Re: APIC error

2008-11-27 Thread Da Rock

On Thu, 2008-11-27 at 15:23 +0100, Ivan Voras wrote:
> Da Rock wrote:
> 
> > Would this be in the cpu itself or in the mainboard (best guess)? If its
> > the cpu it could be from overheating (could the cpu alone cause all
> > these errors?), but mainboard would mean an inherent communication
> > problem wouldn't it?
> 
> If you can look up the CPU temperature in your BIOS setup, you can
> easily see if the CPU is overheating - reboot and look it up immediately
> after the problems start.
> 

I'm not sure I expressed myself too clearly; I meant cpu failure due to
it running too hot for extended periods of time, not causing immediate
problems while this occurring but making the problem apparent later when
the now damaged component on the chip is used.

Thinking about it, though, it would seem more likely that one of the
bridges (north bridge?)(which would mean their cooling mechs aren't
doing very well in the laptop chassis) would be in its death throws
because the cpu is less involved when data is transferred between
components like disks, usb, and video. The cpu is only dragged into the
action to start the process and monitor that it has been completed, or
to handle something the component can't handle like decoding or
encoding. Does that make sense or am I talking gibberish?

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Re: APIC error

2008-11-27 Thread Ivan Voras
Da Rock wrote:

> Would this be in the cpu itself or in the mainboard (best guess)? If its
> the cpu it could be from overheating (could the cpu alone cause all
> these errors?), but mainboard would mean an inherent communication
> problem wouldn't it?

If you can look up the CPU temperature in your BIOS setup, you can
easily see if the CPU is overheating - reboot and look it up immediately
after the problems start.



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Re: APIC error

2008-11-27 Thread Da Rock

On Thu, 2008-11-27 at 14:32 +0100, Ivan Voras wrote:
> Da Rock wrote:
> 
> > I know the system is failing because I'm getting usb enumeration errors
> > (something that has come up twice before on dying systems, and has
> > disappeared as soon as I bought a new one), plus acpi errors in the form
> > of being unable to attach device data.
> > 
> > I understand this software unable to cope with interrupts at the cpu,
> > and can mean hardware failure or bad software. But given my hardware
> > issues I'm fairly certain its the former. My biggest question is where?
> > How does it come up with something like that?
> > 
> > Can anyone shed some light on the details of this? I'll be greatful for
> > whatever I can get- information is power after all.
> 
> This is too little information for general troubleshooting, except if
> someone has encountered this exact problem before.
> 
> From your description, especially since you're suggesting a hardware
> failure, it could be anything from BIOS or BIOS "CMOS" error (or
> battery) to real hardware problems in the conductors to the buses.
> 

Would this be in the cpu itself or in the mainboard (best guess)? If its
the cpu it could be from overheating (could the cpu alone cause all
these errors?), but mainboard would mean an inherent communication
problem wouldn't it?

This really is a hardware issue any way you look at it I know, but a
better understanding of what is going on might clarify what we're up
against here... cheers guys :)

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Re: APIC error

2008-11-27 Thread Ivan Voras
Da Rock wrote:

> I know the system is failing because I'm getting usb enumeration errors
> (something that has come up twice before on dying systems, and has
> disappeared as soon as I bought a new one), plus acpi errors in the form
> of being unable to attach device data.
> 
> I understand this software unable to cope with interrupts at the cpu,
> and can mean hardware failure or bad software. But given my hardware
> issues I'm fairly certain its the former. My biggest question is where?
> How does it come up with something like that?
> 
> Can anyone shed some light on the details of this? I'll be greatful for
> whatever I can get- information is power after all.

This is too little information for general troubleshooting, except if
someone has encountered this exact problem before.

From your description, especially since you're suggesting a hardware
failure, it could be anything from BIOS or BIOS "CMOS" error (or
battery) to real hardware problems in the conductors to the buses.



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APIC error

2008-11-27 Thread Da Rock
This is occurring on a linux system, but from my investigations it
wouldn't be limited to just this OS. Therefore, I come seeking wisdom
from some real gurus... only kidding. But the collective experience here
in sysadmin is greater than the experience of desktop users found on
linux lists.

I checked my dmesg today on a system which I know is failing, and found
a message regarding an apic error on cpu1 00(40). The system is a dual
core pentium.

I know the system is failing because I'm getting usb enumeration errors
(something that has come up twice before on dying systems, and has
disappeared as soon as I bought a new one), plus acpi errors in the form
of being unable to attach device data.

I understand this software unable to cope with interrupts at the cpu,
and can mean hardware failure or bad software. But given my hardware
issues I'm fairly certain its the former. My biggest question is where?
How does it come up with something like that?

Can anyone shed some light on the details of this? I'll be greatful for
whatever I can get- information is power after all.

For reference, this is an ASUS notebook which is only a few months old.
I rang the warranty support and started telling them what was going
wrong with it, but I was interrupted by the guy telling me that unless
window$ was on it they weren't even going to touch it. Needless to say I
told him to shove that philosophy where the sun don't shine, but I
thought this was strange coming from a company which has pioneered the
use of linux in the user range through the eeepc range... Fair enough if
they want window$ but they can put it on and not waste my time further
AND leave me without a machine to work with.

What I can't work out is how they are going to be able to diagnose a
problem like this easier with an OS which is a black box (almost). And
their words were that they couldn't test the device properly without
window$!

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