RE: cygwin crashes after every ~ 10th command and starts up only every ~ 4th try...

["Dave Korn" <dave dot korn at artimi dot com>]

----Original Message----
>From: D. Bollmann
>Sent: 22 June 2005 10:53

> Hi,
> 
> Since a couple of hours cygwin crashes all the time on my windows nt
> computer. In order to restart cygwin I have to execute the xserver batch
> file several times until finally an xterm shows up. The same xterm than
> crashes after only a couple of commands - for example 10 executions of
> 'ls'. I updated cygwin and also tried to reboot my computer, but the
> problem remains...

  What happens if you switch your computer off and let it cool down for a
few hours?  Odd behaviour like this is very common when a PC is overheating,
and sometimes a PC can be OK in the winter and spring and then start to
experience overheating problems when the hot summer weather arrives.  Which
it just has, here in England, and I'd guess over there in Deutschland too?

> I had a somehow similar problem a couple of months ago when I tried to
> copy files recursively or used the find command. Also since a couple of
> months emacs crashes on a regular basis complaining not to be able to
> connect to the xserver.
> 
> But never the problem has been as bad as now. I am unable to use cygwin
> at all 

  This really does sound like an intermittent hardware problem.  Copying
files and searching directories are among the simplest jobs a computer does.
Do you experience problems with other software, or is it just cygwin that
crashes, or do you not know because cygwin apps are almost all you run on
the machine?

> Could it be that the crashes are related to a mapped windows drive I am
> linking to from my home directory?

  Pretty unlikely.

> I am sure I am not the first person asking this question and I know
> about the naiveness and clumsiness of this mail. Still, I don't have any
> idea how to deal with this problem and couldn't find any way out of this
> situation by myself.

  Apart from hardware troubles, the only other kinds of things that might
cause such problems would be (very) faulty device drivers, firewall or AV
software, but I'm still guessing it's a real hardware problem.  It might
help if you open up your PC and make sure all the PCI cards are firmly
seated down in their slots and all the other cables and connections are
tight and well-made.  Sometimes things work loose with repeated cycles of
expansion and contraction caused by heating and cooling; that's another
reason why PCs sometimes suddenly begin to fail in peculiar ways in hot
weather.


    cheers,
      DaveK
-- 
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....


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