From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Carl Thompson Subject: Re: PST tables and Sonys Bios Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 13:41:16 -0700 Sender: cpufreq-admin@www.linux.org.uk Message-ID: <1058820076.bb1af498dc47e@carlthompson.net> References: <3F1650C3.1030903@searchbroker.de> <1058458508.bd23a8ad4d31b@carlthompson.net> <20030720165809.GA3019@zaphod.loewis.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20030720165809.GA3019@zaphod.loewis.de> Content-Disposition: inline Errors-To: cpufreq-admin@www.linux.org.uk List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: johannes@v.loewis.de Cc: Cpufreq@www.linux.org.uk Quoting Johannes von Loewis : > ... > My machine (Sony Vaio FX805, Linux 2.4.2[01]+acpi+swsusp+cpufreq) locks > up occasionally. The BIOS PST is a "new one" with the voltage of 1.3V > for all frequencies. I have not yet found out, what the reason(s) for > the lock-ups is/are. Is it a problem with the standard kernel, a problem > with one of the patches, or a problem with the softmodem driver > hsflinmodem-5.03.whatever? Unfortunately, the BIOS PST is not sufficient > to keep the machine from locking up;-) My experience with the Sonys is that their fans alone are insufficient to maintain an equilibrium under high load and they overheat _very_ quickly. On these machines you _must_ run a program to monitor CPU temperature and scale/throttle the CPU down when it gets too hot or the system _will_ lock up. (My cpuspeed daemon does that as well as automatically adjust the the speed depending on the demand on the processor. After adding this to my program I never experienced a lock up on my Sonys again.) Do your lock ups coincide with heavy CPU use? I ran exactly what you are running (including the modem driver) and did not experience any lock ups except for heat related ones. The only other issue I had is that rarely ACPI would "freak out" when battery power was extremely low (<2% IIRC). And I only experienced that problem when running multiple batteries. > ... > On my laptop the effect of scaling only the frequency is not sufficient > to keep the CPU fan from occasionally turning on. I have the hope to get > the machine quiet (for low-load situations as text editing or mp3 > playing) by scaling the voltage too. > > Therefore it seems desirable to me to have a means to override the BIOS > PST in order to test upto what voltage the machine does not lock up much > more often than with 1.3V. In my experience on the Sonys (and most every other modern desktop replacement laptop) even with full CPU scaling and ACPI C2 if you are doing anything at all the fan will be on a good portion of the time even if the CPU at at minimum speed and voltage. Lower powered CPUs are better at keeping the fan off; my Mobile Duron based Sony had the fan on much less than my Mobile Athlon 4 based Sonys. Playing MP3s is probably enough to keep the fan running constantly on your Mobile Athlon XP machine. Be happy though-- the fans on the Sonys are quiter than most and _much_ quiter than some (Compaq Presarios are horribly noisy). Yes, I'm kind of a laptop junkie and over the last 3 years I've owned 7! Best: my current eMachines M5305 Widscreen. Worst: KDS Valiant 6480iPTD- actually fell apart from 6 months of normal use. > Regards > > Johannes Carl Thompson