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Troubleshooting system-level problems

Recovering from a system hang

A system can hang because your hardware I/O or software are experiencing problems. When data is retrieved from a disk, certain errors can stop the retrieval process; rather than performing a data recovery, the system may hang.

If you can still use the keyboard, but the operating system does not respond or if the disk activity light is not illuminated, the problem is probably due to a software hang.

To recover from a system hang, you must reboot your system by pressing the reset button or <Ctrl><Alt><Del>. If you were working in an application such as vi, the application might have saved a backup file automatically. You can retrieve this file after you reboot your system.

Hardware hang

Check the following if your disk activity lights are on:

Software hang

Software hangs may be caused by applications that consume memory without freeing it. Check the following if hangs occur frequently:

See ``Changing swap space size'' for information on swap space and tuning system parameters.


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UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 22 April 2004