Re: Losing Power GRX600K

Am Son, 2003-08-03 um 21.34 schrieb J/:
> Before anyone asks:  YES I have ACPI installed/in kernel/etc.  YES ACPI
> is working.  I assume close enough proof of this is at the end of this
> message.
> 
> 
> This is getting frustrating.
> 
> A) It's not consistent.  B) It appears to be temperature related, but
> not necessarily.  C) I've yet to find anything that will actively record
> temperature every 5 seconds that actually works.  D) I've yet to get it
> to do it in Windows.  E) It has happened on bootup immediately after it
> happened in Linux -- implying it's temperature related or something.  F)
> Everytime I call Sony about the problem, they say "Oh, you need to reset
> your BIOS and it will stop doing that."  I reset my BIOS -- and it stops
> doing it for about 4 weeks, then it starts doing it again.  WEIRD!
> 
> What is it doing?   It's just powering off, LOSING power, Shutting Down
> NON-Gracefully.  I've found I mention this to most people and they say
> "Oh, you mean it shut itself down automatically?"  NO!  It LOST power. 
Well, that's automatically shutoff. It enters ACPI S5 energy saving
state, which does need a full boot to restart ;)
> It acts like I Took out the batteries and then pulled the AC adapter out
> and POOF it lost power.  I hope that makes sense.
> 
> Anyone have any idea what is up or how I can figure out what's going
> on?  I am assuming it's temperature related?  It only started doing this
> in June (warmer temperatures outside?)  but it always does it when it's
> cool in the room from my human perspective.
Well, I've got the problem with two FX201, and I've noted some things:
1) it's frustrating.

2) it's random: the laptop of my wife showed it after some months
(formally it would have had warranty then, but Sony is not to helpful to
Linux users :( ) My laptop started to show it after 2 years during
summer.

3) I cannot get the FX201 to read the temperature via ACPI correctly.
Sometimes it doesn't even find the sensor at bootup (my theory is, that
this depends upon how hot the cpu is during bootup -> too hot -> no
sensor found). If it finds it, the temperaturs seems to be measured very
seldom (keeping the temperature for 15 minutes or longer, even when I
can feel on my hand that the CPU is HOT).

4) I've solved the problem by opening the laptops up, cleaning away the
dust in the cpu cooler (I've removed in the process all kinds of
fascinating objects. Like a mummified fly ;) )
Then I reapplied the coolers with thermal paste, and all ills are away.
> 
> This is not a good thing (I think).
> 
> If anyone has any ideas or thoughts it'd be great -- or how to get Sony
> to acknowledge this problem so they'll take it in and fix it.  But I
> doubt they'll be able to reproduce it since it's sporadic and happens
> maybe once every few weeks -- and usually when it's at rest not
> compiling/etc.  Just have email or a web browser open.
Well, my experience is, that it is SO sporadic and random, that it's
extremly difficult to diagnose.

Idea for future BIOS: save a marker somewhere that the system was
emergency shutoff and show it at the next boot up.

Additionally, the problem might not show as strongly with Windows as
with Linux, because Windows probably more finely tuned to control cpu
temperature.

The fact that it shows at rest also means nothing. Especially with Linux
you never know if something has producing load in the background. My
personal experience suggests that my laptop died often not during but
some time after a compile. But extreme load (kernel compiling) is not
necessary: My wife's laptop seldom has to do anything heavy
(occasionally perhaps a short run of latex ;) ), and it still showed the
symptoms.

Best regards, 

Andreas

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