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What could cause a server to lockup?

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16 replies

by jfuller05

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My server is freezing at intermittent times after a few minutes of booting to the desktop, even when opening my computer, it freezes/locks up and I have to reboot. After several reboots, it worked for a couple of days, then the same problem occurred. I see nothing unusual in event viewer. I thought it could be a ram problem, but after running the server fine in safe mode, I doubt it's a ram problem. I scanned it with A-Squared malware scanner; clean scan.

I also ran disk cleanup, I thought the server was bogged down with files. It still freezes after a few minutes when booted to the desktop.

I'm at a loss.

Any suggestions?

specs: Windows Server 2008 Single domain

-Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool reported no errors.

16 replies

by jdclyde

A bad hard drive could cause that, as could a system overheating?

What kind of server is it? (Hardware)

Does the server have a diagnostics disk or partition you can test the hardware with?

Also possible there is a problem with the account? Try making a new account and boot to that and let us know if it still locks up.

by jfuller05

-Intel Motherboard and Xeon processor
-1 Terabyte HDD
-16 GB RAM
-Running Windows Memory Diagnostic tool now

I'll try booting with a different account. I want to try and save this server.

by patb071

as jd had said. what is the make of the server? Dell, HP, etc? Is the system under warranty? I would recommend making sure you have a full backup of the system in case it crashes for good.

Also you should create a performance monitor and check the logs and see if you have a spike in ram, harddrive, or cpu usage.

That is if it is a hardware issue. You may need to repair or reinstall Server 2008.

Good luck

by oldbaritone

Temperature conditions below 0 degrees C.

Turn up the thermostat.

;-)

by jfuller05

Yeah,the server works fine in safe mode. I disabled any possible startup errors, but when I boot into normal mode after a minute or two the desktop hangs. Very annoying, especially for the employees that use software on the server. We are ordering a new server, but I want to get this one going so they can use it now.

by netwrk_admn

Just a suggestion - I once had Sophos doing on-access scans on my file server, locked it up completely during back up (even ICMP packets couldn't get through) and if it got hit by my end users pulling files, it was very slow.

Only completely froze during back up hours though.

by jfuller05

but there isn't an AV on the server, since its primary function is for the Treasurer's software, we don't have an AV on it. I did scan the server just to be sure, but the scan had clean results.

by jfuller05

Thanks for all the help you guys provided. I'm a little shocked at the results of the problem.

As I said, the server would run fine in safe mode. Of course, I couldn't leave it in safe mode because the users wouldn't be able to, well, use it. :)

So, I began to run a clean startup, with only needed programs running and still, the server would hang/lockup/freeze (you choose the word). I couldn't find the program causing the lock up. Even viewer wasn't beneficial either. I scratched off hardware too. Windows Memory Diagnostic tool didn't detect any errors, so RAM wasn't bad. HDDs are fine too.

So, as a last result, I took the case cover off and now the server is working great. If the computer was overheating, wouldn't it have locked up in safe mode too?

I'm a little shocked at how the problem was solved.

by jfuller05

One of the users started screaming for me this morning, "It's [server] is down!" So, once again confused, I go to the server room and not to my surprise, the desktop was stuck again. I give it a hard power down and boot into safe mode (the magical world of this server) and start poking around in event viewer. I actually found an error in the system log a minute or two before I was contacted by the user.
Here it is:

"DCOM got error 1084 attempting to start the service ShellHWDetection with arguments in order to run the server"

So, I start running diagnostic tests. Now, bear in mind, I'm running diagnostic tools in the dark. I can't tell you why this problem is occurring, but I'll find out.
I run the following:
-Auslogics disk defragger...there was only 3% fragmentation.
-CCleaner's Registry check
-Virus/spyware scans both clean
-Memory scans...error free
-CCleaner, which only found files to be deleted in the MBs...nothing huge.

So, I do all of that, boot it up and it's working again. How long? I don't know how long it will work, but hopefully at least until the users can finish their work for the day. After that, I'm repairing the Windows Server installation. I'm on a limb.

by cmiller5400

I had a bad processor that was acting like that. Totally random, no sense to it. I reloaded with our base image that we use and it would lockup, or reboot depending on it's mood. I then started swapping out just about every piece of hardware in the desktop trying to find the issue, finally I swapped the processors and the problem went away. Took over a week of trial and error because I'd have to leave it on till it froze or rebooted itself.

by oldbaritone

What are the power management settings? Do the HDD's power down after a while? Try setting them to "always on" instead, for testing purposes. I've had a couple of instances where Win or BIOS did not recover well when accessing a powered-down drive.

by jfuller05

once our new server comes in. We only have one server providing the needs of the network (a big gripe I had), now they see we need at least two! Right now, it is working, so I don't want to take it offline, swapping out hardware while they can use it.

I suspect it's hardware now that I repaired the OS intallation and the results told me there is no problem.

I don't like Server 2008's repair option at all. Server 2003 and former OSs have a better repair function.

by jfuller05

but I have the hdds set to "always on."

I'll find the root of this problem once the new server comes in. I can swap all the duties of this one over the new one and check out the hardware.

The server is working now, so I don't even want to look at it for fear that it might stop working. :)

by jfuller05

I failed to return here and post that the problem was solved.

Solution: reinstalled the Lacie backup Genie software. There must have been some corruption there?

Anyway, the server is back to running smoothly. The new server is a nice addition to the team too. A Dell PowerEdge T110, the specs aren't too bad either
-8GB RAM
-Dual Intel Xeon processors
-1.5 TB HDD
-Windows Server 2008 R2 standard

It's not a super beefy server, but it's quiet and it's there as a backup in case the Primary DC goes down (again).

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