Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby.
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 October 12, 2003 09:49 pm, Aidan Holmes wrote: Thank you all for your help with this issue. I can now confirm that it's definately CPU overheating due to the fan stopping. I left the case off, and then left the computer 'till I heard the alarm again. Upon my return, the cpu fan had stopped, and the heatsink was too hot to touch for more than a second or so. An added bonus was that as i had turned the ceiling light off, i noticed that the case power light was flashing in time with the beeps ( I assume this means that it is a BIOS alarm), something I had not noticed with the room brightly lit. I plan to check out the bios options first when I get home (I'm at work now) and see what difference that makes before trying to mess with any more settings in the software. To aswer a few of your questions, The heatsink does have a pad, not thermal paste. and I have installed Mandrake myself from disks on the front of a Linux how-to book from the local newsagets. (I also bought red hat from the internet, but prefer the mandrake so far) I am running dual boot with Win XP and plan to learn linux the sam way I did windoze, by getting my hands dirty, playing arround and trying things out. It means that this is about my fifth linux re-installation in as many months but I'm learning alot. Hopefully I can completely phase out windoze soon and run a M$ free machine. -Aidan Yeah, if it's that hot I'd be doing some serious cooling system research! Also known as OUCH; a keychain that used to be a processor. Hope you didn't do any major damage Aidan. Good luck. C. - -- Edmonton,AB,Canada User 244963 at http://counter.li.org Cooker on kernel 2.4.22-10mdk 01:37:42 up 22 days, 14:59, 1 user, load average: 0.05, 0.07, 0.10 Schapiro's Explanation: The grass is always greener on the other side -- but that's because they use more manure. -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/ilboG11CaRuZZSIRAps3AJ4jX31hBXaAF+7FHrE+U8X7JTIHPACeIm+m Q2lf4OVZJRplTJ9/87Xae4o= =b9nb -END PGP SIGNATURE- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby
On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 12:13, Tom Brinkman wrote: On Monday October 13 2003 10:16 am, Aidan Kristy Holmes wrote: I don't think I have done any damage to the chip, as all seems to be running properly and reliably. I could easily have done in the early days though, I used to just let it run If I wasn't going to be near the computer for it to bug me...whoops :-) Lucky you guys pointed out the real problem. Thanks, Aidan Holmes, Western Australia. OK, good. At this point you should check that thermal pad. Often they deteriorate over time, but as in your case, overheated cpu's can almost instantly damage them. Get some thermal compound, and then shut down the system, unplug it. Remove the heatsink by releasing the spring clips on each side. Scrape off the (remnants) of the pad. Both from the heatsink and from the cpu. Clean the heatsink and fan. Apply a thin layer (about the thickness of a sheet of paper) to the cpu and remount the heatsink. You can Google for many links that illustrate all this with pictures. Should be good to go from then on. Tom is 100% on on this, even it seems fine, for only a few bucks and a few minute, you cna save yourself a cpu. the heat will still shorten the life, even if it does not die this week, but you can make a world of difference, with a little thermal grease. -- ++ Mandrake HowTo's More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby.
On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 18:34:36 +0800 Aidan Holmes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Saturday 11 October 2003 11:33 pm, Charlie M. wrote: Thanks Jerry and Charlie for your responses. I am very new to linux, and so I wouldn't have a clue how to see if I have gkrellm and lm_sensors running, but I'll certainly explore and see what I can find.One more question for you, if it is a cpu overheating, I can understand it doing it after the computer has been on for a while, but why would it stop again once i press a button on the keyboard to start working again?? That sounds like something to do with APM (power saving mode). It could still be the fan though. If it's dirty/going out it still could be the cause. Better to replace a 15 dollar fan than a processor (and the stock fans that come with most computers are really crap anyway). I just know what worked for me. Best of luck with it, Aidan. -- _||_ Registered linux user #300600 (o_ Registered linux machine # 185855 //\at V_/_ http://counter.li.org Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby.
