S10 enters sleep/suspend uncommanded...

[skyeye]

Hi. I've had my s10 for well over a year now, mostly using Mac OS X Leopard. Running Leopard, I've not had this issue, but running XP or Ubuntu linux (Jaunty, Karmic, and now Lucid), here's what happens:

If the processor goes to sustained maximum speed for any length of time, for example running flash video in you-tube, the system enters an un-commanded sleep-state within less than a minute. The system will recover normally with a key-press, and re-entering my password, but it's likely to do this over and over in the course of browsing flash videos, or playing a dvd image file.

My question is, why does this happen only in XP or Ubuntu? What prevents it from happening in OS X? How can I set up Ubuntu to stop the problem. I don't really care much about getting XP to work.

Anyone have any insights on this one?

Thanks,

Eli

[James000]

The symptoms you describe sounds like your processor is overheating and going into shutdown. As for why it doesn't do it in Leopard, I imagine you are using the voodoo extension which takes care of the processor management, and it must be doing a better job than the built-in management in the bios.

I would recommend popping open your machine and verifying that the heatsink pad is actually making contact with your processor. Lenovo had a large number of the early S10s where there was a gap between the pad and the processor - including mine and many others on this forum.

[skyeyedoc]

Thank you for the reply, James. I have wondered about heat as an issue. You are correct that in os x i'm using the voodoo kext to manage cpu throttling. It does seem to do its job conservatively, with very little fan noise/overspeed happening. Ubuntu's LucidLynx also has pretty sophisticated cpu management, tho', with options to throttle back to 800mhz. Even choosing that, my s10 gets narcoleptic at times.

I did open up the case just last night, but didn't tear down to the point where I was removing the mobo. I did vacuum out the cooling ports and fan housing, but didn't actually remove and flip the motherboard over, to get at the "topside" of the processor. I might do so today, on the strength of your advice. It'd be great if I found the heatsink gapped, as you suggest, if it fixes it. I haven't found any tear-down pics where the mobo has actually been removed.

Thanks again for the advice.

[skyeyedoc]

Ok! This is now FIXED!!!

Yes, James, you were right on the money: second tear-down today, removed the main-board, removed the cooling fan/heatsink assembly, and yes, the heat transfer pads (one on the cpu, another on what I presume is the gpu) were both "rumpled", like a couple of carpets all kicked up in the middle.

I gently cleaned and polished the shiny faces of the heat transfer surfaces of the processors using terrycloth moistened with rubbing alcohol. I also lightly sanded and cleaned the surfaces of the heat sink where it covers the chips. I applied Antek cpu heat-transfer grease between the heatsink, the cpus and the pads, making sure the pads were smooth and unrumpled as I reassembled it.

I've been pushing the system hard in both Ubuntu and XP, and the narcolepsy has not reoccurred.

It's interesting to me that the Voodoo cpu management driver in OSX does such a superior job of throttling the processor, that it was never pushed to the point of triggering the self-protection suspend.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement and advice.

[James000]

Glad to hear it worked out for you.

The training videos at http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/S10e/index.html (FRU -> Processor Fan Assembly) provide a good guide for pulling the machine completely apart. Even though the site says s10e, they are taking apart an s10.

[cqcq]

When I took the machine apart today, I noticed there were some minor changes. Is there such a video avaiable for the s10e?