Toshiba laptop shuts off
 

Hi
I am running Mandrake 10.1 on a Toshiba A70-RW1 laptop. Sometimes it shuts off suddenly. How do I know if this happens due to over heating. I am using this for about 7 months and I did not buy any extended warranty. On the other hand, I do not use windows though WinXP came with by default.

Any one has any idea why it shuts off suddenly or how do I diagnose the problem.

Thanks.

alam

It's most likely overheating. If you need proof, just check into the last 6 or so lawsuits against toshiba for poorly constructed systems. Overheating, failing hardware...

Nothing you can actually do about it, but on the plus side, I've had 2 toshiba's and got 500$ back from each of them about 3 years after purchase when they finally get their asses sued off for making bad computers :)

I have a laptop that would shut off on overheat wheil doing stuff like compiling the kernel, or other heavy processor duties. I cleaned the heat sink, and applied new thermal grease, which helped a lot, but did not completly fix the problem.

I edit cpufreqd.conf to limit the hi_boost performace profile to limit the cpu to 90%.

no more overtemp...

g

I had this problem on my toshiba A75 maybe too simple of a fix here but I found that I was setting the laptop on carpet or my lap and blocking the fan intake on the underside of the machine. Once I became mindful of this I didnt see the problem anymore.

Hello:

Thanks every one for your reply. Recently, I have noticed that my laptop shuts off suddenly if I am running some code or even reading some pdf documents using acroread. I feel that the laptop is hot. However, I tried booting to windows and reading the same pdf document in Windows XP but the laptop did not shut off. That's why I am wondering if I need to do something with the Mandrake 10.1 os that I am using. Because if I send it to Toshiba, they will for sure try with Windows and may to see this problem.

Where is the file cpufreqd.conf located?

alam

May help;
http://rffr.de/acpi

Thanks.
According to that site, I need
cd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/
but cpufreq does not exist in my system.

any other idea?

cpufreq is a kernel option. Your kernel may not have it enabled for your cpu. I guess you know what that means. Its like an initiation into the world of linux.

I am not sure how do I enable the kernel for the cpu. Do you mean I need to re-compile the kernel?
I am not an expert in this case.

I notice today that the laptop starts noise if I login to linux and becomes hot very soon. Suddenly it shuts off and I feel that the key board on the right side is hot. I then boot to winXP and the system gets stable, keyboard cools down, no noise from the fan. I need more help on this.

I also notice that (drakxservice) cpufreq and cpufreqd is "stopped" and I cannot start by clicking on "start" button. Is this relevant?

First let me say that I don't use mandrake and I am sorry that there may not be an easy fix. Also I am not an expert on this stuff but I will try and explain.When I compile a kernel for a laptop there is a place to enable cpufreq and cpu throttling. First it has to be available. Most older chips have support for it some newer ones not yet. So if your laptop does not have it it could be the problem of running hot. I would try a newer kernel or another distro with a newer kernel until you can do a kernel for your laptop yourself. I am sure that has only confused you more.

If you want to see the CPU temperature, until you recompile your kernel you'll probably have to look in your BIOS. So as soon as it shuts off, reboot and enter the BIOS before booting an OS, and look under Hardware Monitor for the CPU temp.

If you do not get something on that laptop to make the fan run, one day the overheating is going to cause something to burn up. I bought a Sony laptop in 2002. In 2003 I started running a Linux distro on it. My laptop started doing the same thing ... it would shutdown, and it was definitely too hot, but I didn't understand the problem until it was too late. One day when it shutdown, it never would boot again. I took it to the Sony store and they told me the southbridge chip had burned up. It was 15 months old, and the warranty was 12 months. Sony wanted over $750 USD to replace the motherboard. They cannot just replace the southbridge chip. I don't understand why not. Maybe they are not smart enough to do that.

The problem is that for modern computers, ACPI is the option in the Linux kernel to control your fan, and display your temperatures. However, ACPI doesn't always work right with Linux hardware. In fact, I have 6 computers here, and ACPI does not work properly on any of them. It works a little on my Toshiba notebook; not at all on any of my Asus motherboards.

And don't think of writing to either the manufacturer of your hardware, or the Linux kernel developers for ACPI. They will both blame each other, and the only solution you have for ACPI working properly is to use Windows.

I have a Toshiba A65-S126. A man gave it to me, when he had only had it for 3 months, because it is such a piece of junk. He had many problems with this laptop. I found that most of these problems were related to Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and the Toshiba software. So I wrote the hard drive to zeroes, and installed Windows XP Pro and my own software. That ended the software problems. I also have Slackware Linux (current) on it. For ACPI I have tried every thing anyone has mentioned, and nothing works completely. I have got the fan working with ACPI now, and it's not overheating. But I had to use a 2.6.x.y kernel and compile ACPI built in rather than modules.

