danielw@wyn386.UUCP (Daniel Wynalda) (09/30/89)
I recently installed some new products on my 80386 machine and am having sporatic machine freeze-ups. Here is my current hardware/software setup. SCO Xenix 386 2.2.3 Excelan LAN workplace Software with EXOS Ethernet 205T card. SCO Xenix-Net 3- Arnet Smartport (8 port) cards. Wangtec 60MB tape drive Mylex 80386 motherboard w/ 4MB RAM running 20mhz WD1007-ESDI Controller, 150MB miniscribe ESDI drive. Monochrome display/card The entire machine was running without problems for about the last 9 months. In the last month I installed the SCO Xenix-Net and LAN workplace software/hardware. The other equipment (terminal cards, tape drive etc) were already installed. Things appear just fine most of the time. Every day or two, however, the total machine freezes up and does NOTHING. The hard disk drive light comes on and STAYS on. The console keyboard is COMPLETELY dead and all terminals lock up. The only way I can get the machine to function normally again is to TURN OFF the computer and turn it back on again -- thus fsck'ing my file system and destroying everyone's processes. There is no slowdown before the freezeup and there are no messages on the screen that Xenix panic'ed etc. It appears to be a hardware lockup. I haven't been able to trace this to anything in particular. I also added another machine with SCO Xenix 2.3.2 386 and the same setup, all is running fine with a Digiboard 16i and Everex Tape drive and VGA display. The two machines are linked together. About 3 weeks ago, my video card died in the currently troubled machine. I replaced it with another identical card. Is it possible that the new card could periodically lock up the machine and cause these symptoms? Is it possible that whatever caused the display card to die before may have caused a small problem in the motherboard that only shows up occasionally?? The entire memory check works fine so memory appears to be fine. I guess I'm just looking for input/suggestions as to where I should start to isolate this problem. I've added quite a few things but it doesn't really appear to be software related. Daniel Wynalda -- Daniel Wynalda | Telephone: (616) 866-1561 X22 Ham: N8KUD Wynalda Litho Inc. | Network: danielw@wyn386.UUCP ..sharkey!wyn386!danielw 8221 Graphic Ind Pk. | Diskclaimer: If you find a disk with no label, it is Rockford, MI 49341 | the one I lost. I say what I say for me ONLY here.