How do I find out why my laptop shutoff while compiling? (bad RAM, heat sink?)

Quon · 06-16-2012, 07:48 AM

I assume it is either bad RAM or else it overheated. Is there any logged messages to tell what happened?

syg00 · 06-16-2012, 07:58 AM

Probably not - from experience, put your money on overheating. Especially on a laptop.
I jack the machine up and use a desk-fan aimed at it to get decent airflow. Many years of gentoo system compiling ...

onebuck · 06-16-2012, 07:59 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quon

I assume it is either bad RAM or else it overheated. Is there any logged messages to tell what happened?

You can look at the 'logs' in '/var/log' for messages.
If you suspect 'RAM' then I would perform diagnostics with;

Quote:

memtest86+ <- 'memory tester which is based on memtest86 v3.0, and provides an up-to-date version of this useful tool, which aims to be as reliable as the original. It has been fixed to work on AMD64 systems, and also properly detects all current CPUs and motherboard chipsets. The project supports ECC polling for AMD64, i875P, and E7205, and displays some useful settings for the most popular chipsets'

You should allow several passes unless memtest86+ shows obvious errors.
Two good diagnostic LiveCD that do contain memtest86+ along with other useful tools to have onhand;

Quote:

UBCD Ultimate Boot CD <- 'UBCD allows users to run floppy-based diagnostic tools from most CDROM drives on Intel-compatible machines, no operating system required. The CD includes many diagnostic utilities.'

SystemRescueCd <- 'is a Linux system on a bootable CD-ROM for repairing your system and recovering your data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains a lot of system utilities (parted, partimage, fstools, ...) and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools).' + 'Online-Manual

Hardware information would help to diagnose the situation. Perform maintenance on the equipment. Clean the system inlets, fans & heat sinks. Sometimes system maintenance(cleaning) is overlooked by users.

FYI: I suggest that you look at 'How to Ask Questions the Smart Way' so in the future your queries provide information that will aid us in diagnosis of the problem or query.  

otoomet · 06-18-2012, 05:29 AM

Does bad memory lead to shutoff? I had compatibility problems b/W BIOS and memory, and that led to random hangs during boot or shortly thereafter (BIOS upgrade was the solution for me).