Random crashes on DEC2750 after upgrade to 23.10.3 Business Edition (solved)

[opn_leo]

I wanted to post a message in the forum in case anyone else has this issue.  I have resolved the problem after a weekend of trial and error.  These forums were very helpful in the troubleshooting process!

I have a DEC2750 purchased in April 2023 running -24 bios version.  I was running 23.10.2 Business Edition for many months and then last weekend decided to upgrade to 23.10.3.  After upgrading the system would crash randomly every several hours.  I searched the logs and there were no corresponding error messages, just reboot messages all of a sudden.  I first tried to disable Unbound because there are several threads about that causing random reboots, but that did not fix the issue. 

I eventually decided to update to -28 Bios version as a last resort.  During the bios install, the updater got stuck at 98%.  I let the system sit for an hour, hoping it would get to 100% - but it never did.  I was worried I had bricked my DEC2750, but upon reboot it appeared everything was fine and it was running the new -28 bios version.

After updating the bios, the random reboots stopped.  I re-enabled Unbound and it has been very stable ever since.  If your having random issues with DEC hardware, see if there is a bios update!