Hardware watchdog Time

[SouthernYankee]

My BI system running on an HP EliteDesk 800 G1-T i7-4790 locks up about once per month. My BI system is a dedicated system with a clean install of windows 10 pro. The lockup normally occurs in the morning. I can not seem to find any indication for the problem.

I would like to install a Hardware watch dog timer to force a reboot if the system locks up. I would like recommendations from users that are actually using a hardware watchdog time.

The BIOS does not have a built in watchdog time.

 

[Teken]

My BI system running on an HP EliteDesk 800 G1-T i7-4790 locks up about once per month. My BI system is a dedicated system with a clean install of windows 10 pro. The lockup normally occurs in the morning. I can not seem to find any indication for the problem.

I would like to install a Hardware watch dog timer to force a reboot if the system locks up. I would like recommendations from users that are actually using a hardware watchdog time.

The BIOS does not have a built in watchdog time.

I was interested to see what headway you made in this area if at all. Along with some questions in hopes it may shed some light on the problem at hand.

- State: When the computer is Locked Up is it the BSOD or the fact the system will not accept any user input. Such as moving the mouse does nothing to typing with the keyboard is also the same? Or is the computer just very slow to react to user input like when you try to open a program and it takes ages to complete?

- Ping: When the computer is in this state can you ping the target computer and does it reply back?

- SNMP: Do you have any SNMP Manager running on the network to monitor the state of your network / computer systems?

- HD Activity: When the system is in this state do you still see HD LED blinking activity happening?

- Frequency: How long has this condition existed and how often does it happen?

- System Resources: When the system is operating fine what does Windows indicate are the resources used?

- Error Logs: If you go into the Administrative tools does the event viewer offer any insight as to the problem(s). The next time this lock up happens document the time and go into the event viewer to see what is happening leading to, during, and after the hard reboot.

As an aside I would encourage you to enable SNMP on the computer system and monitor the same with a SNMP Manager of your choice. Doing so will offer tremendous insight as the current health, operating state, and track historic events not easily gleaned by looking at the event view logs.

 

[SouthernYankee]

When my system locks up. it is total dead. The screen is black, the mouse and keyboard do nothing. The PC is not pingable. The PC requires that the reset button be pushed to restart.

The event log only has the restart in it, there is no other useful information.

The problem does not happen very frequently, every couple of weeks. It has been happening for more than a year.

The system has 16 GB memory and normal uses less than 8 GB. The CPU is at about 20%.

Will look into SNMP.

The auto restart watchdog time would be useful as I am out of town often.

 

[Teken]

When my system locks up. it is total dead. The screen is black, the mouse and keyboard do nothing. The PC is not pingable. The PC requires that the reset button be pushed to restart.

The event log only has the restart in it, there is no other useful information.

The problem does not happen very frequently, every couple of weeks. It has been happening for more than a year.

The system has 16 GB memory and normal uses less than 8 GB. The CPU is at about 20%.

Will look into SNMP.

The auto restart watchdog time would be useful as I am out of town often.

These are two watch dog timers I am going to purchase and test in the next few months. So they may help you in this endeavor which isn't a whole lot of money:

6.74US $ 10% OFF|Wifi Mobile Remote Watchdog Card V9.0 Computer Led Screen Automatic Halted Auto Restart Usb Watchdog For Gaming Mining Btc Miner - Pc Hardware Cables & Adapters - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

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4.62US $ 15% OFF|USB Watchdog Timer Card Module Automatic Restart IP Electronic Watch dog 2 Timer Reboot Lan For Mining Gaming Computer PC|Add On Cards| - AliExpress

I don't have any personal knowledge or experience with the seller or the hardware included here. If you beat me to it please do relay your experience with this hardware.

 

[ncpilot]

Don't discount a power supply issue...

