[wplug] My computer is going slightly insane

[Mackenzie Morgan]

On 8/18/07, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 2007-08-18 at 02:29 -0400, Mackenzie Morgan wrote:
> > I don't know when it started as I've been away at school until May,
> > but probably 5 times this summer I've walked over to my computer and
> > the monitor was in suspend (ok sure...normal if it's been a while),
> > but moving the mouse doesn't bring anything back.  The "any" key
> > doesn't work either.  Dropping to a virtual terminal wakes the monitor
> > back up, but all I see is...well, a mess.
>
> Do you get a mess normally when you drop to a virtual terminal?
>
> I.e., I've had issues with Intel GPU framebuffers separating the virtual
> terminal framebuffer from X11.  Sometimes booting with a vga= line (or
> without if you are already) into framebuffer for the virtual consoles
> solves the problem.
>
> Especially on my older notebooks with the i855GM, although I still have
> some issues with those in general, even on Fedora 7 or the latest
> Xubuntu.


Nope, normally the virtual terminal is fine.  It's just when these weird
things happen that the vt is like that.  If I turn on the framebuffer, would
that prevent it?

ACPI is almost a non-implemented started, largely because Microsoft
> tries to get PC OEMs to change the "non-standard" every Windows release.
> This is not so much against Linux, but to prevent old Windows releases
> from working on newer hardware and vice-versa.  E.g., I have original
> Windows XP releases and latter version 2002 releases that work on some
> but not others, typically because of age and due to differing ACPI
> implementation.


Yeah, I saw that memo that was used as evidence against MS.  It's what I
point to when someone says "why can't my laptop wake up from hibernate?"

The Linux kernel gives you the option to disable ACPI, and that can
> often fix many things (although it can break other support).


Two days ago, I modified my menu.lst to always pass "noacpi" to the kernel
for boot params (didn't reboot though so it wasn't in effect when this
happened), but since it's unpredictable when it will happen again, it could
be a few weeks before I know if it did the trick. Suspend and hibernate
aren't used on here, so I can't think of any other kind of support issues
it'd cause.

> Q3: Power management settings for suspend or hibernate with poorly
> > supported hardware?
> > A3: It's all very generic hardware, and suspend/hibernate are disabled
>
> In the BIOS?  Good.
>
> But how about your KDE or GNOME settings?  ;)


Actually I meant it's set in GNOME to not suspend.  I haven't played with
the BIOS in a while.  I leave it on all night, so I kind of would think if
it was a regular suspend thing, it'd happen during one of those, but this
time it happened when the computer was ignored for only an hour.

That could be Windows and X11 "fighting" over programmed modes in the
> monitor.  I.e., Windows and X11 are using different scan ranges, and
> each time you boot between then, one "resets" the monitor mode for the
> other.


I'm not dual-booting.  That was a "back when it had Windows..." thing.
GNOME is easier for my mom to navigate than Windows, so Windows is gone.

[ Did I mention I love DVI to avoid that non-sense? ;-]
>
> > Could failing hardware cause this, and would the graphics card be
> > critical enough to do it, or should I start worrying about my HDD or
> > some other important part?  If it's not likely to be hardware, what
> > else could cause it?
>
> Power.  Power.  Power.  Just on Friday, I had a situation that I didn't
> think was power-related, but it was.
>
> A fellow engineer finally just made the suggestion that it could be a
> power issue.  I figured it could be, because a typical PCIe slot isn't
> rated for more than 25-50W (PCIe x16 graphics slots are rated 125-150W),
> but he suggested I just start pulling loads on the system itself.  As
> much as I didn't think it would be that (I believed it may more likely
> be adequate power in the slot itself), I did -- fans, disks and, at one
> point, even the memory in the main system.
>

So, is there a way to test that that doesn't involve finding someone with
fancy equipment?  If it's just a voltmeter, my stepdad might have one of
those...unless the one he was using here a few years ago was his son's in
which case it's far away.

-- 
Mackenzie Morgan
Linux User #432169
ACM Member #3445683
http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com <-my blog of Ubuntu stuff
apt-get moo
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