Random crashing

[cov]

I've been having an issue recently where my machine suddenly locks up with excessive fan noise.

On two occasions I logged in immediately afterward to check the log files and these are the 'tail' output of the ones written to just before the crash.

/var/www/kern.log:

Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.788682] wlan0: authenticate with 6c:b0:ce:37:4d:08
Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.799049] wlan0: send auth to 6c:b0:ce:37:4d:08 (try 1/3)
Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.801800] wlan0: authenticated
Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.801943] iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0 wlan0: disabling HT/VHT due to WEP/TKIP use
Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.801948] wlan0: waiting for beacon from 6c:b0:ce:37:4d:08
Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.858222] wlan0: associate with 6c:b0:ce:37:4d:08 (try 1/3)
Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.861109] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 6c:b0:ce:37:4d:08 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.864246] wlan0: associated
Dec 2 05:01:31 Threepwood kernel: [393278.864309] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready

Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.630427] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.930729] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.930746] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.930751] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.930755] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:55 Threepwood kernel: [22826.231063] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:55 Threepwood kernel: [22826.231080] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:55 Threepwood kernel: [22826.231086] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:55 Threepwood kernel: [22826.231090] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1


/var/log/syslog:

Dec 2 07:20:01 Threepwood CRON[17900]: (smmsp) CMD (test -x /etc/init.d/sendmail && /usr/share/sendmail/sendmail cron-msp)
Dec 2 07:30:01 Threepwood CRON[18060]: (root) CMD (start -q anacron || :)
Dec 2 07:30:01 Threepwood anacron[18063]: Anacron 2.3 started on 2014-12-02
Dec 2 07:30:01 Threepwood anacron[18063]: Will run job `cron.daily' in 5 min.
Dec 2 07:30:01 Threepwood anacron[18063]: Jobs will be executed sequentially
Dec 2 07:35:01 Threepwood anacron[18063]: Job `cron.daily' started
Dec 2 07:35:01 Threepwood anacron[18125]: Updated timestamp for job `cron.daily' to 2014-12-02
Dec 2 07:39:01 Threepwood CRON[18211]: (root) CMD ( [ -x /usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime ] && [ -x /usr/lib/php5/sessionclean ] && [ -d /var/lib/php5 ] && /usr/lib/php5/sessionclean /var/lib/php5 $(/usr/lib/php5/maxlifetime))
Dec 2 07:40:01 Threepwood CRON[18226]: (smmsp) CMD (test -x /etc/init.d/sendmail && /usr/share/sendmail/sendmail cron-msp)

Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.630427] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.930729] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.930746] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.930751] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:54 Threepwood kernel: [22825.930755] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:55 Threepwood kernel: [22826.231063] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:55 Threepwood kernel: [22826.231080] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:55 Threepwood kernel: [22826.231086] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1
Dec 6 08:24:55 Threepwood kernel: [22826.231090] HDMI: invalid ELD buf size -1


/var/log/Xorg.0.log:

[346431.991] reporting 5 6 12 89
[346432.048] reporting 5 6 12 89
[346432.111] reporting 5 6 12 89
[348906.863] reporting 5 6 12 89
[350622.427] reporting 5 6 12 89
[367349.512] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1366x768@60.0 on LVDS1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
[368375.098] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1366x768@60.0 on LVDS1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
[392466.720] reporting 5 6 12 89
[400598.669] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1366x768@60.0 on LVDS1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none

[ 22797.062] reporting 5 6 12 89
[ 22797.062] reporting 5 6 12 89
[ 22797.063] reporting 5 6 12 89
[ 22797.063] reporting 5 6 12 89
[ 22797.063] reporting 5 6 12 89
[ 22797.064] reporting 5 6 12 89
[ 22797.065] reporting 5 6 12 89
[ 22799.024] reporting 5 6 12 89
[ 22799.042] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1366x768@60.0 on LVDS1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none

Obviously there was a crash on the second of December and one this morning, but I can't see too much in common.

I'm using XUbuntu, 14.04 upgrade, AMD64.

[veddox]

If you say excessive fan noises, I would rather guess at a hardware than a software problem (broken cooling system, dust clog-up, ...). Although having said that, were you running any heavy programs just before the crashes?

And could you give us your machine's specs?

[cov]

Thanks for the response.

I would say that the excessive fan noise is symptomatic of the demands being made of the hardware, than the hardware itself.

Specs:


dave@Threepwood:~$ sudo lshw -short
H/W path Device Class Description
================================================== ====
system HuronRiver Platform (System SKUNumber)
/0 bus Emerald Lake
/0/0 memory 128KiB BIOS
/0/30 processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @ 2.50GHz
/0/30/31 memory 64KiB L1 cache
/0/30/32 memory 256KiB L2 cache
/0/30/33 memory 3MiB L3 cache
/0/34 memory 8GiB System Memory
/0/34/0 memory 4GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
/0/34/1 memory DIMMProject-Id-Version: lshwReport-Msgid-Bugs-To: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>POT-Creation-Dat
/0/34/2 memory 4GiB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
/0/34/3 memory DIMMProject-Id-Version: lshwReport-Msgid-Bugs-To: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>POT-Creation-Dat
/0/100 bridge 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller
/0/100/1 bridge Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port
/0/100/1/0 display GF108M [GeForce GT 540M]
/0/100/1/0.1 multimedia GF108 High Definition Audio Controller
/0/100/2 display 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
/0/100/16 communication 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1
/0/100/1a bus 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2
/0/100/1b multimedia 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
/0/100/1c bridge 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1
/0/100/1c.1 bridge 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2
/0/100/1c.1/0 wlan0 network Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [Condor Peak]
/0/100/1c.3 bridge 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4
/0/100/1c.3/0 eth0 network RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
/0/100/1d bus 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1
/0/100/1f bridge HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller
/0/100/1f.2 storage 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
/0/100/1f.3 bus 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
/0/1 scsi0 storage
/0/1/0.0.0 /dev/sda disk 500GB HITACHI HTS54505
/0/1/0.0.0/1 /dev/sda1 volume 200MiB Windows NTFS volume
/0/1/0.0.0/2 /dev/sda2 volume 40GiB Windows NTFS volume
/0/1/0.0.0/3 /dev/sda3 volume 410GiB Extended partition
/0/1/0.0.0/3/5 /dev/sda5 volume 28GiB HPFS/NTFS partition
/0/1/0.0.0/3/6 /dev/sda6 volume 39GiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/1/0.0.0/3/7 /dev/sda7 volume 47GiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/1/0.0.0/3/8 /dev/sda8 volume 200MiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/1/0.0.0/3/9 /dev/sda9 volume 260GiB Linux filesystem partition
/0/1/0.0.0/3/a /dev/sda10 volume 9537MiB Linux swap / Solaris partition
/0/1/0.0.0/4 /dev/sda4 volume 14GiB Windows NTFS volume
/0/2 scsi4 storage
/0/2/0.0.0 /dev/cdrom disk DVD RW AD-7710H
/0/3 scsi6 storage
/0/3/0.0.0 /dev/sdb disk xD/SD/M.S.
/0/3/0.0.0/0 /dev/sdb disk
/1 power Smart Battery
/2 power TBD by ODM


I wasn't running anything particularly onerous before the crash, but I generally have a lot open at any one time.

[veddox]

Hm, your specs should be good enough for just about any job short of heavy-duty rendering...

I'm afraid I don't have much of an idea what could have caused those crashes :-( Maybe somebody else could help?

The only thing I'd suggest again is to check your machine for dust build-up, seeing as you're also in Africa (although the problem might not be quite as severe in SA as it is further north).