[SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

c_danil0o · 2021-03-19 21:51:41

Hello everyone. I am writing here as my last hope to fixing this problem that I have occuring on my laptop every now and then.
I am using Arch on Lenovo Ideapad 530s (i3 8100, 4gb ram, Intel UHD 620). The problem is that system randomly crashes without throwing any specific error.
Screen goes black without any warning or freezing and system immediately reboots. I tried updating everything, changing to LTS kernel and many other things, all without success.
Crashes can be seen here:
https://pastebin.com/AJYWWZ1H
I checked logs everytime after the crash, but I haven't found anything. Here is the example of journalctl log of the last boot when the crash happened:
https://pastebin.com/6ii0izS3
I am sorry if I broke any of the forum rules. This is my first post. Thanks in advance.

Last edited by c_danil0o (2021-08-22 16:07:15)

Morn · 2021-03-19 22:42:16

These crashes also seems to happen on Windows 10 with that device. I found a German shop page (https://www.mediamarkt.de/de/product/_l … 18184.html) about it and the first review dated 2019-07-16 says in translation:

Pro: Fast, easy
Cons: Crashes often
The Lenovo has a fast processor and is easy to use. Unfortunately, sometimes the screen goes black out of the blue.

(Note that the top of that page refers to the latest, Ryzen-based model, but the reviews also cover older revisions.)

So it looks like some hardware problem to me. Perhaps a flaky connection somewhere. I hope you still have your receipt.

seth · 2021-03-19 23:04:35

CPU, RAM or PSU.
Edit: or of course temperature.

The posted journal starts late; check whether you have mce errors in the dmesg after a reboot - they might provide more information about the cause.

Last edited by seth (2021-03-19 23:05:56)

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 08:33:33

I am also using Windows 10 on this device and I never had it crash. I also tried replicating the crash with a stress test on Arch and i've never managed crashing it. Also thermals are Ok when the crash happens. Even did a memtest and RAM seems OK. Journalctl cuts off a moment before the crash happens and doesn't show anything. I will try checking dmesg, or having it run in the background every time I am using laptop, maybe I will catch something. Thanks

seth · 2021-03-20 08:36:22

The MCE errors are (if they exist) posted on the boot AFTER the crash.

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 09:07:27

Thanks for the info. In that case I will have to wait for the crash to happen again, because for some reason dmesg messages are not saved in /var/log and I can see only the last one after the boot. I also forgot to mention that I had even linux live boots crashing in same way, but windows had never crashed.

seth · 2021-03-20 09:22:04

The ring buffer should also be in older system journals ("sudo journalctl -b -1" fr the previous boot)

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 13:38:29

I checked older system journals from the times when the crash has happened, and from the boots after the crash, and didn't found any MCE errors. Journal log that I posted in the first post also should contain MCE errors if they existed because in that case I had two consecutive crashes (system crashed and rebooted, used laptop for a while and then again crashed and rebooted, so journal log that i posted is from between two crashes, and should contain errors in the beginning of the log, if they are posted on the boot after the crash, or at the end if they are showing at the moment when they happen). Is there any other way to try and find out what is causing these issues. Big problem is that they happen at completely random times. They could go for 10 days without appearing and then for some reason in 3 days I get like 10 of them... I am considering reinstalling Arch, but i am afraid that these issues would return, because I have had exact same crashes on the live Manjaro and Ubuntu boots few times, but never had them on windows, no matter how I use my computer.

seth · 2021-03-20 13:46:22

The journal segment you posted begins at

Mar 19 22:48:28 danilopc systemd[1]: Starting Load Kernel Modules...

That's post any MCE unspooling. The entire head of the journal is missing.

I am considering reinstalling Arch, but i am afraid that these issues would return, because I have had exact same crashes on the live Manjaro and Ubuntu boots few times, but never had them on windows, no matter how I use my computer.

Re-installation won't do anything.

