System keeps crashing

[pch.shot]

F.Y.I. Linux is not as forgiving as Windows when it comes to hardware issues(like over heating). Windows was designed to use all the resources until your pc just won't boot and you get the blue screen with that tell tale hardware error that no one knows what it means except that it is time to replace something. Linux will usually give you a heads up on failing hardware. If things feel hot to the touch then there is a serious issue. Are you getting any errors from your bios at all(like different beeps or stalling)? If your cpu is running too hot it will clock down and shut off to protect itself from damage. Bad ram can cause shutdown issues as well. Failing power supply is also a good place to look. The next time it shuts down observe in detail what happens including any bios messages. My bios told me 2 days ago that a hard drive had failed so I had to replace it(all hard drives are garbage-you are lucky to get a couple of years out of them).
Have a look here and un check cpu frequency manager and see if it cools down............

[Uffe]

My bios told me 2 days ago that a hard drive had failed so I had to replace it(all hard drives are garbage-you are lucky to get a couple of years out of them).

What do you do with them ? I haven't killed one yet.
The oldest one I have is a 6,4 Gb IBM from '97 - noisy as hell and slow - but it still works, no problem.
Funny - that drive cost me the same i '97 that four 5ooGb drives will today

[pch.shot]

I had a 10 year old Maxtor that just died recently. Stuff was made to last back then. Stuff is made to break today. That's why you can get an 80 gig hard drive for 30 bucks now. You wait till a brand new one goes after a month and you will see my point...........
I also spend 12 hours a day using my computer for 7 months of the year.

[Nirrad1st]

F.Y.I. Linux is not as forgiving as Windows when it comes to hardware issues(like over heating). Windows was designed to use all the resources until your pc just won't boot and you get the blue screen with that tell tale hardware error that no one knows what it means except that it is time to replace something. Linux will usually give you a heads up on failing hardware. If things feel hot to the touch then there is a serious issue. Are you getting any errors from your bios at all(like different beeps or stalling)? If your cpu is running too hot it will clock down and shut off to protect itself from damage. Bad ram can cause shutdown issues as well. Failing power supply is also a good place to look. The next time it shuts down observe in detail what happens including any bios messages. My bios told me 2 days ago that a hard drive had failed so I had to replace it(all hard drives are garbage-you are lucky to get a couple of years out of them).
Have a look here and un check cpu frequency manager and see if it cools down............

Thanks for the info, I have un checked the cpu frequency manager as you suggested. I don't really notice a difference.
As far as failing parts. thats is always possible. But here is some history on the machine. It will be one year old this month. A month and a half ago we did think there was a problem with the fan, so we sent it in for repairs since it is still under warranty. but it came back and all they said was it needed a cleaning. So I don't think there is anything wrong mechanically. Plus under winblows it does run normally no errors or glitches. I installed Ultimate Edition shortly after it came back.
Now as far as the shut down. There are no error warnings or anything. It just instantly stops.
I have had to remove and re install Ultimate Edition yesterday, and something I noticed was that the fan was working fine after the install. It was only after the big update and reboot. That the fan has gone silent. But I wouldn't know where to start with dissecting all the updates to find the one that changed the fan situation.
Well thats all the info I have so far.
Oh and I also did the "pci=noacpi" as another helpful person has suggested. But that resulted in not being able to boot Ultimate Edition, and led to two days of having to re install winblows , and Ultimate Edition. Which thrilled my wife. ( her machine).
At a loss as to what to do....

[SaddleTramp]

Nirrad1st, what do you have checked in your repo's ?? (under System/Admin/Software Sources .. or .. Synaptic Package Manager)...I believe you've hit on the right area as the problem is coming from the updates...I'll tell you now that if you have a mixture of Intrepid and Jaunty listed in your sources.list, you may want to try commenting out (or unchecking in Software Sources Third Party) the Jaunty entries...

[drama]

while i have zero experience with laptops it sounds to be as if the fan is scaling itself back or slowing down for some weird reason. while this may not help give this howto a try for me

here

This will at least let us check the temps and it may very well let us control the fan speeds (speeds arent always controllable)

[Nirrad1st]

Nirrad1st, what do you have checked in your repo's ?? (under System/Admin/Software Sources .. or .. Synaptic Package Manager)...I believe you've hit on the right area as the problem is coming from the updates...I'll tell you now that if you have a mixture of Intrepid and Jaunty listed in your sources.list, you may want to try commenting out (or unchecking in Software Sources Third Party) the Jaunty entries...

Hello SaddleTramp

I checked the repos. they are ok, no Jaunty's. But thank you very much for the idea.

while i have zero experience with laptops it sounds to be as if the fan is scaling itself back or slowing down for some weird reason. while this may not help give this howto a try for me

here

This will at least let us check the temps and it may very well let us control the fan speeds (speeds arent always controllable)

Hello drama
Success I believe. I went to the page you suggested and did everything. I was also not able to get fan control. But it did turn on the fan. (I can hear it ). And after turning on gkrellm , here are the temp readings.

core 1 reads 29.0 C or 84.2 F

core 2 reads 31.0 C or 87.8 F

Are these within the norm of safe operating conditions? It does feel cooler, no heat at all. I will try taxing it by installing a game and report if it shuts down computer or not. But as far as I can tell it worked. Thank you very much drama.

Darrin

[Nirrad1st]

Success. No more spontaneous shutdowns. I want to thank everyone who helped solve this.

[SaddleTramp]

Success. No more spontaneous shutdowns. I want to thank everyone who helped solve this.

WTG Nirrad1st!! Glad it all came together for you