System reboots seconds after reaching desktop



How can faulty DIMMs cause both Linux and Windows to reboot?
That behavior is a good clue that the issue is likely hardware related. If the problem is present in both Windows and Linux that would indicate that the issue may not be caused by the operating system.
Often I will boot into a Live .iso in order to determine if the problem is hardware or software related.

I wonder if perhaps the RAM is working good enough to POST but only starts getting "wonky" (that's a technical term for odd behavior) when it gets loaded up after boot?

Possibly the DIMM socket is faulty.
 
Nothing. The computer arrives at the login screen, then the screen goes blank and the system reboots.
The "beeps" would be before the login screen - during POST. A memory test is like the second or third thing the BIOS checks during POST.
 
That behavior is a good clue that the issue is likely hardware related. If the problem is present in both Windows and Linux that would indicate that the issue may not be caused by the operating system.
Often I will boot into a Live .iso in order to determine if the problem is hardware or software related.

I wonder if perhaps the RAM is working good enough to POST but only starts getting "wonky" (that's a technical term for odd behavior) when it gets loaded up after boot?

Possibly the DIMM socket is faulty.
Good points :)
I tried booting from a flash drive, using various distributions, but it failed just as booting from the SSD did.
I ran memtest86, and it worked without any error messages.
And I swapped the mainboard, so the DIMM socket cannot be at fault.
That made the mystery all the more perplexing.
But today I expect delivery of new DIMMs that will hopefully restore the workstation to full functionality :D
 
I tried booting from a flash drive, using various distributions, but it failed just as booting from the SSD did.
I ran memtest86, and it worked without any error messages.
If it failed booting from a flash drive and from the SSD how were you able to run Memtest86?
Just curious.
 
If it failed booting from a flash drive and from the SSD how were you able to run Memtest86?
Just curious.
It failed booting _Linux_ (I tried Ubuntu 20.04, Puppy, and SystemRescueCD) from a flash drive. It booted Memtest86 just fine.
 
If I remove the apparently faulty DIMM, the system has less memory, but runs well. So I would rule out a memory leak.
I'm glad to hear that you figured it out.

Have a good week ahead and enjoy your system.
 
Thank you. With the new DIMMs (without LEDs ;)) the system appears to run reliably so far.
You're welcome, that's good news.
 

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