But because of windows: see the 3rd link in my signature - it could well be that effectively windows turns off the system…

Morn · 2021-03-20 13:50:43

c_danil0o wrote:

I am considering reinstalling Arch, but i am afraid that these issues would return, because I have had exact same crashes on the live Manjaro and Ubuntu boots few times, but never had them on windows, no matter how I use my computer.

Windows probably has a workaround for whatever hardware defect this device has. It's certainly very convenient for Microsoft that these devices always have strange bugs that keep Linux from running properly on them. Somehow Windows was also never affected by coil whine on my Sandy Bridge or the Ryzen crash bug...

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 14:09:20

Is there any way where I could capture head portion of the log that is missing? First thing I do when installing Windows is disabling fast boot and hibernation, so I don't think they would cause any issues when dual booting. (there is small chance that this is the issue, I will try from now on manually turning off windows instead of automatic sleep option, maybe that is the problem).

Morn wrote:

Windows probably has a workaround for whatever hardware defect this device has. It's certainly very convenient for Microsoft that these devices always have strange bugs that keep Linux from running properly on them. Somehow Windows was also never affected by coil whine on my Sandy Bridge or the Ryzen crash bug....

I am aware that these issues are happening for many users, but I've used Arch and Windows 10 on this configuration for over a year without any problems. These crashes have been happening for last two months, so I don't think there is any factory hardware deffect on this device. Of course there could be something wrong in the hardware, but that issue had to happen in the last two months.

Big thanks Seth and Morn

Last edited by c_danil0o (2021-03-20 14:12:56)

seth · 2021-03-20 14:14:30

Windows occasionally re-enables fast-boot with updates (because their users are all stupid and can only have accidentally disabled it… because they're stupid. I guess…)
So just ensure it's still deactivated.

Idk how you filtered the journal, but

sudo journalctl -b -1 | curl -F 'f:1=<-' ix.io

should™ upload the journal of the previous boot (adust "-1" accordingly) and the journal should™ perfectly start w/ the initial ringbuffer messages (kerne version, a bunch of ACPI errors because vendors don't read the specs… memory layout etcetc.)

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 14:44:52

Few moments ago, I turned on Windows, logged out and completely turned it off and made sure that it's not hibernated. Then I logged on Arch and went on forum to write a reply, when the crash happened again.
Here are the full logs of the boot when the crash happened:
https://pastebin.com/QkaHneQD
And the dmesg log from the next boot after the crash:
https://pastebin.com/0aEzcwQv
I noticed at the end of the journalctl log, at the few messages at the end, clock is sincronized.(ex. It goes from Mar 20 16:25:33 to Mar 20 15:26:15 which is my true time, so it was +1 hour before the sync). I don't know if this matters, but I just noticed it.

seth · 2021-03-20 14:51:53

1. Why is that an old LTS kernel?
2. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mi … ly_loading ?

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 15:01:41

1. I tried few kernels to see if there is any difference. I tried downgrading and changing kernels and when I saw that issue persisted, I didn't bother updating kernel until I resolved crash issue.
2. You're saying to update ucode configuration on my device?

Last edited by c_danil0o (2021-03-20 15:03:42)

seth · 2021-03-20 15:04:47

See the link, install the microcode package and ensure it's loaded early.
These microcode patches are transient (ie. you load them w/ every boot into the CPU) and for recent-ish (all modern) processors mandatory.

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 15:06:55

Thanks a lot. I will try doing that and posting reply if anything changes.

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 20:48:40

Installed intel-ucode and configured it. Also I confirmed that it's loaded when booting. After some time crash happened again. Even tried doing full system update and kernel update, but didn't help. Could it be that Firefox is somehow causing this issue, because from what I could remember, a lot of times when the crash happened I was using Firefox. Here are the last logs from the crash:
https://pastebin.com/41HXhRUg
https://pastebin.com/G0hQE7c4
Also I noticed that the last message in journalctl just before crash is most of the time "rtkit-daemon...."
Sorry for bothering.

Last edited by c_danil0o (2021-03-20 20:52:28)

Morn · 2021-03-20 21:04:18

c_danil0o wrote:

Could it be that Firefox is somehow causing this issue, because from what I could remember, a lot of times when the crash happened I was using Firefox.

