Quote:
Originally Posted by alam
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
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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:
Code:
mingdao@titus:~$ cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THZN/temperature
temperature: 41 C
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:
Code:
mingdao@titus:~$ ls -lh /proc/acpi/
total 0
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 ac_adapter
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 battery
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 button
-r-------- 1 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 dsdt
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 embedded_controller
-r-------- 1 root root 0 2006-03-10 16:36 event
-r-------- 1 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 fadt
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 fan
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 info
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 power_resource
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 processor
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 thermal_zone
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 2006-03-13 11:56 video
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:
Code:
mingdao@titus:~$ grep -i acpi ~/kernel/linux-2.6.15.4/.config
# Power management options (ACPI, APM)
# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
CONFIG_ACPI=y
# CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y
CONFIG_ACPI_VIDEO=y
# CONFIG_ACPI_HOTKEY is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y
# CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS is not set
# CONFIG_ACPI_IBM is not set
# CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA is not set
# CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_BLACKLIST_YEAR=0
# CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y
# CONFIG_ACPI_CONTAINER is not set
CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ=m
# CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_PROC_INTF is not set
CONFIG_PNPACPI=y
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.