On Sun, 2003-10-12 at 07:03, Jerry Barton wrote: On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 18:34:36 +0800 Aidan Holmes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Saturday 11 October 2003 11:33 pm, Charlie M. wrote: Thanks Jerry and Charlie for your responses. I am very new to linux, and so I wouldn't have a clue how to see if I have gkrellm and lm_sensors running, but I'll certainly explore and see what I can find.One more question for you, if it is a cpu overheating, I can understand it doing it after the computer has been on for a while, but why would it stop again once i press a button on the keyboard to start working again?? just a guess, the fan is spinning down to save power, but the CPU is not going all the way to sleep. (zombies?) That sounds like something to do with APM (power saving mode). It could still be the fan though. If it's dirty/going out it still could be the cause. Better to replace a 15 dollar fan than a processor (and the stock fans that come with most computers are really crap anyway). I just know what worked for me. Best of luck with it, Aidan. -- ++ Mandrake HowTo's More: http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby.
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 October 12, 2003 05:52 am, ed tharp wrote: [..] just a guess, the fan is spinning down to save power, but the CPU is not going all the way to sleep. (zombies?) You beat me to that one Ed. (-: He said he's a total noob though so you may want to stay away from talking about zombies without first explaining that he can see what's running in the background with top in a terminal. And that if any process is marked with the z denoting a zombie that he should try killing it with by striking the k button on his keyboard then typing the PID number and following the prompt. It's all academic anyway isn't it? I still think the alarm may be going off because of a conflict. Whether an APM or ACPI problem, a combination of factors, or something else entirely. He needs to try to give some detail about the install, hardware specifications, etc. Such as; did he do the install, or was it some well meaning soul that didn't explain much and/or possibly didn't know. Since Mandrake Linux won't keep a user from doing silly things this is probably something fairly easy to diagnose and fix for the person with the system in front of him. Rather more difficult for e-mail support though. It's an interesting conundrum though. Regards; Charlie - -- Edmonton,AB,Canada User 244963 at http://counter.li.org Cooker on kernel 2.4.22-10mdk 10:41:25 up 22 days, 3 min, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.06, 0.09 When the cup is full, carry it level. -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/iYcuG11CaRuZZSIRAoYHAJwPIZNbIPLB3g4PMQ0iif1tWahAjQCfWzca qxi0Kk9UB/MRSXFUUpqemk4= =lC65 -END PGP SIGNATURE- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby.
On Sunday October 12 2003 06:52 am, ed tharp wrote: On Sun, 2003-10-12 at 07:03, Jerry Barton wrote: On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 18:34:36 +0800 Aidan Holmes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Saturday 11 October 2003 11:33 pm, Charlie M. wrote: Thanks Jerry and Charlie for your responses. I am very new to linux, and so I wouldn't have a clue how to see if I have gkrellm and lm_sensors running, but I'll certainly explore and see what I can find.One more question for you, if it is a cpu overheating, I can understand it doing it after the computer has been on for a while, but why would it stop again once i press a button on the keyboard to start working again?? just a guess, the fan is spinning down to save power, but the CPU is not going all the way to sleep. (zombies?) That'd be my guess also. During standby the cpu is normally still busy. Just somewhat lower loads than when the system is up and running. For the original poster, some suggestions and opinions; In bios you should have an option to disable the fan spinning down. Set it to run 100% fan speed all the time. The sound you heard from the system speaker was most likely the bios alarm for cpu overheating. Probly nothin to do with lm_sensors, and since you didn't know what lm_sensors is, you probly don't have it installed anyhow. OTOH, it shouldn't happen. When the cpu temp went too high, bios should'a turned the fan speed back up. Could be marginal motherboard and/or bios (win)design. Could be due to a thermal pad instead of grease being used. Could be a lot of things including dust bunnies. In any event, I suspect your cooling (including case) might just be barely adequate. I believe there's a way to alter fan behavior using 'setpci', but since I've never needed it, I don't know how to use it. I was recently contacted offlist by someone who is using setpci to vary fan speeds with load/temp (a bad idea IMO). So there's probly a way to force 100% fan speed all the time. Check an see if you have a bios option to enable/disable HLT (halt) commands to the cpu. If so enable it, if not the Linux kernel HLT signals just might not are being sent to the cpu, even if you see Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK. in /var/log/dmesg It could be that your motherboard came with a Windoze CD, and winsux software to handle what the bios should be doin at the hardware level, fan an HLT wise, ie, (win)designed. Specially if you don't have fan speed and HLT options in bios. All too common situation in ready made systems or motherboards designed primarily for Windoze use. Even otherwise very good ones. IOW's, an increasing prevalence of win-hardware and shifting hardware/bios functions to software. Billy's real crime. IMO, all these power saving deals are just gimmicks anyhow, 'cept for powering down the monitor. Any chip, particularly those that require a heatsink, does NOT have steady temps. Instant heat spikes in the core are the norm, even on standby. If you reduce fan rpms, then the mass of the heatsink base will be hotter than when running the fan at 100% all the time. So when the spikes do occur, then the heatsink is less able to handle them. If you want to see this happening, run a cpu load gauge (like gkrellm). When you see the gauge shoot from under 5% to around 25 to 50% and higher, and then right back down, the cpu core temp just spiked up correspondingly. Note how often these spikes occur too. Almost constantly. This is completely normal behavior, and even on standby the cpu still has work to do. -- Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby.
