Dell Latitude D620 System freezes after idle time

[Federico M. Pires]

Hello,

I'm having the exact same problem as this guy here: http://www.nabble.com/psmouse.c-resync-failed-td16082494.html
but with my Dell D620 with BIOS version A10 and Ubuntu 8.04. I found out as that guy, that it may be a bug in the recent kernels... I tried the ones that comes with Hardy: 2.6.24-16 17 18 and 19... all the same.
Then tried downgrading to the 7.04 kernel adding the sources from that distro ( 2.6.22-14-generic) and it works perfect. I also tried compiling myself a 2.6.25.6 vanilla kernel, pretty clean, and still the same problem. I think it has something to do with ACPI managing cpufreq... but it's just a hunch. I will try later to compile the kernel without ACPI at all as it seems from that post that noacpi boot param is not working.
I will quote what Andy Baumhauer said there, which is exactly my problem, to better explain the symptoms:

===========START QUOTING==============================================================
"Kernel 2.6.24.3-22 and 2.6.24.3-12 lockup my Dell D830 laptop with a
Synaptics touchpad. If I leave the keyboard for a brief period of time,
and return, the mouse pointer will not move. A few seconds later (and
the system monitor shows high CPU utilization), the mouse will stutter
to life, and the /var/log/messages shows:

Mar 16 14:06:03 mordac kernel: psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0
lost sync at byte 1
Mar 16 14:06:03 mordac kernel: psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0
lost sync at byte 1
Mar 16 14:06:04 mordac kernel: psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0
lost synchronization, throwing 1 bytes away.
Mar 16 14:06:08 mordac kernel: psmouse.c: resync failed, issuing reconnect request
Mar 16 14:07:34 mordac kernel: psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0
lost synchronization, throwing 1 bytes away.
Mar 16 14:07:38 mordac kernel: psmouse.c: resync failed, issuing reconnect request

After a few times going through this process, the caps lock and scroll
lock will start flashing on the laptop. The system becomes unresponsive
and you cannot even ping the host. The only thing that works is a hard
power cycle. I have tried booting with nohz=off and noapci, to no
avail. This is making Fedora totally unworkable."

I have tried all types of changes to the boot string:

noapic
apic=force irqpoll
nohz=off highres=off
...
...

Nothing fixes the problem. I tried without the nvidia drivers from
livna. I finally tried booting to the LiveCD and the problem
disappeared. It was then I realized that the kernel version was
2.6.23.1-42 versus the 2.6.24.3-33 I was running. I reinstalled the
older kernel from the install disk, and the problem has gone away.

After further testing of the following kernels:

kernel-2.6.23.15-137.fc8.x86_64.rpm
kernel-2.6.23.14-115.fc8.x86_64.rpm
kernel-2.6.23.14-107.fc8.x86_64.rpm
kernel-2.6.23.9-85.fc8.x86_64.rpm
kernel-2.6.23.8-63.fc8.x86_64.rpm

The problem does not exist on:
kernel-2.6.23.1-49.fc8.x86_64.rpm

Something changed between 1-49 and 8-63 which causes the system to
freeze momentarily (even the Gnome System Monitor freezes), and then
when the mouse is moved, the kernel spits out the error messages from
psmouse.c. I now believe that the psmouse.c messages are a symptom that
results after the freeze occurs. My initial testing shows if the system
is not touched for 30 seconds, the freezing takes place."

===============END QUOTING=============================================

I don't know if it has something to do with the touchpad, i hardly doubt it, but I can say for sure that this happens ONLY after you leave the machine idle (Not touching keyboard or mouse at all) for a few minutes and when you are running on battery power. It seems that running on AC doesn't trigger this problem, or at least is much less frequent. Also, just as a note, when I unplugged the AC power, the system freezes for 1 second and then returns to normal.

P.S.: I tried using both, Powernow and cpufreq and I got the same problem.

P.S.: I know that the other problem is in Fedora, but it's EXACTLY what is happening to me with Ubuntu 8.04.

Thanks,

Fede.-

*** Added ***

This is the URL for the fedora bug:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=427697

[Federico M. Pires (fpires82)]

Hi again

I can confirm that as it was said in the redhat bugzilla works.

"Some combination of the latest kernel (2.6.25.6-55.fc9.x86_64), setting both
i8042.nomux=1 and psmouse.proto=imps as kernel parameters, and disabling "Dim
display when idle" in BOTH on AC and on battery seems to have fixed the problem
on my Dell Latitude D630. I haven't experienced the freezing for several days
now when before it would be almost once every minute or two."

I disabled "Dim display when idle" in both AC and BAT on Gnome Power Managment and it works OK. No need for kernel paramaters though. I'll keep testing.

It would be nice to be able to use this options though as they save a lot of battery.

[Federico M. Pires (fpires82)]

Hi,

Just in case someone lands here, the root cuase was discovered in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libsmbios/+bug/189814 and the fix is being discussed, as well as some workarounds until it gets fixed.

Cheers,