Maybe try unchecking "Use hardware acceleration when available" under Firefox performance settings and restart FF. Intel graphics can sometimes cause problems under Linux.

seth · 2021-03-20 21:13:02

And try passing "intel_idle.max_cstate=1 i915.enable_psr=0 iommu=soft" to the kernel (those are workarounds to known issues, no idea whether they'll do anything for you. Still worth a try)

c_danil0o · 2021-03-20 21:51:01

Morn wrote:

Maybe try unchecking "Use hardware acceleration when available" under Firefox performance settings and restart FF. Intel graphics can sometimes cause problems under Linux.

Thanks, I will try that, or even switching to Chromium to see if the issues will continue happening.

seth wrote:

And try passing "intel_idle.max_cstate=1 i915.enable_psr=0 iommu=soft" to the kernel (those are workarounds to known issues, no idea whether they'll do anything for you. Still worth a try)

Thanks man, I really appreciate your help. Hoping to see a difference with these kernel parameters.

Morn · 2021-03-20 22:21:45

c_danil0o wrote:

Thanks, I will try that, or even switching to Chromium to see if the issues will continue happening.

I think Chromium uses the GPU for even more things than FF, so it might be worse. But you can disable hardware acceleration in the Chromium settings too.

c_danil0o · 2021-03-21 15:06:54

I don't think it's GPU usage problem. It's something weird about Firefox. I removed it yesterday, started using Chromium and haven't had any crashes since then. It's still early to say, but it may be that Firefox was causing these issues somehow, but I'm not sure yet. I will try using Chromium for some time to see if the issues will be coming back. Thanks to everyone who tried to help me. Cheers!

Last edited by c_danil0o (2021-03-21 15:08:00)

c_danil0o · 2021-03-25 13:49:08

It's me again. It seems that crashes are still appearing. I tried adding these kernel parameters: "intel_idle.max_cstate=1 i915.enable_psr=0 iommu=soft", disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome and Firefox, installing microcode, disabling hibernation in Windows, updating whole system and switching kernels and all of this with no success. After every crash logs are completely same. They don't show anything is wrong. Also after boot, dmesg log is completely normal. Is there any other logs that I could check, or it is time for me to reconcile with the fact that running linux on this device is not possible(although I was running it for over a year without changing anything, without any problems)?

Morn · 2021-03-25 14:42:07

c_danil0o wrote:

(although I was running it for over a year without changing anything, without any problems)?

Which kernel version were you running back then? You could try to downgrade the kernel (https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/l/linux) to that old version and see if it works. In other words, try to bisect the issue and determine what the important change between a working and non-working system state is. Clearly the kernel and its device drivers are always a major suspect in these cases.

Or you could go distro-hopping. Things on Debian move a bit slower than on Arch, so they probably also use an older kernel.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-03-19 21:51:41

[SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#2 2021-03-19 22:42:16

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#3 2021-03-19 23:04:35

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#4 2021-03-20 08:33:33

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#5 2021-03-20 08:36:22

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#6 2021-03-20 09:07:27

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#7 2021-03-20 09:22:04

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#8 2021-03-20 13:38:29

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#9 2021-03-20 13:46:22

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#10 2021-03-20 13:50:43

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#11 2021-03-20 14:09:20

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#12 2021-03-20 14:14:30

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#13 2021-03-20 14:44:52

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#14 2021-03-20 14:51:53

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#15 2021-03-20 15:01:41

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#16 2021-03-20 15:04:47

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#17 2021-03-20 15:06:55

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#18 2021-03-20 20:48:40

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#19 2021-03-20 21:04:18

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#20 2021-03-20 21:13:02

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#21 2021-03-20 21:51:01

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#22 2021-03-20 22:21:45

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#23 2021-03-21 15:06:54

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#24 2021-03-25 13:49:08

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

#25 2021-03-25 14:42:07

Re: [SOLVED] System randomly crashing and then rebooting

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