[NBLUG/talk] Machine Check Exception?

Mansur, Warren warren.mansur at hp.com
Fri Jun 25 11:30:12 PDT 2004


> whenever I try to write to a floppy disk, but
> that now seem to occur at random.  Some kind of machine check 
> exception
> 
> Kernel Panic: CPU 0 context corrupt
>
> What could be causing this kind of error?  Do I need a new CPU?  A new
> motherboard?  Water-cooling?

Since it only occurs while writing to your floppy disk, it may indicate a problem with either the floppy drive or the floppy controller. It is unlikely to be a CPU problem, because a CPU problem is so fundamental that the system likely wouldn't boot or would behave erratically, and not just when writing to the floppy.

A good thing to try in a situation like this is simple trial and error. The most likely culprits are the floppy drive or floppy controller. If you have other PCs then you should be able to switch out the floppy from another PC and re-try writing to the floppy. If the error is gone then it's the floppy drive, and simply buy a new floppy drive (they're cheap). If the error persists, the next thing to try is the floppy controller. Unfortunately it is attached to the motherboard and so you have two options:

- put in a new motherboard
- buy a card with a floppy controller on it and re-try writing to the floppy

With a quick search on google, I could only find ISA cards that act as floppy controllers. There may be a PCI card out there as well but I didn't see one right off the bat.

Hopefully by then you'll have identified the component. And if not you'll at least have weeded out 2 possibilities.

It could possibly be something else on the motherboard such as the interrupt controller and that would only be fixed by switching motherboards.

Regards,

Warren









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