Frequent unexpected power-off with latest coreboot

I’m on the latest coreboot (commit 36d9604).

When on battery, the computer suddenly powers off. Usually this happens during heavier CPU loads and can happen several times per hour.

On a slightly older coreboot, I was seeing this also when plugged in, but that no longer happens.

Hardware is 13v2.

What is your coreboot version? Please check with dmidecode and if it’s “4.7-Purism-1” upgrade it to latest: Building coreboot from source (official script)

As I said, I’m on the latest:

Version: 4.7-Purism-3

hey @devnull
just my 2 cents here.

Purism team can’t keep track of all the users and their technical skills, meaning they don’t know how tech savvy you or anyone else is, so even if someone writes “something” it may not be like that, since users new to GNU/Linux often get confused (me included :smiley: ) and they know that there are a lot of us. So I think mladen wanted to make sure you are really using the latest coreboot version, even if you wrote so. I’m refering here to the “As I said” part that you wrote. :wink:

Cheers!

Sure, but I did specify a commit hash :wink: Good point though that it’s better to check with dmidecode to make sure there wasn’t a problem flashing the bios.

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Now I’m also seeing a symptom reported in another thread - CPU fan stays at max even with CPU utilization drops to near zero.

Also running 4.7-Purism-3 on a 13v2 w/TPM and just had the random power off while on battery. I was streaming Amazon Video at the time for about 20 min.

I didnt catch the verbiage but say a mention of “CPU event” mentioned on next boot, still looks like a heat releated shutdown.

Random shutdown has now happened 4 times. Streaming video while on battery during shutdowns. About 15-20 min of streaming between failures. I didnt catch temps immediately before shutdown but what I did see using the sensors command showed a pretty steady temp of 48-57, usually right around 52 degrees. Temps sit at about 40 doing just web browsing / light usage stuff. No pronounced fan noise preceding shutdown. This occurred with and without turbo enabled.

Also, laptop will not reboot unless power plug is inserted. This is the most concerning problem for me as I use my laptop on the road and international travel. If it shuts down I may be out of luck for a long time until I can access wall power.

What is the next step? I’m starting to get concerned about the ability to use this as my primary computer for work and my online masters class while traveling.

Thanks.

Wait, this happens only on battery?

Could you try this:

sudo bash -c "echo -n 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo"

and see if it helps?

Here are my experiments with a compute intensive task (uses both cores):

  • AC connected, turbo enabled - ran stable for 30 minutes
  • battery power, turbo enabled - failed after ~3 minutes
  • battery power, turbo disabled - ran stable for 30 minutes

The failure was a bit different than before - the HDMI blanked (I was connected to a monitor) and system stayed on with high fan, but unresponsive.

Temps are in the 90 - 95 c range.

BTW, is it possible to adjust the CPU throttling temperature threshold? Would be interesting if this happens at lower temps.

I have had the failures with and without turbo enabled. did not seem to make a difference. I’ll try streaming tonight with plugged in but so far my only power offs were when on battery.

I have also been experiencing some erratic shut-downs under 4.7-Purism-3 on battery. I have had turbo enabled since the update to 4.7-Purism-3 but will try to test both ways this week. It has not been consistently repeatable for me, but I wanted to chime in just to add another data point to the shut-down issues!

I did a little more testing this evening.

Launching a mp4 file with VLC from the commandline:

Battery, turbo enabled: Immediate power off, within a second of hitting enter. Repeatable.
Battery, turbo disabled: Spike to about 90*, but did load and temps came back to high 50s in a second or two. I re-enabled turbo and could then launch any other videos without the spike.
Plugged in, turbo enabled: Spike to about 80*, back down to the high 50s in second or two, no power off.

Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide toward solving this issue.

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I know some of you have seen it in the other thread, but for those landing on this thread, please upgrade to coreboot 4.7-Purism-4 version, which should have that fixed once and for all!
Build script with instructions here : Building coreboot from source (official script)

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So far the reflash of 4 seems to be working on my 13v2. Ive ran a few high demand programs and highest I’ve seen was mid 80s with the fan kicking in. Thanks for the hard work.