Cant figure out this intermitten problem DNS 500

Some things to try

• Look for matching error messages in the Web server log files
  
• Check server load statistics (for CPU, memory and disk) and examine the logs for network timeouts
  
• Check the .htaccess, web.config or similar configuration files for any recent modifications that may have introduced logic errors
  
• Check the site's file and folder permissions (particularly if the errors occur only for requests to certain pieces of content)
  

I checked the error log and found the db dropping connections quite often versus the old CI 2.2.x and I can't figure why
The manual suggests to do $this->db->reconnect() to keep it alive.  I guess I give it a try

Thanks Dave