Hardware problem identification

rhjp · 2014-09-09 07:28:38

Hi,

For about the last 6 months, about once in every 3 boots, my laptop starts but doesn't get to the login part and just has a blank screen. I then do a hard reset to start it again. As it is likely to be a hardware problem of some sort, rather than throwing the laptop away and getting a new one, I would like to identify where the problem is and replace that part only.

The Arch setup I have is very simple; just using openbox for the GUI.

I have identified various potentially related errors from journalctl --full and these are posted below. Any ideas? Thank you, Richard

"Could it simply be a case of updating the BIOS?":

Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ------------[ cut here ]------------
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 0 at drivers/iommu/dmar.c:761 warn_invalid_dmar+0x6d/0x85()
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: Your BIOS is broken; DMAR reported at address 0!
                                  BIOS vendor: INSYDE; Ver: V1.3127; Product Version: V1.3127
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: Modules linked in:
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Not tainted 3.15.5-2-ARCH #1
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: Hardware name: Acer Aspire 1825PTZ/JM12-MS-CAP, BIOS V1.3127 04/23/2010
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  0000000000000000 247c32ffc0b76e25 ffffffff81803de8 ffffffff815081fe
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  ffffffff81803e30 ffffffff81803e20 ffffffff81069b1d 0000000000000000
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  ffffffff81713efd ffffffff81b3d008 ffffffff81b3d034 ffffffff81803fa8
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: Call Trace:
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff815081fe>] dump_stack+0x4d/0x6f
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff81069b1d>] warn_slowpath_common+0x7d/0xa0
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff81069c14>] warn_slowpath_fmt_taint+0x54/0x70
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff81330559>] ? acpi_tb_verify_checksum+0x24/0x5c
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff81508d86>] warn_invalid_dmar+0x6d/0x85
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff8193ba14>] detect_intel_iommu+0x7f/0x17a
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff81900598>] pci_iommu_alloc+0x4a/0x6c
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff8190ff41>] mem_init+0x17/0x9d
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff818f5c75>] start_kernel+0x217/0x469
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff818f5864>] ? repair_env_string+0x5c/0x5c
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff818f5120>] ? early_idt_handlers+0x120/0x120
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff818f54d7>] x86_64_start_reservations+0x2a/0x2c
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel:  [<ffffffff818f5626>] x86_64_start_kernel+0x14d/0x170
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ---[ end trace 3075899b416d0dfc ]---
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: Memory: 3008908K/3074980K available (5224K kernel code, 886K rwdata, 1644K rodata, 1116K init, 1284K bss, 66072K reserved)

Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: Executed 1 blocks of module-level executable AML code
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: SSDT 0x00000000BBA6EC98 0001E1 (v01 PmRef  Cpu0Ist  00003000 INTL 20051117)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: Dynamic OEM Table Load:
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: SSDT 0x0000000000000000 0001E1 (v01 PmRef  Cpu0Ist  00003000 INTL 20051117)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: SSDT 0x00000000BBA6C618 0005B3 (v01 PmRef  Cpu0Cst  00003001 INTL 20051117)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: Dynamic OEM Table Load:
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: SSDT 0x0000000000000000 0005B3 (v01 PmRef  Cpu0Cst  00003001 INTL 20051117)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: SSDT 0x00000000BBA6DE18 0001CF (v01 PmRef  ApIst    00003000 INTL 20051117)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: Dynamic OEM Table Load:
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: SSDT 0x0000000000000000 0001CF (v01 PmRef  ApIst    00003000 INTL 20051117)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: SSDT 0x00000000BBA6EF18 00008D (v01 PmRef  ApCst    00003000 INTL 20051117)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: Dynamic OEM Table Load:
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: SSDT 0x0000000000000000 00008D (v01 PmRef  ApCst    00003000 INTL 20051117)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI: Interpreter enabled
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, While evaluating Sleep State [\_S1_] (20140214/hwxface-580)
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, While evaluating Sleep State [\_S2_] (20140214/hwxface-580)

Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Configuration file /usr/lib/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.target is marked executable. Please remove executable permission bits. Pr
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Configuration file /usr/lib/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.target is marked world-writable. Please remove world writability permissi
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Populated /etc with preset unit settings.
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Cannot add dependency job for unit local-fs.target, ignoring: Unit local-fs.target failed to load: No such file or directory.
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Cannot add dependency job for unit swap.target, ignoring: Unit swap.target failed to load: No such file or directory.
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Cannot add dependency job for unit systemd-journald-dev-log.socket, ignoring: Unit systemd-journald-dev-log.socket failed to load
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Cannot add dependency job for unit timers.target, ignoring: Unit timers.target failed to load: No such file or directory.
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Cannot add dependency job for unit paths.target, ignoring: Unit paths.target failed to load: No such file or directory.
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost systemd[1]: Cannot add dependency job for unit slices.target, ignoring: Unit slices.target failed to load: No such file or directory.

