[TriLUG] Hardware stability issues

[Roger W. Broseus via TriLUG]

If not too troublesome, swap PSUs between machines and see if the problem "moves."

I bought a PSU tester just to check on various functions. They are pretty 
inexpensive and a must have for the guy who does not have enuf tools.

--
Roger W. Broseus - Linux User
     Email: RogerB at bronord.com
     Web Site: www.bronord.com

On 10/30/21 5:42 PM, Wes Garrison via TriLUG wrote:
> Dear LUGgers,
>
> My children and I have built nearly-identical desktop machines, and only
> one of them is experiencing seemingly-random hard-locks (requiring 4-second
> power button press to turn off).
>
> Both machines are:
> AMD Ryzen 5 5600G processors with built-in Radeon Graphics
> MSI B550M-Pro socket AM4 micro-ATX motherboards
> 32GB Crucial Ballistix RAM
> Debian 11
>
> The only obvious difference is the power supply.  My daughter's computer
> has an Antec 400W PSU, and my son's has a BFG 550W PSU.  My son's is the
> one experiencing the hard-locks.
>
> I'm currently running a memtest86 on the machine, but in my experience it's
> almost never a RAM or processor problem.
>
> Do any of you have a great way of isolating frustrating problems like this?
>
> I *hate* throwing hardware at a problem trying to troubleshoot.
>
> What would your first steps be?  Swap the RAM between the 2 machines?  Is
> there any reliable way to test PSU voltage stability?
>
> Any insight is greatly appreciated!
>
> -Wes