Ubuntu

Complete freeze, need to unplug battery

Asked by Stefan Tiedje

I have sometimes a weird freeze of the complete computer, an 2 years old Averatec laptop (AMD processor). With Ubuntu 7.04 and Windows XP installed.
Before I had an Ubuntu 6.06 running which never experienced this problem. The symptoms are always the same, but not related to any reproducable activity:
The mousepointer will just freeze. Any unpluggin/repluggin doesn't do anything, and even just holding the power button, which usually shuts off the computer reliably, doesn't work either. The only way to get it going again is to pull the power plug AND unmount the battery physically.... After a reboot everything seems fine....

I don't know how any software can change the "force power off" functionality of the computer hardware....

I guess its related to Feisty, as neither Windows shows weird behaviours nor did I experience it before installing 7.04...

Any hints are well appriciated.

Stefan

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Phoenix (phoenix-dominion) said : 		#1

Hi Stefan

The "force power off" is most likely not that much in hardware :) - These days software takes more and more control over hardware then they did in the old days, no wonder that a software bug these days can overheat a CPU.

You may want to post some additional information - as maybe someone might be more of use then me might need it. A output of "dmesg" and "lspic" comes to my mind, and if you like a "lshw". You might also show a log of X (/var/log/Xorg.0.log)

regards
Philipp

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mindspin (markus-wimmer) said : 		#2

Hi your problems could be related to acpi issues. I had similiar issues some time ago and solved it by adding
acpi=off apm=on to the default bootup-section in /boot/grub/menu.lst

maybe it's worth a try

mindspin

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Stefan Tiedje (stefan-tiedje) said : 		#3

mindspin schrieb:
> Your question #5918 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/5918
>
> Status: Needs information => Answered
>
> mindspin proposed the following answer:
> Hi your problems could be related to acpi issues. I had similiar issues some time ago and solved it by adding
> acpi=off apm=on to the default bootup-section in /boot/grub/menu.lst
>
> maybe it's worth a try

Thanks for the answer, but what does that mean? As far as I know acpi
and apm are related to power management. I don't want to loose the
ability of putting the laptop to sleep. Maybe I can even enhance it? On
my Powerbook (OS X) I just close the lid and everything is set to sleep
immediately, I open it and I can go on immediately. But I haven't seen
this on any non Mac yet. (and there it is available since decades...)

Stefan

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Revision history for this message
mindspin (markus-wimmer) said : 		#4

What does it mean? it means, that you (maybe) can work with your notebook without unplugging the battery. On my old thinkpad 600x it was the only way to get it working because acpi management was not working at all. (I guess it was on hoary) It means also, that you may identify the error and try fixing it by searching for a solution.
So my answer was just a diagnostic one. To deceide what is of more importance, working with the machine or having the "sleep" mode enabled, is on your side.

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