[arch-general] Blank screen after an interval; maybe related to laptop power supply?
I turn on my laptop, sign in (Linux getty), and use the laptop for a couple minutes (no graphical applications), then the screen goes black and the machine does not appear to respond to any user input (CTRL+ALT+F2, etc.). The only recovery I have found is to hold the power button and restart. The logs show nothing. When I use the computer without the power supply plugged in, the problem doesn't manifest. I'm using a Dell Precision M 4700. Any suggestions? What should I be looking at to begin diagnosing the problem?
Do you have an nvidia optimus configuration? Maybe your nvidia side of things is having issues when connected to power? On Sat, 2019-10-26 at 19:10 -0400, Dartme via arch-general wrote:
I turn on my laptop, sign in (Linux getty), and use the laptop for a couple minutes (no graphical applications), then the screen goes black and the machine does not appear to respond to any user input (CTRL+ALT+F2, etc.). The only recovery I have found is to hold the power button and restart. The logs show nothing. When I use the computer without the power supply plugged in, the problem doesn't manifest. I'm using a Dell Precision M 4700.
Any suggestions? What should I be looking at to begin diagnosing the problem?
On 10/27/19 2:06 AM, Kevin Custer wrote:
Do you have an nvidia optimus configuration? Maybe your nvidia side of things is having issues when connected to power?
That would not affect the tty. -- Rob (coderobe) O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop html mail - www.asciiribbon.org
On 10/27/19 1:10 AM, Dartme via arch-general wrote:
I turn on my laptop, sign in (Linux getty), and use the laptop for a couple minutes (no graphical applications), then the screen goes black and the machine does not appear to respond to any user input (CTRL+ALT+F2, etc.). The only recovery I have found is to hold the power button and restart. The logs show nothing. When I use the computer without the power supply plugged in, the problem doesn't manifest. I'm using a Dell Precision M 4700.
Any suggestions? What should I be looking at to begin diagnosing the problem?
Can you try blindly typing a command, like `poweroff`, when this happens - to see whether the device indeed powers off? This would confirm whether user input is still being taken or not, which helps debugging this substantially. -- Rob (coderobe) O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop html mail - www.asciiribbon.org
On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 10:00 PM Robin Broda via arch-general < arch-general@archlinux.org> wrote:
Can you try blindly typing a command, like `poweroff`, when this happens - to see whether the device indeed powers off?
This would confirm whether user input is still being taken or not, which helps debugging this substantially.
Thank you for the suggestion. I have tried this, but the computer is actually not working anymore. For instance, I was in the process of a pacman update, but the update terminated. I can tell because there was no more hard drive activity, and the same package that was being downloaded when the computer froze needed to be downloaded again.
It looks like my exact problem is chronicled here: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General-Read-Only/Black-Screen-When-P... I'm beginning to think it's an overheating issue? By the way, regarding the earlier comment, I believe it's a Radeon card, but I'll double check.
participants (3)
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Dartme
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Kevin Custer
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Robin Broda