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My server running is Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.2.54-2 x86_64 GNU/Linux.

About once a day, sometimes once every two days is shut down - It isn't really shut down, it seems like its sleeping - Power button is blinking, but I cannot boot it by clicking on power or reset button, I must pull electricity out and plug it back in, then I can boot it.

What could be the cause of this? How can I fix this?

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  • Try a new/known-good PSU. Aug 19, 2014 at 19:59
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    Take a look at the files in /var/log! Apparently Debian uses pm-utils, so your first look would be into pm-suspend.log. From thereon you can look for (temporally) related events in syslog. Post the relevant sections here, if you don't know what to do with them! Aug 20, 2014 at 9:09

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+25

There can be several reasons for this:

  • Okay, this one is a bit more obvious: but do you have your computer on a power saving mode? You can check this by going to to the following directory:

    cd /etc/pm
    

    Check if there are any scheduled sleep or hibernate configs stored here. If there are modify them to reboot instead of sleep or simply remove them if safe to do so.

  • Your Power Supply unit could be an issue. It must have been damaged by a power surge. Was the computer connected to a surge protector or a UPS when the problem started? If not it might good to have one, especially since this is a server. If your PSU has been damaged, then it might be sending a fault signal to the OS to hibernate or sleep.

You can check your system logs to know what the problem is:

cat /var/log/syslog | grep "shutdown"
cat /var/log/syslog | grep "reboot"
cat /var/log/syslog | grep "sleep"
cat /var/log/syslog | grep "hibernate"

Since you are using Debian, as David suggested check out the pm-* logs in /etc/log/pm-*. There are multiple of those, e.g. suspend, powersave, etc.

Hopefully between all of this, you should find out why the computer is becoming non-responsive.

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    Brown outs can also wear away your PSU over time so ideally a UPS is the best solution if it does turn out to be the OPs PSU. With that I would also be aware of any activity in the household that could be drawing a lot of power around those times. Aug 20, 2014 at 15:41
  • @JasonBristol agreed
    – codehitman
    Aug 20, 2014 at 15:45
  • Its one of those MINI ATX computers, it doesn't have separate PSU only adapter on cable. It started to happen when I reinstalled Debian - I will check for household issues, because before that I had server on another location.
    – ewooycom
    Aug 20, 2014 at 16:10
  • @user1188570 almost all computers have a PSU, it resides inside the computer case/tower, including laptops. It breaks apart the high voltage (240V or 120V) into smaller voltages. Since, you moved your server to a different location, if you have a multimeter check the voltage supply at that point.
    – codehitman
    Aug 20, 2014 at 16:20

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