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OT: knoppix memtest powers off after 35 minsOT for Debian, but you folks are knowledgeable ... Running memtest86 from a Knoppix LiveCD on an HP pavilion ze4400 laptop. The laptop does not power off when sitting at the Knoppix prompt (I I've not seen any odd behaviour when running Knoppix, and very limited After spending a couple of days with the laptop, my gut instinct is that Anyone have any knowledge if maybe memtest86 might be triggering a Thanks! -- -- Bookmark/Search this post with: 
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OT: knoppix memtest powers off after 35 mins
Kent West wrote:
> OT for Debian, but you folks are knowledgeable ...
>
>
> Running memtest86 from a Knoppix LiveCD on an HP pavilion ze4400 laptop.
> No errors, but the laptop powers off consistently after about 35 minutes
> of testing.
>
I am no expert in this area. To understand the problem better, could you
tell me, if you are using anything like acpi and/or X? I would try the
following.
1) Disable acpi etc., I think you can do this by entering acpi=off at the
boot prompt.
2) Disable X and run memtest from command line.
Also what version of knoppix CD are you using?
raju
--
Kamaraju S Kusumanchi
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/kk288/
http://malayamaarutham.blogspot.com/
--
OT: knoppix memtest powers off after 35 mins
Kent West wrote:
> Bob Proulx wrote:
>> Kent West wrote:
>>
>>> Running memtest86 from a Knoppix LiveCD on an HP pavilion ze4400
>>> laptop. No errors, but the laptop powers off consistently after
>>> about 35 minutes of testing.
>>>
>>
>> If that is consistently 35 minutes then it makes me wonder how the
>> BIOS power saving settings are configured. I would guess that the
>> BIOS is not seeing any input and therefore turning the machine off
>> because it thinks it is idle. I believe that after the OS is booted
>> it takes over these things. But memtest may not be programmed to do
>> this for that machine while the linux kernel in knoppix does.
>>
>> Just a guess...
>>
>>
> Not a bad guess. But if that's the case, it must be firm-coded into
> the BIOS; I could find no power-saving options in the BIOS setup
> screens. I had not thought about memtest86 perhaps looking idle to the
> system whereas sitting at a Knoppix boot prompt would not. Your idea
> gives me an idea for another test; tomorrow I'll see if I can load
> memtest86 but pause it so it doesn't check memory, and see if it still
> powers off at 35 mins; if so, that would seem to eliminate faulty RAM
> as being the cause of the power-down.
>
> Thanks!
>
Nope; the BIOS is not shutting down the laptop.
I paused the memtest for five minutes, and then let it continue; the
shutdown occurred five minutes later than it had been shutting down.
So I restarted the memtest, but this time changed the settings to start
with test #7; now it shuts down within about one minute. (I tested this
a couple of times; I also started with #6 once and it ran for a few
minutes, then I changed it to test #7, and it ran for a minute or so and
then shut down.)
So the memtest is somehow triggering the shutdown of the laptop.
Is this indicative of bad RAM, even though I've seen no other indication
of bad RAM, or is it just a coincidence that some pattern during the
random number test is triggering a power-off?
Hmmm....
--
Kent
--
OT: knoppix memtest powers off after 35 mins
Kent West wrote:
> Nope; the BIOS is not shutting down the laptop.
> I paused the memtest for five minutes, and then let it continue; the
> shutdown occurred five minutes later than it had been shutting down.
How unfortunate because that would have been easier to handle.
> So I restarted the memtest, but this time changed the settings to start
> with test #7; now it shuts down within about one minute. (I tested this
> a couple of times; I also started with #6 once and it ran for a few
> minutes, then I changed it to test #7, and it ran for a minute or so and
> then shut down.)
>
> So the memtest is somehow triggering the shutdown of the laptop.
That does sound like it.
> Is this indicative of bad RAM, even though I've seen no other indication
> of bad RAM, or is it just a coincidence that some pattern during the
> random number test is triggering a power-off?
