CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

n0dl · 2012-04-16 04:16:15

Hello,

Last week I built new computer with an Intel i3 2120 CPU and Nvidia 550Ti video card. Recently the computer has started to hang on boot. Soon after the computer boots the kernel it reports that CPU1 and CPU3 are not responding, which is odd considering that the i3 only has 2 cores. After that it just hangs when it tries to "trigger udev events". I have found that the computer boots fine after I try re-seating the CPU and fan, however soon after booting I notice some serious delays when doing something CPU/GPU intensive (such as playing a game) which eventually locks X forcing me to cold boot, which starts the problem over again.

I am using the binary Nvidia drivers.

I am also using ARCH 64

I have not tried re-installing, however I have tried booting the installation media live environment and it succeeds without me having to re-seat the CPU.

So my question is, does this seem to be more of a software issue (bad install?) or a hardware issue (bad cpu)?

Edit forgot to say which version of the OS im using

Last edited by n0dl (2012-04-16 04:16:42)

Gcool · 2012-04-16 05:03:05

My feeling is that this would be more hardware (or well, not OS) related. A first step that pops up in my mind would be to check for bios updates and apply them. Have you tried that?

.:B:. · 2012-04-16 07:46:18

There's nothing odd about it, the i3 has HyperThreading. My i3 380-M for example reports as four cores on Linux.

So it's a HyperThreading problem.

n0dl · 2012-04-16 10:53:45

.:B:. I see. Interesting I did not know that hyperthreading made the OS report more cores then it actually has.

GCool: thanks Ill try it out.

I guess its a good things this happened earlier. would have been worse if this occured after the 30 day grace period...

n0dl · 2012-04-16 13:51:55

Hello again,

Although I have not tried flashing the BIOS with the newest version (not sure how to go about doing that on linux. the instructions in the bios i downloaded from MSI mentioned the need for a fat system) I am fairly confident that it is a hardware problem, since the problem persists after a clean install.

Is there any tools you suggest for diagnosing hardware problems via linux? I would like to find which component is causing the problem.

I looked into a few benchmarking tools, uniengine-heaven and mprime

The results of univengine-heaven is what i expected, a bad slowdown, then a grinding halt which forces me to hard reset the system. Upon hard resetting it does the hanging thing. However, I have found that I do not have to reseat the CPU to "fix" the boot process but instead have to power cycle the power supply (turn the switch on and off then press the power button).

I'm certain that the PSU is fine and I'm guessing the hard drive isnt an issue considering it's reading and writing to it just fine. I've run a system test on the memory in the BIOS which reports it ok (however I am unsure if this is a reputable test). So my suspicion lies in a bad CPU, bad mobo, or bad video card.

Any thoughts?

Small update: while running Mprime I have noticed a few messages:
Bug: soft lockup CPU#1 stuck for 261s! [swapper/1:0]
Bug: soft lockup CPU#3 stuck for 261s! [swapper/3:0]

Other than that it seems that tests are passing (so far, mprime has not finished running as of this time)

Last edited by n0dl (2012-04-16 14:31:42)

.:B:. · 2012-04-16 14:44:44

Have you tried updating the CPU's microcode?

n0dl · 2012-04-16 15:53:23

.:B:. thanks for your reply. I will definitely try it out. Just found the wiki page on updating microcode. I will report after I have done so tonight

n0dl · 2012-04-17 14:17:55

An update to my situation. I tried to install the intel microcode however, the problem still persists. I ran mprime for nearly 24 hours, stopped it and it reported no errors on the CPU. While it may seem like it's the motherboard, I still feel that the problem may be the CPU. If the motherboard was the problem component, wouldn't it fail to boot up in the first place?

.:B:. · 2012-04-17 14:48:26

Not necessarily. If you unseat the CPU, do all the pins look intact on the socket?

You could also try disabling hyperthreading and see if that helps.

Last edited by .:B:. (2012-04-17 14:54:39)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-04-16 04:16:15

CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

#2 2012-04-16 05:03:05

Re: CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

#3 2012-04-16 07:46:18

Re: CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

#4 2012-04-16 10:53:45

Re: CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

#5 2012-04-16 13:51:55

Re: CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

#6 2012-04-16 14:44:44

Re: CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

#7 2012-04-16 15:53:23

Re: CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

#8 2012-04-17 14:17:55

Re: CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

#9 2012-04-17 14:48:26

Re: CPU1 and CPU3 not responding. Hangs on boot

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