Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2011 07:29:37 -0700 From: Chuck Swiger <cswiger@mac.com> To: Manish Jain <invalid.pointer@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: disk spinning continuously + cpu possibly overheating = sudden death Message-ID: <0C3600E5-1324-4852-894A-D29F3445660C@mac.com> In-Reply-To: <4E18332F.1040805@gmail.com> References: <20110709053404.B1FC910656AE@hub.freebsd.org> <4E18332F.1040805@gmail.com>
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On Jul 9, 2011, at 3:53 AM, Manish Jain wrote: > I am running FreeBSD-8.2-amd64 on a Western Digital 320 GD disk and a > quad-core AMD Phenom processor. After booting, the disk keeps > continuously (meaning continuous I/O) and after a couple of hours (on > the console with the X server not running), suddenly the whole system > dies, powering off in a flash. I suspect the continuous I/O is causing > is a CPU overheat which results in this behaviour. While you probably do have flaky hardware causing problems, even under the worst case situation, a modern hard drive doesn't use more than about 10W even under full load (ie, continuous writes). Compare that with the 125W thermal design rating of a 4-core Phenom. If your system is overheating, it's not because of what a hard drive is doing. It should be easy to tell if thermals are an issue-- is the CPU heat sink getting too hot to touch just before this shutdown? If so, it's likely to be a problem with a cooling fan or heatsink attachment. Also, what is it that makes you think your disk is doing continuous I/O? What does "iostat 5" or similar show? Regards, -- -Chuck
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