 

[TVille]

I had a similar issue on my dedicated BI Win 10, I7-3700. It would just freeze. No BSoD, nothing. If the screen was on, it was frozen on. If off, blank, nothing. No network, nothing in the Win or BI event log. I pulled one stick of ram at a time, no difference. I replaced the PSU with a new, larger one. No difference. Clean Win 10 install from media creation tool USB. Nuthin. Did a clean install of Windows 2-3 times. It started out locking up like once a month, and got more frequent until it was daily, over 6 months or more. I finally broke down and bought a "new" eBay i7-6700. I took the old machine and installed Linux Mint, and use that as my daily driver. It has locked up once in four months under Linux.

 

[msquared]

Since this is your BI system, there shouldn't be any reason it should go to sleep, but maybe check the BIOS for the idle power state settings to be sure the low(est) power mode is disabled. Haswell CPU's introduced sleep modes so low that power supplies had to be Haswell certified for support. An issue with the power supply not conforming to those requirements, or a power supply that is supposed to conform but not working correctly would produce what you are seeing.

 

[Teken]

Since this is your BI system, there shouldn't be any reason it should go to sleep, but maybe check the BIOS for the idle power state settings to be sure the low(est) power mode is disabled. Haswell CPU's introduced sleep modes so low that power supplies had to be Haswell certified for support. An issue with the power supply not conforming to those requirements, or a power supply that is supposed to conform but not working correctly would produce what you are seeing.

I agree validating the computer isn't set to a power saving mode from sleep, hibernate, hybrid sleep, off etc. Insure you check to see that the power setting to the HD is also not set to turn off hence the importance to check if there was any activity at all in the HD Status LED.

Confirm the USB settings where anything attached can be disabled to conserve power too. Lastly, depending upon if the system has on board graphics vs external. In the past some of the above graphic cards would cause all kinds of mayhem when defined to a power saving level.

The solution for some was to update to the latest video drivers vs in the extreme case the power saving feature was completely disabled in the card, and OS.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

I agree with the current efforts of focusing on the machine's hardware/software to determine the cause. However, thinking outside the box... is it possible to isolate it from the Internet for an extended period to rule out any outside influence?

 

[Zook]

I'm guessing you're running the PC with a monitor attached and not headless like many do?
if you have a monitor, make sure it's not flaking out...try pressing some keys on the keyboard to see if you can get a Window's error beep or maybe reseat the monitor display/power cable.
Other than that, this will be tough to figure out...I would say likely your PSU is going bad (you could try to tax the system and see if you can force it to lock up) or could even be a heat issue...crack open the case and make sure all fans are clean/spinning, and there is no buildup in any of the heatsinks/filters.

Good luck and keep us posted!

EDIT: If you can't pinpoint the exact problem, you could see if scheduling a reboot once a week/day prevents this from occurring.

 

[SouthernYankee]

I have tried a USB watchdog time from amazon. It did not come with software or installation directions. The vendor did not respond to email or a web site support request. So i never installed it.

Double Relay USB Watchdog Card Unattended Automatic Restart Blue Screen Crash Timer Reboot for 24H PC Gaming Server Mining Miner

Amazon.com

 

[Teken]

I have tried a USB watchdog time from amazon. It did not come with software or installation directions. The vendor did not respond to email or a web site support request. So i never installed it.

Double Relay USB Watchdog Card Unattended Automatic Restart Blue Screen Crash Timer Reboot for 24H PC Gaming Server Mining Miner

Amazon.com

Let me know if this solves your problem as to connecting the Watch Dog to the computer system. Several vendors indicate if the hardware is made after 2018 a Windows USB driver isn't needed. I have included the Windows USB driver in case yours is made before 2018.

The other zipped file is supposedly the Windows software application to allow you to fine tune the values to your own personal needs. I have not tried either as the hardware isn't on hand and the system indicates a low level virus is present. All of the documents and web links all indicate the presence of the virus as a false positive - YMMY.

I would suggest you try this software and its USB driver on a throw away computer that is in a sand box (isolated) from anything else in your homes network in case this turns out to be true.

Please do let me know if there's anything else I can do to help . . .

 

[SouthernYankee]

thanks I have return the product to amazon. Will look at getting another one