That other poster (Caeda) is correct ... don't expect any help from Toshiba. They are quite ignorant using Windows, and they don't even know there is such a thing as a Linux distribution. (I would like to know how to get some money from Toshiba. The hard drive also has a bad block, and when I called Toshiba in October I found the warranty expired at 12 months in August.) They will only test it with Windows. That isn't all bad, though, if your laptop is still in warranty. Maybe they will fix or replace it without you having to sue them in a court of law.

Now that I've got that off my chest ...

There are several ways to see the temperature of your CPU. The most reliable and effective way that I've found is by compiling ACPI in your kernel, then in a terminal issue:
Everything for ACPI is under /proc/acpi/ and some motherboards have better and more output than others. For my Toshbia A65-S126 this is what I get:
There are different things to configure and modify, but first you must get ACPI support in your kernel.

I don't know anything about Mandrake. When I tried Linux distributions I tried it, but there were too many things done "The Mandrake Way (TM)" and not "The Linux Way (TM)" for my particular tastes. Nevertheless, you can install a custom kernel in it. There might be things not included, such as kernel-headers, but it can be done (search our Mandrake forum).

This is the Kernel Rebuild Guide I recommend to everyone. I've rebuilt a lot of kernels, and it's not really so hard if you follow that guide. The difficulty comes if you don't know enough about your hardware. You can always use your present kernel .config file and build a new kernel with it, only changing what you need for ACPI (and CPU freq if you want to try that, also).

This is what I use in my Toshiba's kernel for ACPI:
Long post, but maybe it helps.

If you need help recompiling your kernel, and can't find it searching Google and our Mandrake forum, just ask. You can probably just change those ACPI options with your present kernel .config file and do okay.

Thanks for the very useful informations. Please see below:

[alamj@wavelet ~]$ ls -l /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/
total 0
[alamj@wavelet ~]$

Why thermal_zone is empty in my case?

[alamj@wavelet ~]$ grep -i acpi /usr/src/linux/.config
# Power management options (ACPI, APM)
# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
CONFIG_ACPI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BOOT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INTERPRETER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=m
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=m
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=m
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=m
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=m
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=m
CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS=m
CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA=m
# CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_BUS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PCI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INITRD=y
CONFIG_ACPI_TC1100=m
CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ=m
# CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_PROC_INTF is not set
CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K7_ACPI=y
CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8_ACPI=y
CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO_ACPI=y
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_PCI_ACPI=m
CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_ACPI=y
CONFIG_SERIAL_WACOM_ACPI=m
[alamj@wavelet ~]$

Since I hear the noise comming from fan, I suppose fan is working but fails to cool down the cpu. Is it so? I am planning to re-build the kernel but need to understand what I need to change e.g. for acpi. Let me know what to change in the acpi section in the .config file. I can proceed with comparing with your output and making similar changes only.

[alamj@wavelet ~]$ uname -a
Linux wavelet 2.6.8.1-12mdksmp #1 SMP Fri Oct 1 11:24:45 CEST 2004 i686 Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz unknown GNU/Linux
[alamj@wavelet ~]$

If it's of any interest to you I had the same prob with my Satellite A60. One way to get around it is to remove the battery and power it from the mains. I found that the cooling fan did not start when laptop was fired up, but with battery out worked ok. I also cleaned the terminals on the battery and the connectors on laptop, all's fine at mo.

P.s. It's a bit ironic that it's called a LAPTOP yet not such a good idea to use it on your lap because of the cooling fan. :D

Thanks all of you for suggestions.

It seems to me that the problem is due to overheating and happens with linux.

How do I confirm that ACPI is not properly working? So that I can think to compile the kernel with ACPI enabled.

(By adjusting Klaptop, I got the system shutdown on its own if the battery is low. But I do not think that the calculation of battery power was correct. Does this mean ACPI is not working? Well sleep or hibernate does not work. I am more concerned now to keep the system cool.)

How about if I buy an external cooling kit? Will this be useful?

Today no 'sudden shutdown' happened during 7hours of continusous use. I used my table fan and kept the window (not ms-window, room window) little open so that the room stays not too warm.

According to the Gentoo install notes on your lappy the important thing to have in your kernel is CPU throttling and then make sure you have cpu freq utility to manage cpu state and heating management. Mandrake or Mandriva must have cpu-trottling management help on there support page or forums. http://www.computx.us/genttoo-A70.html#CPU could be place to start-off. Check your Mandrake kernel .config--in /boot or /usr/src as reference. If cpu throttling is included then just loading some modules or starting some programs may be all you need. Check /proc/acpi for cpu and power state info and /proc/acpi/processor for cpu info.There should be a /proc/acpi/fan section too. Do you have acpid program?Just tread carefully.