Question : Windows SBS 2008 Freezing...

For the last several weeks, I have been encountering a very troublesome issue with my Dell PowerEdge 2900.  This is my company's only server, and it operates as our Exchange 2007 server, file server, DC, etc../all roles.  At random times, the server is completely freezing up.  All of our users (approx 30) lose connectivity to SQL applications, Exchange, and shared network resources.  I am able to ping the server from the workstations, but when I go to the server, it appears to be totally frozen.  It remains stuck on the "Press Ctrl + Alt +Del to Login" screen, but the system is unresponsive to any input.  The only way to get the server back up is to perform a hard boot.  When the server comes back up, I check through the event viewer, but I can't find anything that to direct me towards the actual cause for the system crash.  

Any input would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you in advance.

Answer : Windows SBS 2008 Freezing...

Why the mix of A/V products?

Verify that ESET has no issues with SBS 2008 on their support site and make sure their product is up to date.

Symantec has an MP4 version of their product to address SBS 2008 incompatibility issues among others.

Check the %windir%\MiniDump folder for any dumps. Are there any? If so, zip up the last two or three and rename the extension to .txt and post here. I can have a look at them for you.

Broadcom NIC drivers on Dell and others have been known to cause some funky behaviours in SBS 2008 in my experience. Make sure that only 1 NIC is enabled in the BIOS, and if there are two with one disabled in the OS, note the MAC address of the correct NIC BEFORE disabling it.

Philip