FC12 -- Strange system crash

[Robert Moskowitz]

On 01/20/2010 12:29 PM, "Jóhann B. Guðmundsson" wrote:
> On 01/20/2010 08:55 PM, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
>    
>> FC12 on an HP nc2400.  Recent install, Dec 31st.  Uptodate as of
>> 1/19/10.  System uptime was 14 days with many updates over this time.
>> System was beginning to bog down, I was considering killing Firefox
>> (over 20 browser sessions open with multiple tabs) and was opening a
>> .pptx doc here at the IEEE 802.15 meeting.
>>
>> Why things were slowly working on opening the document, I noticed the
>> fan going to full speed and then the video did a bright flash and the
>> system was off.
>>
>> I had to power back up.  I watched all the inode recovery for all the
>> docs I had open.  Once I was logged in, I checked /var/log/messages, and
>> of course there was nothing there prior to the boot messages (prior
>> message was an dhcp message for when I moved from my hotel room on the
>> hotel wireless to the conference room to the conference wireless).
>>
>> Of interest was my system had lost its time setting.  It was showing me
>> in Boston, when I had come from Detroit and was currently in Los
>> Angeles.  When I changed my location to LA, it was still showing my time
>> off by 2 hours.  I had to turn off ntp, manually set the time, then
>> reset to use ntp.
>>
>> I don't have any idea on how to trace this down and MAYBE submit a bug
>> report.  I might think it is ACPI related as the fan turned up to full
>> speed just prior to the crash.  I has a similar crash shortly after the
>> FC12 install.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>>
>>      
> The laptop properly just overheated and shut down.
>
> Remove the keyboard and clean the fan and keep it on hard surface...
>    

I use a piece of 1/4 round moulding to raise the back of the unit.  For 
$0.00 cost (the moulding was in my wook scrap bin), it gives me the 
proper keyboard angle and decent airflow.   I recently installed a new 
fan (installing a fan in this unit is HARD it is the first thing in the 
case, meaning you have to take EVERYTHING out to get to the old fan to 
install a new one) and I blast the air passages regularly.  Did this 
just last friday.

It COULD be that the temp went up a degree and it was enough to trigger 
the shutdown.  I was wondering more if it is a problem with the ACPI in 
terms of reading the CPU temp.  Isn't there a file in /proc with this 
information?  Maybe I can have a process that watches it and writes a 
log entry everytime it changes?

> There are several laptop manufactures that are stupid and place the air
> intake or visa versa at the bottom of their laptops. HP is one of those
> idiots as soon as you place the laptop on soft fabric then it blocks the
> airflow and the computer overheads.
>    

Yes, I have those and have learned to keep the air flowing.