T400 - Linux random shutdown

[solidstate]

T400 2764CTO (Not T400*s*!)
Dual graphics - only using integrated graphics
Ubuntu 9.10 - 64-bit
Denaq 6-cell battery


I've had this problem since my system is new.

My system will randomly shutdown when my Denaq 6-cell bettery is installed. It happens if I am on AC power or only battery.

It does not happen if I am on AC only or I am using a Lenovo 4-cell battery.

Sometimes I get a shutdown screen that says the cpu has reached a critical temperature of 127 C.

The problem is the temperature monitor I am using rarely shows a temperature over 50 C and never over 60 C. I can restart the system immediately without any problem. Sometimes the system will run and sometimes it will shutdown again. If it shuts down again it keeps doing this until I let the system "rest" awhile.

I returned the system to Lenovo and they replaced the heatsink/fan but that did not solve the problem. (Well, it helped. The system used to shutdown with the 4-cell battery also.) My system is now out of warranty.

One thing I have noticed is my fan speed never goes over 3200 rpm. I have seen people report fan speeds up to 4500 rpm but my fan has never gone that high.

I have the latest Lenovo BIOS and Ubuntu updates.

Does anyone have any ideas what is happening?

Does anyone know how I can increase my fan speed?

Thanks

[Harryc]

You can use Tpfancontrol to increase your fan speed. http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/donate.html
For the battery issue, I am willing to bet the after market battery is the cause of the shut-downs.

[solidstate]

Thanks for the link but I believe tpfancontrol is windows only.

Denaq is supposed to be a good quality battery. Do you recommend Lenovo batteries only?

Do you have any idea what is happening? Why I am getting an overheating error? And randomly? I am using the same battery I did yesterday and no shutdowns (yet) today. I had constant shutdowns yesterday.

Thanks

[xeres]

@solidstate:

Any fixes for this?

Like you, I am having something similar with my T400 (2764-CTO also). I am using LinuxMint 10 64-bit edition (Maverick Meerkat derivative). The only other difference is I am using a Lenovo battery (came with system in July 2009). I've had no problem restarting after the shut down. I have noticed some kernel panics (flashing moon) after suspend but not every time so I have taken to shutting down when done working. I think this has been happening over the last month and was wondering if this was tied to the 64-bit edition -- I had LinuxMint 9, 32-bit installed prior to this. The machine sits on a cooler 24/7 and I rarely have the machine off AC.

[comps]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=94276

As for debugging the real reason of those crashes:

• Mount your root (/) filesystem with data=ordered (ext4 has data=writeback by default) - edit /etc/fstab, look for line with "UUID=blahblahblah / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1" (or similar) and change it's part to "errors=remount-ro,data=ordered" and reboot to apply this change.
• After the reboot, trigger a system crash.
• Then boot up again and check /var/log/kern.log - first scroll all the way to the bottom, then slowly scroll up until you see lines with "[ 0.000000]" (which is initial boot sequence of the kernel you are running at this point), anything above lines with "[ 0.000000]" is the old kernel (the one that was running before the crash happened). There might be useful information like battery voltage errors, CPU errors and so on.
• Remove the data=ordered part from /etc/fstab. This piece was needed to get as much kernel messages in the log as possible (ie. to reduce writeback caching).

[comps]

As for the suspend problems - there are tons of things that can go wrong during suspend, especially if you're using a lot of drivers, even the ones you don't usually need. I had problems with 2.6.32 @ T500 (intel graphics), but they disappeared after configuring my first custom kernel for this machine (2.6.34) and never popped up again. Ubuntu 10.10 uses 2.6.35.x kernel, so as long as you're using the intel graphic card, it should be fine. I've never actually tested suspend with radeon on linux, but there should be no problem as well.

You might try to get something useful out of /var/log/kern.log or /var/log/debug.

edit: as a matter of fact, I remember suspend problems on R60 using X1400 radeon graphics and official ATI fglrx driver

[ThinkRob]

My money's on the battery. Denaq is pretty good in my experience, but I've also seen Denaq batteries that may have been less-than-legitimate (yes, knock-off third party batteries do exist...)

[marcc]

@solidstate:

Any fixes for this?

Like you, I am having something similar with my T400 (2764-CTO also). I am using LinuxMint 10 64-bit edition (Maverick Meerkat derivative). The only other difference is I am using a Lenovo battery (came with system in July 2009). I've had no problem restarting after the shut down. I have noticed some kernel panics (flashing moon) after suspend but not every time so I have taken to shutting down when done working. I think this has been happening over the last month and was wondering if this was tied to the 64-bit edition -- I had LinuxMint 9, 32-bit installed prior to this. The machine sits on a cooler 24/7 and I rarely have the machine off AC.

Kernel 2.6.35 (or Ubuntu's version of it?) is royally broken for thinkpads - it broke suspend/hibernate on both my old T61 as well as my T400s (2 different bugs!). Ubuntu 10.10 (and LM 10 IIRC) both use this kernel. Searching for "blinking moon" on launchpad will bring up some bug reports on this.

The T61 fix was easy, had to remove some modules on suspend.

The T400s, however, was more complicated. The bug is fixed in newer kernels (tested 2.6.37 and 2.6.38, both worked flawlessly) but unless you're willing to install a custom kernel, the only suggestion I can give you is wait for Ubuntu 11.04... you can search for "ubuntu 10.10 install 2.6.38" in google to find some instructions (should work with LM 10).

Good luck...

[xeres]

The T400s, however, was more complicated. The bug is fixed in newer kernels (tested 2.6.37 and 2.6.38, both worked flawlessly) but unless you're willing to install a custom kernel, the only suggestion I can give you is wait for Ubuntu 11.04... you can search for "ubuntu 10.10 install 2.6.38" in google to find some instructions (should work with LM 10).

Good luck...

Thanks for the information -- the custom kernel doesn't scare me, I just need my schedule to calm down so I have the time to fix this. A while back I had similar problems on a T41 (Hardy or Intrepid?) that automagically went away with a new release (Jaunty). I am not thrilled with Unity, I will be steering clear of future Ubuntu releases and any derivatives that use it.

[comps]

Kernel 2.6.35 (or Ubuntu's version of it?) is royally broken for thinkpads

Now that you mentioned it, I remember some Ubuntu forum posts about it, but it's probably just ubuntu-specific. I've been running vanilla 2.6.35 (+ several small patches) on 3 different thinkpads (T500, R60, T43) and suspend-to-ram worked flawlessly, there was not even one suspend/wakeup error (unlike 2.6.32 and 2.6.36, which is why I've been running 2.6.35 for such a long time).

PS: 2.6.35.y as the "original" .35 series, not the "longterm" one