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Getting Trap 8's and Trap E's: Help!

Started by cytan, 2008.03.24, 16:40:12

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cytan

Hi all,
   I Ecomstation setup is getting quite unstable these days. I sometimes get
    (1) Trap E's when I exit firefox
    (2) Trap 8's after I reboot when my WPS freezes for no apparent reason.

Are there any pointers as to how to track this down? Is this an indication of some hardware failure?

Thanks for any help!

cytan

Glenn

Hi,

I have not seen TRAP screens, but my WPS also freezes after a reboot (hardware is 7 months old).

If I keep the SHIFT key pressed when the graphical screen first appears, which usually prevents startup programs to get started, I get here the XWorkPlace panic box (because of the integration of xworkplace into ecomstation). Then I click on "run xfix", wait a little while, sometimes I see if there are no registry entries to be cleaned, then save the INI files again, and quit xfix. The WPS then restarts, and everything works well (almost... I have found RC4 to be more unstable than eCS1.2, maybe because of ACPI).

Please tell me if following this process helps you. I feared that my problems happen because of some installed third-party software (and that I would get the "we cant help you if you are the only one with this problem") but if you experience the same issues, then it may be a more general problem that would have to be solved by SSI, because the above method is something that should really be avoided when using eCS on a daily basis.

AyPP

cytan

Hi Glenn,
   My symptoms are quite different from yours. My WPS does not freeze on start up. However, what I'm worried about is that my memory may be going bad or some other piece of hardware. These problems perhaps started happening when I installed WPSWizard, but I won't start blaming it until there is some corroboration with others here. The WPS freezing is really annoying. I used to be able to have my system up for 21 days or more, but the WPS freeze is happening every 3 to 7 days.

   There is also another possibility that shared memory may be exhausting that's causing the firefox Trap E problem. I have sunbird, thunderbird and firefox running nearly all the time. Firefox seems to eat up shared memory after a while.

   I hope other people have seen this or suggesting to what to do next.

cytan

Quote from: Glenn on 2008.03.24, 17:51:10
Hi,

I have not seen TRAP screens, but my WPS also freezes after a reboot (hardware is 7 months old).

If I keep the SHIFT key pressed when the graphical screen first appears, which usually prevents startup programs to get started, I get here the XWorkPlace panic box (because of the integration of xworkplace into ecomstation). Then I click on "run xfix", wait a little while, sometimes I see if there are no registry entries to be cleaned, then save the INI files again, and quit xfix. The WPS then restarts, and everything works well (almost... I have found RC4 to be more unstable than eCS1.2, maybe because of ACPI).

Please tell me if following this process helps you. I feared that my problems happen because of some installed third-party software (and that I would get the "we cant help you if you are the only one with this problem") but if you experience the same issues, then it may be a more general problem that would have to be solved by SSI, because the above method is something that should really be avoided when using eCS on a daily basis.

AyPP

DavidG

I know with Warp 4, there used to be timing issues with programs loading on startup. XWP could install its own startup folder that allowed delays for programs starting as the WPS loaded.  This seemed to fix the problem.  Unfortunately, eWPS does not come with the capability of adding XWP's startup folder.

Have you tried restoring an archive with eCS was running good?  It may mean that you will have to add some programs back after restoring.  I would create an archive before storing a previous archive.  That way, if it doesn't work, you can restore your most recent archive back.


DavidG

I noticed with ecs 2 rc4, it has the capability of adding the XWP startup folder now.

David

The Blue Warper

Hi, cytan!
Just a little contribute (hopefully...):
1) as for Firefox: which version are you using?  You might perhaps give a try to Firefox3 b4, on which developers are putting ongoing efforts in order to minimize memory leaks and increasing memory consumption (FF3 is much faster and it frees up more memory whenever needed, and sooner, than FF2).
2) as for WPSWizard, I seem to remember that WPSWizard README said you should disable XWorkplace (maybe eCenter too?) TURBO FOLDERS options, in order to avoid some icon repainting problems (you can usually realize you are having this issue when you hear some beeps when opening folders and the like).  You might want to try the latest version 0.6.1a3 recently uploaded to Netlabs Incoming.

Please note this MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT be your issue, so take all the above as just a guess...
Good luck!

cytan

Thanks for the info. I just checked and I don't have turbo folders enabled.

I'll try out FF3. FF2 does eat up shared memory, but OpenOffice 2 is even worse!

I'm going to clean up my INI files again to be sure that that isn't the problem. If this doesn't fix it, I'll have to do a full memory scan.

cytan

Quote from: The Blue Warper on 2008.03.25, 14:07:27
Hi, cytan!
Just a little contribute (hopefully...):
1) as for Firefox: which version are you using?  You might perhaps give a try to Firefox3 b4, on which developers are putting ongoing efforts in order to minimize memory leaks and increasing memory consumption (FF3 is much faster and it frees up more memory whenever needed, and sooner, than FF2).
2) as for WPSWizard, I seem to remember that WPSWizard README said you should disable XWorkplace (maybe eCenter too?) TURBO FOLDERS options, in order to avoid some icon repainting problems (you can usually realize you are having this issue when you hear some beeps when opening folders and the like).  You might want to try the latest version 0.6.1a3 recently uploaded to Netlabs Incoming.

Please note this MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT be your issue, so take all the above as just a guess...
Good luck!

David McKenna

Cytan,

  In my experience, new or intermittant errors and traps is almost always a sign of hardware problems. Some things I would do:

1) Boot from an eCS CD (same version as you are using)  and run CHKDSK /F on all drives.
2) Re-seat all memory chips and PCI cards (make sure you are grounded!) - clean out dust too.
3) There is also a possibility of your power supply going bad -  check the voltage outputs on it if you can.

  If that doesn't change anything, use the 'Smartctl.exe' program to see if your hard drive(s) is heading south. Search the net for 'Memtest' and use it to check your memory for errors.

  Good luck...

Dave McKenna

kim

To check memory I would recommend the MemTest tool that you can download an ISO image to boot you system from. If you have defect memory, this tool will let you know.

cytan

Quote from: kimhav on 2008.03.25, 18:23:31
To check memory I would recommend the MemTest tool that you can download an ISO image to boot you system from. If you have defect memory, this tool will let you know.

Thanks for the pointer. I just ran memtest and there's LOTS of memory errors. It seems that the lowest order bit of my memory is stuck. I don't know which memory module yet --- time to yank out modules. Hopefully, I'll be living with 1GB rather than 2GB (better than all the modules failing!).

cytan

RobertM

cytan,

You may possibly want to underclock the machine's memory (or if overclocked, return it to normal). Much but the high end expensive memory is low grade memory that just eeks by the "rated speed" stamped on them - I've found some where it's not so much a matter of a bad module, but instead is a module that should never have been rated as high.

But yeah... a module failing memtest will wreak havoc with OS/2... I've gotten traps, lockups, video corruption (followed by lockups), programs inadvertantly crashing, lost data, you name it...

-R


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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cytan

Quote from: RobertM on 2008.03.26, 05:46:29
cytan,

You may possibly want to underclock the machine's memory (or if overclocked, return it to normal). Much but the high end expensive memory is low grade memory that just eeks by the "rated speed" stamped on them - I've found some where it's not so much a matter of a bad module, but instead is a module that should never have been rated as high.

But yeah... a module failing memtest will wreak havoc with OS/2... I've gotten traps, lockups, video corruption (followed by lockups), programs inadvertantly crashing, lost data, you name it...

-R

I just yanked out the 2 sticks of dual DDR memory which supposedly has lifetime warranty from hardcorecooling. Unfortunately, they seem to have gone belly up :-(. hardcorecooling.com is unreachable. My other 2 sticks are Mushkin which are much better than the noname crap which I bought from hardcorecooling a few years ago. Thanks for the pointer about underclocking, but I'll buy another 2 sticks instead. Gotta keep this economy going :-).

cytan