Thank you all for your help with this issue. I can now confirm that it's definately CPU overheating due to the fan stopping. I left the case off, and then left the computer 'till I heard the alarm again. Upon my return, the cpu fan had stopped, and the heatsink was too hot to touch for more than a second or so. An added bonus was that as i had turned the ceiling light off, i noticed that the case power light was flashing in time with the beeps ( I assume this means that it is a BIOS alarm), something I had not noticed with the room brightly lit. I plan to check out the bios options first when I get home (I'm at work now) and see what difference that makes before trying to mess with any more settings in the software. To aswer a few of your questions, The heatsink does have a pad, not thermal paste. and I have installed Mandrake myself from disks on the front of a Linux how-to book from the local newsagets. (I also bought red hat from the internet, but prefer the mandrake so far) I am running dual boot with Win XP and plan to learn linux the sam way I did windoze, by getting my hands dirty, playing arround and trying things out. It means that this is about my fifth linux re-installation in as many months but I'm learning alot. Hopefully I can completely phase out windoze soon and run a M$ free machine. -Aidan Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby.
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 October 11, 2003 06:09 am, Aidan Holmes wrote: Can anybody tell me what the annoying (and constant) dee-dah dee-dah dee-dah sound my computer is making is caused by??? it comes on once the computer has been left idle for a while. I haven't timed it, but I think its about 20min. The sound is coming from the system internal speaker and stops once I press any key (although it takes a while to stop). I am running Mandrake 9.0, Aopen all in one motherboard, celeron 1.0GHz and 512Mb RAM. Thanks, Aidan Holmes Might be (probably is in fact) a sensor alarm. Are you running gkrellm and lm_sensors? If so it may be a conflict in the sensor routine. I had this problem once when the sensors were mis-reading the core temperature on my processor. It was reading about 2.5x the actual core temperature and the alarm was going off almost continuously. HTH; Charlie - -- Edmonton,AB,Canada User 244963 at http://counter.li.org Cooker on kernel 2.4.22-10mdk 09:28:20 up 20 days, 22:50, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.06, 0.13 He was so narrow-minded he could see through a keyhole with both eyes. -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/iCLSG11CaRuZZSIRAnp/AJ9kJU3vKMWZVLp5U72blmFP/t5LMQCgqTDd LTUdfLjut9gbtBaxg0LIT5U= =nANd -END PGP SIGNATURE- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [newbie] annoying alarm on standby.
On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 20:09:29 +0800 Aidan Holmes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Can anybody tell me what the annoying (and constant) dee-dah dee-dah dee-dah sound my computer is making is caused by??? I used to get that. I replaced the fan on my CPU and found that it doesn't do it anymore. Try cleaning your cpu fan or replacing it. The alarm (kinda sounds like a british police siren... h-loow-h-lowww) usually means a CPU overheating. HTH Jerry. -- _||_ Registered linux user #300600 (o_ Registered linux machine # 185855 //\at V_/_ http://counter.li.org Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