I don't know what is in pattern #7 but if it runs on other machines
and fails to run on the laptop that would still seem to indicate a
problem on the laptop. I would be very nervous about it.
Things may still be okay with the machine though. You are not to root
cause yet and therefore the behavior not 100% explained does not mean
it is broken. It does not succeed either and so that still leaves a
nervious suspicious behind.
How does it run on tests #8 and beyond? Any other bad hits?
I would also try with different ram configurations. How much ram is
installed? If you have two dimms can you pull one, test, swap, test?
Does the failure happen with both dimms or just one? If you only have
one dimm can you swap with another dimm from elsewhere and again
does it work or fail? For speed of testing I would try the smallest
dimm that I could find. A 64MB dimm should speed through memtest86
much faster than a 1GB dimm and you can more quickly get through a
full pass.
> Hmmm....
Yes. Hmm...
Good luck
Bob
--
OT: knoppix memtest powers off after 35 mins
Kent West wrote:
> Running memtest86 from a Knoppix LiveCD on an HP pavilion ze4400 laptop.
> No errors, but the laptop powers off consistently after about 35 minutes
> of testing.
If that is consistently 35 minutes then it makes me wonder how the
BIOS power saving settings are configured. I would guess that the
BIOS is not seeing any input and therefore turning the machine off
because it thinks it is idle. I believe that after the OS is booted
it takes over these things. But memtest may not be programmed to do
this for that machine while the linux kernel in knoppix does.
Just a guess...
Bob
--
OT: knoppix memtest powers off after 35 mins
On Tue, Jul 03, 2007 at 05:49:51PM -0600, Bob Proulx wrote:
> Kent West wrote:
> > Running memtest86 from a Knoppix LiveCD on an HP pavilion ze4400 laptop.
> > No errors, but the laptop powers off consistently after about 35 minutes
> > of testing.
>
> If that is consistently 35 minutes then it makes me wonder how the
> BIOS power saving settings are configured. I would guess that the
> BIOS is not seeing any input and therefore turning the machine off
> because it thinks it is idle. I believe that after the OS is booted
> it takes over these things. But memtest may not be programmed to do
> this for that machine while the linux kernel in knoppix does.
>
> Just a guess...
I agree with this. It bears some digging into the bios.
A
OT: knoppix memtest powers off after 35 mins
On Tue, Jul 03, 2007 at 04:56:27PM -0500, Kent West wrote:
> OT for Debian, but you folks are knowledgeable ...
>
> Running memtest86 from a Knoppix LiveCD on an HP pavilion ze4400 laptop.
> No errors, but the laptop powers off consistently after about 35 minutes
> of testing.
Weird...
> The laptop does not power off when sitting at the Knoppix prompt (I
> enter some random character or two to prevent time-out default boot),
> nor does it power off after 35 minutes at the Windows (yech!) login
> prompt or within Knoppix when it's running from the LiveCD.
>
> I've not seen any odd behaviour when running Knoppix, and very limited
> oddness when running Windows (yet a couple of small things - easily
> attributable to Windows flakiness);
:-) Difficult to tell sometimes :-)
> the guy who owns the laptop says it has frozen on him a few times and
>wouldn't power up once until left alone a couple of hours.
As if "it needed a rest"?
> After spending a couple of days with the laptop, my gut instinct is that
> the hardware is fine, but this consistent auto-poweroff 35 minutes into
> a memtest86 run (with default parameters) raises a yellow flag in my brain.
>
> Anyone have any knowledge if maybe memtest86 might be triggering a
> shut-down code, or if it's running into a bad memory cell?
Perhaps the poor thing is overheating? Are the fans going during
memtest?
I presume that both Knoppix and Windows plays nice with ACPI and
(probably) fans, but I suspect that memtest86 couldn't care less...
Just a derailed brain...
--
Karl E. Jorgensen
http://www.jorgensen.org.uk/
http://karl.jorgensen.com
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