Ubuntu Laptop Randomly Shuts Off.
 

My Ubuntu Laptop Randomly Shuts Off every hour or so now.

My laptop is plugged into a power strip. The TV is plugged in there, too. But the TV doesn't shut off randomly. But my laptop still randomly shuts off every hour or more.

The laptop turns off and restarts itself, while it is plugged in.





MY LAPTOP IS HP
Intel Core 2 Duo (Centrino) CPU T7300 @ 2.00 GHZ
120 GBs
92.7 GBs free space
961.4 MiB memory
Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty)
Kernal Linux 2.6.38-12-generic
GNOME 2.32.1

Have you checked your power source, how old is the battery?

My laptop is plugged into a power strip. The TV is plugged in there, too. But the TV doesn't shut off randomly. But my laptop still randomly shuts off every hour or more.

The laptop turns off and restarts itself, while it is plugged in.

By shutting off, do you mean an actual reboot/shutdown, where it closes all your programs logs you out then turns off the power, or do you mean it just stops - screen goes blank, lights go out, no warning or shut-down sequence at all?

If the latter then it's probably your laptops power source, it might not be the power strip it's plugged into but something on the laptops side of things, or the power cord, or the AC adapter.

Perhaps check the power settings in Ubuntu? I remember it had settings for power saving after a certain amount of time.

Some laptops (Toshiba, especially) don't properly control the fan(s) under Linux, and this can lead to spontaneous shutdown due to overheating.
--- rod.

I was thinking the same thing. You can install lm-sensors, and run "sensors" to have a good visual on your temperatures.

It turns totally off in about two seconds or less. So it's not a proper reboot. It does reboot.

So it might be a laptop or power cord problem, like you are saying.

But I did set the power preferences on to stay on, both for when it is running off the battery and when it is plugged in. And I keep my laptop plugged in.



You might be right.

MY LAPTOP IS HP
Intel Core 2 Duo (Centrino) CPU T7300 @ 2.00 GHZ
120 GBs
92.7 GBs free space
961.4 MiB memory
Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty)
Kernal Linux 2.6.38-12-generic
GNOME 2.32.1



Are there Ubuntu PC-temperature-programs I could get ?

lm_sensors worked for me, but I am using Fedora. tell us if
works.

For you, using ubuntu, it will be "lm-sensors" and not "lm_sensors" (Note the underscore). After you install it, run the following:
The config will ask you questions; Say yes to all of them so you have it detect as many devices as it can. After you save the config, run the following:
Then, you can run "sensors" and see all of your temperatures.

Cheers,

Josh

Unless I am completely misreading this, your last post just has the output of the last command to run. Are you having issues?

The output said I couldn't fully install it: or that it won't work yet:
It says to use service module-init-tools restart: but how do I do that ?

I think it just wants you to do (as root, probably):
--- rod.

What do I do now, after inputting service module-init-tools restart ?

service module-init-tools restart

What do I do now ?

--- rod.

It did not finish getting install. What do I do ?

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-l...s-information/ this page will help you set up and use lm_sensors

if there is no package in the repositories you can get the source tar.bz2 file here: http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/Download

Another option is to use gkrellm , a system monitor which, if memory serves, also provides some temperature data, this should be in the repositories so

should handle that for you, if not, you can look here for some places to download it directly:
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/...m/gkrellm.html

Jenni suggests sudo apt-get install gkrellmInputOutput
After installing gkrellm from the terminal (above), how do I find it or use it ?

You should be able to run it from a terminal just by typing gkrellm, then right-click on the top of the window, should bring up the configuration menu (or click onto the window to bring it to focus then hit F1) and you can add the temp. monitors and such from that menu. under Builtin > Sensors > temperature.

inputGkrellm opened
Builtin > Sensors > Temperature

I checked on some boxes so that it would monitor temperatures inside of my laptop. I don't think I had to exactly press the key F1, but however that it happened, I was able to find it.

on gkrellm

it says there are two users

but i am the only user on this computer right now and ever

Some processes on your system are run as root. if you use top you will see that 'root' and your username both appear under the user column.

My two processors are at 66 and 67 C degrees (temperature) right now.

I am predicting that my laptop will still shut off again any time now, without warning.

But is 66 or 67 too hot?

My laptop is a dual core: so it has two processors (CPU) which are at 66 and 67 C.
Sometimes it goes down to 63.

No, ~66C shouldn't be an issue, My laptop has been running at around 69C all night and most of the day. if it gets to 99-100C+ it will probably shut off from temp. but 60's and 70's are usually fine.

When my 66 Celsius degrees laptop randomly shuts off (improperly), then I am now assuming (since it isn't overheating at 99c or whatever) it is not shutting off due to temperature issues, right ?

So what could be my problem now, if it is not a laptop temperatures issue ?


Oh.
Just went up to 73C & 77C for a second.
Now at 70C and 71C right now.
Oh, now back down to 68C and 69C.

Huh.

Well, can you give any information as to what you are/were doing when the shutdowns happen, then?

It really sounds like a hardware issue if it just stops itself randomly. You checked the AC adaptor, battery, etc. right?
Maybe an issue with the motherboard or hdd, but normally that would just leave you with a system that shuts down or hangs when you try to do certain things, or that just wont boot in the first place, I think.

Also, I'm not sure you can rule out temp. entirely just yet - keep an eye on it when the next shutdown actually occurs.

Without being able to take it apart and poke around inside it I'm not sure what the issue is.

The laptop crashed again around 60 seconds or so after I last checked laptop's temperature. It was at around 70C.

