, that’s rare. It often only beeps once and fails anyway.

I have isolated the problem to the DVD drive. The error typically comes when I first boot up the machine after it has been off for at least a couple of hours. Once I receive the error, I typically have to reboot (usually shutting down the machine completely) about a half dozen times before, if I’m lucky, it boots correctly. If it does boot normally, it sometimes keeps booting, sometimes does not. However, I have found that, consistently, if I remove the SATA cable from the DVD drive, it will boot normally even on the first, second or whatever try I’d normally expect it to still throw errors. I’ve then been able to get it to consistently reboot and/or boot from shutdown to a normal boot over a dozen times in a row (without the DVD drive plugged in). This is whether I let it sit 10 seconds after shut down or a few hours. But, if I let it sit a few hours, plug the SATA cable back into the DVD drive and boot up, I immediately get an error again. I have tried swapping cables, swapping/changing SATA ports on the mobo, etc. It always comes down to whether or not the DVD drive is connected to the SATA bus.

Now, whether it is a physical drive problem (there is no DVD in the drive when I boot up, ever), or a driver issue, I do not know. The drive in question is the one that came with the Wild Dog: a Sony NEC Optiarc, Model AD-7221S, manufactured Nov 2008. It's a CD/DVD rewritable with lightscribe.

Edit: I should add that I find the "wait time for error" behavior odd. If it is a physical error, I would suspect a bad capacitor. Note: I have checked the mobo for domed caps. None that I can see.

- Gary

[jdb]

For the past week now, I have performed additional troubleshooting on the machine. I have seated and reseated everything... twice. I have run memtest and was told my memory passed. During the course of my testing and getting boot up errors, here’s some additional information that I’ve gathered:

The “CRC Error” comes up ~90% of the time when there is an error. In addition to the “Out of Memory” and “CRC Error”, I also get auto-reboot right after it displays “Starting up…” and then pauses for a few seconds, I get “Invalid Compressed Format (err=1) - System halted” , and I have seen where it just hangs indefinitely after displaying “Starting up…” While it always fails when it triple-beeps, that’s rare. It often only beeps once and fails anyway.

I have isolated the problem to the DVD drive. The error typically comes when I first boot up the machine after it has been off for at least a couple of hours. Once I receive the error, I typically have to reboot (usually shutting down the machine completely) about a half dozen times before, if I’m lucky, it boots correctly. If it does boot normally, it sometimes keeps booting, sometimes does not. However, I have found that, consistently, if I remove the SATA cable from the DVD drive, it will boot normally even on the first, second or whatever try I’d normally expect it to still throw errors. I’ve then been able to get it to consistently reboot and/or boot from shutdown to a normal boot over a dozen times in a row (without the DVD drive plugged in). This is whether I let it sit 10 seconds after shut down or a few hours. But, if I let it sit a few hours, plug the SATA cable back into the DVD drive and boot up, I immediately get an error again. I have tried swapping cables, swapping/changing SATA ports on the mobo, etc. It always comes down to whether or not the DVD drive is connected to the SATA bus.

Now, whether it is a physical drive problem (there is no DVD in the drive when I boot up, ever), or a driver issue, I do not know. The drive in question is the one that came with the Wild Dog: a Sony NEC Optiarc, Model AD-7221S, manufactured Nov 2008. It's a CD/DVD rewritable with lightscribe.

Edit: I should add that I find the "wait time for error" behavior odd. If it is a physical error, I would suspect a bad capacitor. Note: I have checked the mobo for domed caps. None that I can see.

- Gary

Good troubleshooting!!

It sounds like the DVD is sometimes responding when it shouldn't & is clobbering the hard drive data.

A piece of "killer hardware" like that is very hard to find.

jdb

[thomasaaron]

Yes, great troubleshootiing!

Fill out this form, and we'll get you a new DVD drive...
http://system76.com/article_info.php?articles_id=39

In the mean time, press the "Del" key when you see the manufacturer splash screen and go into the BIOS set-up. Make sure the Hard Drive is set as the first boot device. This *should* eliminate the problem until you get the new drive.