SUSE 9.2 and Toshiba A70 ACPI (I think) Problem

moonrover · 07-13-2005, 01:07 PM

I'm using SUSE 9.2, as you can see in my profile info. on the left of the screen, and the same KDE too. If you read thru all my previous posts under my name, you'll see I had exactly the same problem with KDE initializing peripherals. Once I re'gened the system with NO ACPI, it started working. Hyperthreading was not an issue; I ran it both ways on & off to test it. The power mgmt. stuff does not work (well) on a Toshiba running Linux.
Regards,
Moonrover

statguy · 07-21-2005, 08:31 AM

Moonrover,

I had my first overheating problem. I was compiling the ATLAS library. My fan came on right away but then gradually slowed down despite the cpu running full tilt. I actually got kernel messages this time. I stopped the compile and shut down before a kernel panic. When I rebooted the fan came right on. I tried booting with the flag ACPI=off and tried the compile again. Same thing, the fan came right on but then slowed down. This time I stopped before kernel messages.

This is a brand new motherboard with the most recent bios (1.5).

Any thoughts?

I have also noticed the following: when the fan is coming on and shifting up, the speed changes are clearly incremental. Slowing down is not (and it used to be). It is a gradual slow-down. I checked this behaviour in windows as well.

moonrover · 07-21-2005, 11:09 AM

If you are having the same behavior in SUSE Linux & Windows, then you have a CPU / motherboard problem. I sysgen'ed my Linux with no ACPI module, so it automatically boots up with ACPI disabled. Now I do not have any problems in KDE initializing the peripherals or with the fan running; previously I did. The fan works fine in both Windoze and SUSE for me.

statguy · 07-21-2005, 11:14 AM

Thanks for the confirmation. I had just arrived at the same conclusion. I ran a simulation on the windows side to get the cpu and fan going. After the the fan spun at full speed for a minute (approx) it did a gradual slow-down and I could feel the temp increasing out the back vent.

I seem to have drawn the lemon from the A70 batch!

moonrover · 07-21-2005, 11:26 AM

Well, just because it slows down & BEGINS to warm up doesn't mean it is broke. This is "fuzzy" logic; the fan speed & temp will constantly "chase" (vary) depending on what you are doing. On Windoze, if I do a virus scan or watch a DVD, the fan always runs with more speed because of the load on the CPU. You should not be getting Kernel PANIC messages on either OS system. If you do, especially running Windoze, then send your laptop in for repair. I have seen the PANIC message once, and that was enough. I immediately rebooted into Windoze & the fan ran at cyclonic speed for 12 minutes. Once I did the NO ACPI sysgen trick, everything settled down. I also tested with & without hyperthreading enabled in the BIOS; this made no difference for me.
The Bottom Line - Toshiba/SUSE need to get their ACPI module fixed, and you need to have a reliable laptop cooling system.

statguy · 07-21-2005, 11:34 AM

Point taken. However, it is the manner in which the fan slows down. Rather than clear incremental changes, like when it speeds up, it does a gradual slow down during a prolonged period of high cpu activity. Also, this has only started occuring since my motherboard got replaced.

When running a cpu intensive simulation in windows, the fan actually does spin back up after awhile. While the fan was running well in windows I rebooted in SuSE with acpi=off. When running my compile, the fan never spun up. I aborted the compile because I was getting nervous.

I wonder if reverting to the previous bios would help. I checked with YaST to see if there were newer versions of acipd and powersaved than what I have, but no.

statguy · 07-21-2005, 01:28 PM

Here is what looks like a useful article on fixing broken DSDT files.

http://www.suseforums.net/index.php?showtopic=13893

I'm going to investigate this more closely this afternoon and tonight.

statguy · 07-21-2005, 08:30 PM

I followed the instructions referenced in my last post and installed a new dsdt. It's not quite 100%. The fan behaved itself during my ATLAS compile this evening. Also, in a seperate test, I could start KDE with hyperthreading on and ACPI activated, but the powersaved daemon bombed out on boot and battery polling wouldn't work. Maybe just using acipd and not powersaved would work.

statguy · 07-29-2005, 08:23 AM

Moonrover,

In case you're interested, I am running in KDE with hyperthreading enabled and some acpi functionality. I disabled powersaved in the runlevel editor and am just using acpid at the moment. The fan seems to run more, but maybe hyperthreading runs hotter?

moonrover · 12-29-2008, 10:58 PM

It's been awhile since I checked in with you. How are you doing? I moved off of SUSE 9.2 up to openSUSE 11 this Christmas. Are you still on 9.2, or did you move up too?
Mike

Quote:

Originally Posted by statguy

Moonrover, I tried your suggestions and here is what happened.

I did the online update yesterday.

I did a cold boot this morning straight into Linux with acpi=off. The fan cycled on and off throughout the morning. There were idle periods (where screensaver activated) and active periods. The system ran for about three hours and crashed. A crash is indicated in wtmp but still no kernel panic messages to me or root and no errors in /var/log/mail.

I rebooted immediately in xp and the fan came right on. Also, I stuck my hand underneath and the the air coming out of the fan vent was cool. It just doesn't seem like the thing is overheating.

Is there a boot flag that will cause the system to do some sort of crash dump?

BTW, the A70 has a phoenix bios and I am running the most recent bios and I have had hyperthreading disabled since my initial install.

I'm not sure what to try next.

statguy · 12-30-2008, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moonrover

It's been awhile since I checked in with you. How are you doing? I moved off of SUSE 9.2 up to openSUSE 11 this Christmas. Are you still on 9.2, or did you move up too?
Mike

Yes it has been awhile. There were other gremlins in that Toshiba so I replaced it with a Thinkpad and put OpenSUSE 10.2 on it. During the Christmas break I replaced that with Slackware 12.2.

Best wishes.