Laptop has crashed under different circumstances. It has crashed when I was doing nothing. It has crashed when I had Firefox opened.

It has crashed when I had a bunch of Firefox windows opened.

It has crashed when I had nothing opened, a few programs running, and when I had a bunch of programs running.

It could be a hardware issue.

I doubt that it is overheating.

Should I call my issue a crash ? Is that a good word to use ? That it just turns off all of a sudden ?

It is not turning off when I do certain things ? Because it really is pretty random.

It will be pretty random until I can narrow down the search.

My laptop routinely runs at 60°C to 64°C and peaks at 75°C+, so I don't think you are regularly hitting high temperatures.

(edit after your last post ... probably not a thermal shutdown) But it's potentially the cause of your shutdowns (which do sound very much like thermal shutdowns) - if the fans are not kicking in properly a heavy load could very quickly raise the temperature. You might want to try the cpuburn package (in the repositories), but I haven't used it much myself ... not for the faint-hearted. There are various other things which can put a high load on your CPU to test it ... try running tar on a large directory, perhaps.

I don't know if bad RAM could cause this but it would be a good idea to run memtest (from the GRUB screen after booting up) for a good while (hours).

It happens within a couple of seconds, you said. But how much of a stop is it? Does the main power light go off? That would suggest a BIOS (thermal or other) shutdown which I wouldn't quite call a crash.

If any lights stay on, is the NumLock light flashing? That would indicate a Linux kernel panic - a software (including hardware drivers) issue.


eta: I'm thinking a memtest is definitely a good idea.

Huh.. I have no idea then. I can't think of anything really, someone else here at lq might be able to help more.

May be best to take it to be repaired, or have someone nearby take a closer look at it for you, if you're not comfortable enough (or familiar enough) with the hardware to take it apart yourself.

1:56am PST apx. it last crashed in the usual fashion of first an instantaneous black screen for about two seconds followed with the laptop turning off. It stays off for about ten seconds and then it turns back on and reboots with no problem.

1. Blank black screen. The screen turns off for about two seconds. While this is happening, there are no blinking lights. My laptop has a green power light, a blue internet or network connections light, an orange light if the sound is on mute. There are two other green lights, too, for the hard drive or caching or for a light that blinks when a bunch of programs are running, or when the hard drive speeds up, when it is busy doing a bunch of things.

2. it turns off right after that in a second. It stays off for ten or so seconds. Totally off. Except the orange mute light sometimes stays on even after the laptop lights goes off and the laptop is totally off for ten or less seconds. But no light blinking.

Less than ten seconds: first black screen for some seconds: then laptop goes off for some seconds (except that the orange mute light stays on I think). Then it turns back on and reboots.

Total stop.
Could it be a BIOS issue ? Or thermal or what ?
Main power light turns off too. All the lights turn off, except maybe the orange mute light usually I think. But no blinking lights ever.
I am guessing this might be a Linux kernal panic maybe because the orange mute (for the audio sound speakers/headphones) light stays on sometimes if I already had it on mute when the laptop was on before the laptop crashed (or turned off).


The mute light isn't the numlock light & it doesn't blink. So I don't know.


The screen goes blank for some seconds
Then laptop turns off for some seconds (all lights except maybe the mute light goes off): it goes silent & off
Then it turns back on

I'd suggest running memtest.

If that doesn't show anything, do you have another partition in which you could make a clean install of another OS e.g. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS?

Both these things obviously take a bit of time ...

How do you run a memory test? I restart, and during boot, press like F8 or something ?

Because my laptop is connected to an external monitor (because my laptop's monitor has broke some months ago when I must have slept on my laptop), I cannot see anything on the external monitor until it finishes booting up.

After my laptop last crashed some minutes or less ago, while it was booting back up, I ran into the memory test because it is one of the options below picking the current Ubuntu 11.04 operating systems and a couple modification versions and maybe even a safe mode option.

I can see some of the one side of the laptop's monitor, so I was able to see the memory test option and picked it and the memory test started.

But then I stopped the test and restarted because I cannot see enough of the laptop's screen to see what the results would be.

Yes, it's the memtest86+ option on the GRUB screen when you boot up. But if your laptop screen is not working it's going to be difficult!

... How old is the laptop? What do you think about getting a new one? If you slept on it maybe the fan housing was damaged as well as the screen.

I bought the laptop May 2011 from Free Geek (http://FreeGeek.org). They sell, get, donate, make use-computers, laptops, parts, things.

End of August 2011, I had a bunch of video editing programs open and the laptop froze.

After forcing the laptop off, when I turned it back on, all of my data was gone.

My laptop was running Ubuntu 11.10 but it suddenly was back to 11.04. It downgraded. It has new partitions. New directories. It is like a new laptop. I lost around like 80 GBs if mostly videos.

I mostly want to find my lost data and restore it to my Ubuntu tower.

Most laptop hard drives are removable and can be put into a USB caddy of the right size (probably 2.5inch). That could be the best way to recover your data.

How motivated are you to fix the laptop itself? It sounds like getting another might be best. Maybe freegeek can look at refurbishing this one (again)?

I lost 80 GBs of projects I was working on: videos, documents, drawings, pictures, music, audio files, games, programs.

How much does a USB caddy cost? Can you give me a link to one ?

Not expensive, I think. Never bought one myself, but perhaps someone else can advise. You might want to post which country/region you are in.

JoeyArnold, ignore this post - won't help you at the moment.





Everyone else, remember to back up your data! I hate situations where people have lost valuable data and have neglected backups. (Especially when it's happened to me!)