> Hi Merv
>
> This is a RAID 1 config and uses the onboard controller. I've not had much
> experience with RAID controllers but have some understanding of them. I
> remember when one of the drives went south in the servers younger years
> there wasn't anything obvious in the log (on the Windows side of things)
> that said there was a harddrive problem. At that time Dell support did the
> diagnosing and repair of the the system. I was present when the support
> person did the work but that has been a few years now and I've probably
> forgotten some of the steps that he took when he installed the new drive
> and got the rebuild started.
>
> Jeff
>
> "Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]" no_spam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:%%23eJWFYBoKHA.5696@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>> Is this Raid 1 (2 drives) or Raid 5 (3 or more drives)? And is there a
>> hardware Raid card in the server?
>>
>> --
>> Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
>> ============================
>>
>> "Jeff Teel" sugardog.com> wrote in message
>> news:OD3qbQ8nKHA.3664@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>> Thank you for your input Cliff. This server has not browsed the Internet
>>> for a good 48 months. I just don't have a habit of doing that. If there
>>> is an infection I can say for sure that it didn't come from that. Unless
>>> it sat dormant for that long and then reared it's ugly head! I am the
>>> only admin for this server. It was used for the family business to start
>>> with and is now used for family member e-mail and Internet access. It
>>> does have Microsoft 2000 SQL installed but it isn't being used.
>>>
>>> I will say that after reading thru the responses from you guys that it
>>> has brought back some memories of something that happened when with this
>>> server was younger. If I recall it was when the server had been online
>>> for close to three years. As I think back it had symptoms similar to
>>> what it has now and one of the RAID drives was bad. When the system was
>>> trying to rebuild/synch the bad drive it finally ran out of power to get
>>> that done and froze. Is that something that would happen at a consistent
>>> time?
>>>
>>> To answer your questions regarding third party-apps.......I haven't
>>> installed any applications on the server (other than Windows Updates)
>>> for months. Mainly because I didn't want to use any more disk space and
>>> because everything was working good.
>>>
>>> Again I want to thank you guys for your input. I think I will pursue the
>>> hard drive area next. If I can determine that one of the drives has gone
>>> south can I unplug that drive and boot the server and see if it does not
>>> freeze after an hour or so?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Jeff
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Cliff Galiher - MVP" gmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:eWAxJ07nKHA.6084@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>I agree with Merv that this *could* be hardware related, but there is a
>>>>part of me that is suspicious that the time it takes for the system to
>>>>lock up seems to be consistently be an hour and a half. Usually
>>>>hardware failures are intermittent (or constant) enough to happen
>>>>immediately or strike at random times. Even thermal problems happen
>>>>under load, not at an hour.
>>>>
>>>> So I'm thinking this may be a resource issue. Are there 3rd-party apps
>>>> installed on the server? Thinks like MySQL or PostGreSQL (Spiceworks
>>>> has used each of these in different versions, and spiceworks seems to
>>>> be popular with small IT shops these days) or Java...etc. You could
>>>> have an app misbehaving, slowly (but methodically) chewing memory, and
>>>> presto, system lock at a predictable time every time.
>>>>
>>>> Also, is it possible that the server has been infected with malware?
>>>> Specifically the "google hack" that A/V products were not prepared to
>>>> scan for? Once compromised, A/V is rarely successful at detecting and
>>>> cleaning an already infected machine. In short, have been browsing on
>>>> the server * at all?*
>>>>
>>>> All of these avenues are worth pursuing, one at a time...
>>>>
>>>> -Cliff
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "JTeel" sugardog.remove.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:#GTNhi7nKHA.5464@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>>> I am willing to try most anything at this point Merv! I looked in the
>>>>> system log just after it happened and the only red flags were the
>>>>> Exchange errors when the Exchange store would not mount which I
>>>>> believe was because of how I had to "kill" or shutdown the OS. This
>>>>> server has been running for nearly six years with few problems. It has
>>>>> 2 GB of RAM so I think that is enough. What do you think?
>>>>>
>>>>> There are no external drives connected to the server via USB or any
>>>>> tape drives. When I unplug the LAN side Ethernet as well as the WAN
>>>>> Ethernet there is no is no change. It will be normal for around an
>>>>> hour and a half or so and then the desktop seems to freeze.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]" no_spam_hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:eofjQo6nKHA.1548@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>>>>>> Have you checked for a hard drive or controller problem? Maybe run
>>>>>> chkdsk /r ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anything in the event logs on the server?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Have you disconnected all external devices (like USB drives and maybe
>>>>>> even any interior tapes drives), rebooted and then check performance?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> When the problem occurs, if you disconnect the Ethernet cable(s),
>>>>>> does performance improve?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Do you have enough RAM in the server?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Merv Porter [SBS-MVP]
>>>>>> ============================
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "Jeff Teel" sugardog.com> wrote in message
>>>>>> news:uYCpTK6nKHA.1928@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>>>>>>> I first started noticing problems when I was at a remote location
>>>>>>> and it took longer than normal to log on to Outlook Web Access (Away
>>>>>>> from the Server on the WAN side of the network). I was able to a few
>>>>>>> times during the day but as the day went on I just got the logon
>>>>>>> screen for OWA but was not able to log in. When I got back to the
>>>>>>> SBS location I tried to logon to the SBS desktop and the system was
>>>>>>> not responding to Ctrl Alt Del. I just could not access the server
>>>>>>> desktop so I held the power button in to power down. I hated to but
>>>>>>> I didn't know what else to do. After I restarted the server things
>>>>>>> seemed to work ok other than the Exchange Store would not mount
>>>>>>> which I expected since I powered down the way I did. Over the past
>>>>>>> days I have tried doing a backup restore from the day before and a
>>>>>>> backup restore from three days before this all started and the
>>>>>>> system still seems to become unresponsive after an hour or two. One
>>>>>>> thing that I suspect but am just not sure about is that the C: drive
>>>>>>> may be getting too full. While there is still 1.5GB of space
>>>>>>> remaining out of a 16GB partition I don't know if that is enough
>>>>>>> space for the OS to function properly. My Exchange store is on
>>>>>>> another partition along with the swapfile for the OS. I have ran
>>>>>>> hardware diagnostics and have not seen any red flags. My Anti Virus
>>>>>>> definitions have been kept up-to-date and Trend WFB shows not
>>>>>>> problems. If anyone has more details that would help I am more than
>>>>>>> happy to give them. It just seems that everything I try ends up with
>>>>>>> the same result and I didn't want to do a clean install unless it
>>>>>>> was necessary. If anyone has any ideas I would be more than happy to
>>>>>>> hear them!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks For Your Time
>>>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>>>

>>>>>
>>>>>

>>>
>>>

>
>