Arch Linux

tositstill

Member

Registered: 2007-10-03

Posts: 17

Laptop Suddenly Restarts

Hello everyone.

I am a linux newbie. I have had some short experience with Debian and decided that Id learn more from Arch...

I just got a new laptop, a Acer Aspire 7720.

[Here are some other topics about this particular laptop:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=38892
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=40818

And a french site about how to configure Ubuntu on it:
http://www.devlog.be/index.php/devlog/2 … r_acer_asp
]

Along with other problems of configuration (that I am still trying to understand and will try to contribute to the community once I get whats going on) my computer has the following issue: it suddenly restarts with no apparent pattern. I tried to test if it has something to do with reading a CD/DVD-rom or opening any particular problem but couldnt understand what goes on. It gets, sometimes, really really hot...(a friend of mine once said he couldnt even touch it).

Since I am a newbie..I am not sure of which information you will need to help me through this...Are there any system logs that might show me something? Ahn...

I tried to understand some of the power management stuff...Im still going to read more about it...but I feel like I should ask in the forum to get a better idea of what exactly is going on....

I thank in advance for any help I can get...and I am sorry if my english is not very clear...=]

Ahn..I guess thats it.

Last edited by tositstill (2007-12-10 12:05:24)

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,482

Website

Re: Laptop Suddenly Restarts

Sounds like the computer is overheating then shutting down. Does you fan come on at all?

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PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD | I develop pacman - buy me a drink!

tositstill

Member

Registered: 2007-10-03

Posts: 17

Re: Laptop Suddenly Restarts

hmm...
it's weird..the fan comes out at times...but right now, for example, the computer was really really hot and still it didnt turn off.

sometimes I use it for a very long time before it restarts and, when it does, it isnt even that hot...

ahnn but if thats the problem, can you imagine anyway to fix it? do you think maybe its a hardware problem? I used windows vista for a while (blerght) and i dont remember it getting this hot...

thanks for your answer

beissemj

Member

Registered: 2007-05-11

Posts: 43

Re: Laptop Suddenly Restarts

To check the temp of your laptop do:

$ cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/temperature
temperature:             35 C

As you can see here, my CPU temp is 35 degress Celsius.
Also, are you using speed stepping for your processor? I know if I don't my laptop can get pretty toasty.  http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cpufrequtils

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Professor: This isn't right...It isn't even wrong...

tositstill

Member

Registered: 2007-10-03

Posts: 17

Re: Laptop Suddenly Restarts

Ok. I am sorry for taking so long to post anything here.

I found out that using the apend=noapic in the grub menu.lst file made my computer stop restarting, but it turns out that this problem had nothing to do with the fact that my machine is getting really 'toasty' (=]). Sometimes I get a CPU0 : temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled.

Does anyone have any idea of how to solve it? I am having a look at other computers similar to mine to see if I can get to it. =]

Thanks for your replies....

Last edited by tositstill (2007-12-15 23:44:30)

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Laptop Suddenly Restarts

Ok. I am sorry for taking so long to post anything here.

I found out that using the apend=noapic in the grub menu.lst file made my computer stop restarting, but it turns out that this problem had nothing to do with the fact that my machine is getting really 'toasty' (=]). Sometimes I get a CPU0 : temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled.

Does anyone have any idea of how to solve it? I am having a look at other computers similar to mine to see if I can get to it. =]

Thanks for your replies....

Not sure what you mean, that has *everything* to do with your machine getting toasty. That message means that the CPU is too hot, so it's being scaled down to a lower frequency/power in an attempt to reduce the heat.

Shaika-Dzari

Member

From: Québec, Canada

Registered: 2006-04-14

Posts: 436

Website

Re: Laptop Suddenly Restarts

Do you have the last kernel?
My laptop was very hot with 2.6.22 but since the 2.6.23, it's fine.

@+

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Shaika-Dzari
http://www.4nakama.net

tositstill

Member

Registered: 2007-10-03

Posts: 17

Re: Laptop Suddenly Restarts

@iphitus i am sorry, thanks for your answer...I made a wrong judgment there..=\

I changed the apic thing and the computer was still getting really hot...so I thought those two problems were not related..I really dont know much about hardware...

But I found in wikipedia an article that says that linux does not support the apic properly...[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_APIC_Architecture]

So my computer is adjusting the temperature? It is correct then, right?

When I do:

[root@acer user]# cat /proc/acpi/fan/
cat: /proc/acpi/fan/: Is a directory

Shouldnt I receive some information about the status of the fan?

@Shaika-Dzari
I do have the latest kernel..Why do you think this change happened?