Sep 09 07:05:50 acerarch kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000428-0x000000000000042f conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000400-0x000000000000047f (\PMB
Sep 09 07:05:50 acerarch kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
Sep 09 07:05:50 acerarch kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000530-0x000000000000053f conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000538-0x000000000000053a (\GPI
Sep 09 07:05:50 acerarch kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000530-0x000000000000053f conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000500-0x000000000000053f (\_SB
Sep 09 07:05:50 acerarch kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver
Sep 09 07:05:50 acerarch kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000500-0x000000000000052f conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000500-0x000000000000053f (\_SB

Sep 09 07:06:02 acerarch kernel: EXT4-fs error (device sda7): ext4_mb_generate_buddy:756: group 338, 3752 clusters in bitmap, 3754 in gd; block bitmap corrupt.
Sep 09 07:06:03 acerarch kernel: JBD2: Spotted dirty metadata buffer (dev = sda7, blocknr = 0). There's a risk of filesystem corruption in case of system crash.
Sep 09 07:06:08 acerarch kernel: EXT4-fs error (device sda7): ext4_mb_generate_buddy:756: group 99, 8479 clusters in bitmap, 8477 in gd; block bitmap corrupt.
Sep 09 07:06:09 acerarch kernel: JBD2: Spotted dirty metadata buffer (dev = sda7, blocknr = 0). There's a risk of filesystem corruption in case of system crash.

Last edited by rhjp (2014-09-09 10:02:32)

jasonwryan · 2014-09-09 07:35:56

Please use code tags when pasting to the boards: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … s_and_Code

And run memtest...

rhjp · 2014-09-13 15:51:01

jasonwryan wrote:

Please use code tags when pasting to the boards: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … s_and_Code

And run memtest...

Hi, I've now run memtest for a complete run and there were no errors. Any ideas?. Thanks

anatolik · 2014-09-13 16:08:31

I looks like you have problematic BIOS. I suggest you to reflash/update BIOS to the latest version. Another thing to check is BIOS battery, maybe it ran out of charge?

rhjp · 2014-09-14 10:53:26

Thanks anatolik. There is not a newer BIOS available, however I'll replace the BIOS battery if I can find it. Is there a way of testing the battery without using any special tools like a multimeter?

anatolik wrote:

I looks like you have problematic BIOS. I suggest you to reflash/update BIOS to the latest version. Another thing to check is BIOS battery, maybe it ran out of charge?

ewaller · 2014-09-14 18:29:17

I don't know. It does not smell like failing hardware to me. It sounds like something is not being initialized properly, or perhaps there is a subtle timing problem. Most BIOS are broken by design, so I tend not to focus on kernel warnings either (if things work )

I would ensure you can log into the box via ssh and, next time it happens, see if you can log in that way. If not, it tells us one thing; if so, it lets us diagnose the thing live.
Are you using a display manager? or did you boot to a console?

anatolik · 2014-09-15 03:12:50

rhjp wrote:

Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: ------------[ cut here ]------------
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 0 at drivers/iommu/dmar.c:761 warn_invalid_dmar+0x6d/0x85()
Sep 09 07:05:36 localhost kernel: Your BIOS is broken; DMAR reported at address 0!
                                  BIOS vendor: INSYDE; Ver: V1.3127; Product Version: V1.3127
otted dirty metadata buffer (dev = sda7, blocknr = 0). There's a risk of filesystem corruption in case of system crash.

googling pointed to this page https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F … u-problems

There are several ways to work around this issue. In most cases (see above), installing the 64-bit edition of Fedora 12 would be enough. If your BIOS has an option for it, enabling virtualization features in the BIOS should also work around this problem. Finally, you can work around this issue by appending the kernel parameter iommu=soft to your boot configuration.

Another interesting topic https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=174881

Arch Linux

#1 2014-09-09 07:28:38

Hardware problem identification

#2 2014-09-09 07:35:56

Re: Hardware problem identification

#3 2014-09-13 15:51:01

Re: Hardware problem identification

#4 2014-09-13 16:08:31

Re: Hardware problem identification

#5 2014-09-14 10:53:26

Re: Hardware problem identification

#6 2014-09-14 18:29:17

Re: Hardware problem identification

#7 2014-09-15 03:12:50

Re: Hardware problem identification

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