Arch Linux

unclebob

Member

Registered: 2009-05-28

Posts: 10

[Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

Hello.

I've just bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 with Windows Vista pre-installed.  I would like to install Arch but am not having much luck.

Booting from the 2009.02-ftp-x86_64 image from a USB drive takes me through to the login.  Shortly after (ie within 2 minutes or so) without exception I get a kernel panic and have to hard power-off.  The stack trace mentions things like cpu_idle, acpi_set_register, machine_check and native_smp_send_stop.  All greek to me.

I tried again passing acpi=off to the kernel.  This results in the system staying up for longer but it will freeze eventually (no stack trace), and it seems like using the keyboard causes it to happen more quickly.

Another side-effect of acpi=off is that only one CPU core is found, dmesg shows a 'weird, boot CPU (#0) is not listedby BIOS' message.

I tried disabling multi-core in the BIOS, so now only one core but it still freezes.

I tried disabling USB Emulation in the BIOS and booted from a Gentoo 2007.0 x86_64 CD.  Once it froze during startup, but another couple of times it seemed to last quite a lot longer... managed to start up Gnome and all but eventually while I was sitting at the console 3 machine check exceptions were generated and it froze up again.

I decoded the exceptions: all were 'Processor context corrupt', two were 'Internal Timer error', one was 'BUS Level-0 Originated-request Generic Memory-access Request-timeout Error'.

Vista seems to run ok (I think, dunno how it normally runs).  It certainly doesn't freeze.  I don't have any real way to stress test it, it sat there playing some music it comes with for a while, though occasionally it did stutter.  Perhaps those are machine check exceptions being recovered from?

Anybody have advice on things to try?

Or, is the hardware broken?  Not sure how I'll go about convince Dell of the problem

Thanks
UBob

Last edited by unclebob (2009-06-07 07:28:21)

andre.ramaciotti

Member

From: Brazil

Registered: 2007-04-06

Posts: 649

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

This is weird. Arch runs just fine in my inspiron (same model) without acpi=off or anything like that.

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Dheart

Member

From: Sofia, Bulgaria

Registered: 2006-10-26

Posts: 956

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

Very strange. I have the same notebook, yet no such issues.
What type of freeze do you get? A kernel panic (caps lock and scroll lock blinking) or freeze with no keyboard input being recognized?

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My victim you are meant to be
No, you cannot hide nor flee
You know what I'm looking for
Pleasure your torture, I will endure...

ninian

Member

From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 726

Website

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

Hmmm...

I've had my Inspiron 1525 running sweetly with a fully updated (32-bit) Arch (and also Ubuntu 8.04) for a few months now, with no problems, just the odd tweak needed (touchpad, webcam, etc) as indicated in the Wiki at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_Inspiron_1525. My CPU is:

Intel Celeron Processor 560 (2.13 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2 Cache) - N-Series

though there quite a few confusing variants supplied with this Dell model.

What kind of CPU do you have? What happens if you run a 32-bit live CD instead? Can you get any output from the '# hwd -s' or '$ hardinfo' commands?

unclebob

Member

Registered: 2009-05-28

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

What type of freeze do you get? A kernel panic (caps lock and scroll lock blinking) or freeze with no keyboard input being recognized?

With Arch caps lock and scroll lock start blinking and everything is totally frozen, no input from the keyboard is recognised... the only thing possible is holding down the power switch until it powers down.

With Gentoo it's the same except caps lock and scroll lock aren't blinking... it does actually print 'Kernel panic...' on the terminal.  Again hard restart is only option.

unclebob

Member

Registered: 2009-05-28

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

My CPU is:

Intel Celeron Processor 560 (2.13 GHz, 533 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2 Cache) - N-Series

though there quite a few confusing variants supplied with this Dell model.

What kind of CPU do you have?

I've got an Intel T4200 @ 2GHz (which apparently is 64bit).

I'm not sure what series my Inspiron is (eg N-Series).  Where does one find that information?

What happens if you run a 32-bit live CD instead?

Hmmm,  the 32bit Arch image seems to stay up indefinitely.  It's only accessing 3.7 GB RAM though.
The 32bit Gentoo LiveCD still freezes with a machine check exception/kernel panic.  Perhaps it is compiled to use the full 4GB... it always freezes before it's fully started up so I can't check.

I've run memtest86... it froze 5% through.  Ran it again, it made one full pass with no errors, then froze 1% through the next pass.

Can you get any output from the '# hwd -s' or '$ hardinfo' commands?

Are these available from the Arch ftp boot images?  I couldn't seem to run them.  Perhaps only available once Arch is acutally installed?

Does anyone have an Inspiron 1525 running 64bit and/or 32bit with the full 4GB RAM available?

Thanks
UBob

unclebob

Member

Registered: 2009-05-28

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

Well, 32bit Ubuntu 8.04 live cd freezes as well.  It only accesses 3.6GB RAM.  Maybe I just wasn't patient enough with the 32bit Arch.

I smell buggered hardware.

Luckily (?) the pre-installed Dell diagnostics freeze as well if you're patient enough.  So hopefully I'll be alright with a warranty claim... doesn't look like they sell the 1525's any more so might be a bit of a hassle.

Thanks
UBob

ninian

Member

From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 726

Website

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

Sadly, it is looking more and more like a hardware fault.

Luckily (?) the pre-installed Dell diagnostics freeze as well if you're patient enough.  So hopefully I'll be alright with a warranty claim... doesn't look like they sell the 1525's any more so might be a bit of a hassle.

Indeed, but it's Dell's problem to fix! If they can't replace it then they must return your cash.

unclebob

Member

Registered: 2009-05-28

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

Well, looks like it was a hardware problem... CPU would be my guess.  Dell sent a chap around to replace both the RAM and CPU and it seems to be working ok so far.

Thanks for the input.

UBob

ninian

Member

From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 726

Website

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

Good ... thanks for letting us know how the story turned out.
Glad to know we hadn't missed anything obvious!

unclebob

Member

Registered: 2009-05-28

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved]Dell Inspiron 1525, kernel panic, hangs and MCEs

Well, pretty convinced it was the hardware.  Got Arch installed, not finished yet but network, sound, desktop environment all setup running for a couple of days with no freezes.  Looking good.