From Ricardo Santos Campos

Well, my desktop computer (not the one with the wierd inode set) lasts about 2-20 minutes before locking up (does this in GNU/Linux AND Win2k), and although I'm now runnning memtest86 (it did this about a year ago, and I had to change 1 of my DIMMs from slot 2 to the third slot and it worked), I guess the poor little motherboard et al need to be put into retirement after a few years of (quirky) service.

I'm guessing it's a RAM problem- could be CPU or even the video card (not the hd's cos Linux and win2k are on different drives on different ide slots, and I have tried each by removing the other totally from power and ide cable, tried different cables too).

Had this problem myself a couple of years ago tried everything I could think of, swapping RAM modules, changing the CPU speed (which seemed to have a marginal effect), taking out adaptor cards, etc. Couldn't track it down so stuck the thing in the back of a cupboard and invested in a new bit of kit (well, that was my excuse :o) )

Chatting to a hardware type recently about it and he thought it sounded like a power supply problem, so I went back scrounged a digital voltmeter and checked. Sure enough after a few minutes of use the voltage dropped of noticeably just before the system crashed, however this still happened after swapping the power supply. In my case turned out to be my SCSI II drive, (but it looks like you've covered that one from what you say) after a few minutes of use it was doing silly things to the voltages. I suppose I was lucky it didn't damage anything else, mind you, as soon as the voltage dropped so did the whole system :o).

Keith ____________ MARRIAGE, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary