[Info-vax] Weird Bugcheck

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Tom Adams wrote:
> On Sep 1, 3:26 pm, tadamsmar <tadams... at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> My technical lead reached behind a DS10 and jimmyed the video
>> connector. (He was trying to disconnect it, and has that bad habit of
>> jimmying things that are screwed in instead of gently unscrewing them
>> and removing them with minimum force. He has been lectured on the
>> matter.)
>>
>> I got an immediate bugcheck and reboot.
>>
>> Where do I start on analyzing a bugcheck, by the way?  I have not done
>> that in a long time.

The stack dump should show you what was being executed at the time and 
the contents of the general register.

If you have your system configured to write crash dumps, you can try to 
analyze it yourself.  It's not easy!  It requires a good knowledge of 
system internals and a lot of practice.  It is extremely helpful to have 
the source listings available.

If you have software support, pick up the phone and ask HP to analyze it 
for you.  If you allow telnet from outside, they can log in and, in an 
hour or so, figure out why the system crashed.  Otherwise you will have 
to copy the crash dump to removable media and send it to HP.

While you're waiting you can fire your "technical lead"!

>>
>> This is VMS 7.3-2 up-to-date on patches except those since the recent
>> cumulative update 9.
>>
>> When the system was not in use, I tested carefully unscrewing and
>> reconnecting the video connector. No bugcheck.
> 
> The video board was screwed in and appeared to be seated properly.
> 
> I pulled the board, examined it, and reseated.  Nothing appeared to be
> wrong
> with it.
> 
> I guess the moral is don't jimmy connectors on a booted machine.

Alternative moral: Do not allow assholes in the data center!