[lug] How bad is this?

[Gary Hodges]

Jan  9 12:27:06 space kernel: CPU 0: Machine Check Exception:
0000000000000004
Jan  9 12:27:06 space kernel: Bank 0: c436c00000000833 at
0000000005933c40
Jan  9 12:27:06 space kernel: Bank 1: f600200000000853 at
0000000001f531c0
Jan  9 12:27:06 space kernel: Kernel panic: CPU context corrupt

I've been taxing my system today and it locked up with the above
messages displayed in all terminals.  I've done some google searching on
"Machine Check Exception" and I'm reading conflicting causes.  Some say
CPU problems, some say cache, others indicate an ECC error, and even
others say it can't be an ECC crash.

I have ECC memory in the PC and I guess I'm hoping it was simply a one
time anomalous flipped bit.  I have the same program running now and it
is keeping the PC at a load average around 1.75.  It crashed after
running this program a couple hours.  For now I guess I'll just wait and
see what happens, but I'd be interested to hear any comments.

Athlon 1.4 (not XP) with retail HSF
Gigabyte GA-7DX MB
512 MB (2x256) ECC Corsair DDR
Big steel case with extra fans and beefy power supply from PC Power and
Cooling

This machine has been running for at least 15 months without trouble.

Cheers,
Gary