Dell latitude e6520 freezes must reboot

[Olivier Caudron]

This is a fresh install of Ubuntu 16.04LTS 64 on a Dell Latitude E6520 laptop with an Intel core i7-2720QM (4 core) CPU, 8GB RAM and an NVIDIA N12P-NS2 video controller. The display freezes at random (I had this 10 times today with completely different apps running). The mouse still moves but the system does not react to clicks or keypresses (not even Ctrl-Alt-Del etc. and I can't access terminals at Ctrl+Alt+F1 etc.) It does not shut down gracefully when the power button is pressed. The system is however still active and can be accessed externally through SSH. The mouse and screen seems slightly less responsive than usual a few seconds before the freeze so that I can "feel it coming". However, it is hardly noticeable.

I noticed that the underside of the laptop is sometimes very hot when the display freezes, but it is not systematic, sometimes the freeze happens after the laptop had time to cool before booting and hasn't got hot yet.

Until recently this laptop was running windows 7 64 pro without any problem. I have performed a full hardware test of the laptop (via setup) only a couple of days ago, there was no issue.

I attached the output of dmesg and the Xorg.0.log file.

This is not a critical system to me but I thought I'd report the bug for all intents and purposes, and I'd rather not reinstall windows on it if it can be helped ;-)

[elliot smith (x84)]

[solved?]
Hello,
I have experienced this issue on two E6520 laptops with i5 processors running the Linux Mint live image for installing Mint version 18 (booted off the USB port.) Both laptops running BIOS version A19, which is the latest version at this time. In my troubleshooting I found this issue continues to happen despite removing the hard drive, cdrom drive, and despite switching from a low quality USB 2.0 thumb drive as the boot device to a high quality USB 3.0 thumb drive.
This issue seems to be the same as what is discussed here:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19579391

My preliminary testing indicates that the solution may be as simple as ... choosing the option of "Load Defaults" in the BIOS. When you choose this option, you will also be asked if you want to allow the SATA Operation to be changed. I suggest selecting "NO" for the SATA Operation change. Then press "Apply" to confirm the "Load Defaults" command.

As far as I can tell, there is no specific setting or combination of settings in the BIOS which causes this issue. That is to say, I am so far not able to replicate this issue after choosing to "Load Defaults" despite the fact that I have set all the BIOS settings back to what they were before choosing to "Load Defaults." Therefore, I think that "Load Defaults" may be clearing up some corruption in the BIOS settings. If this is the case, then it is in theory possible that the BIOS corruption happened due to an upgrade of the BIOS, or a low NVRAM battery. A low NVRAM battery can be tricky in some laptops because it may not cause problems until the main battery is removed from the laptop which leaves the NVRAM totally dependent on the NVRAM battery. I have tested for several hours after loading defaults, with no further crashes. Before loading defaults, I would get at least a couple crashes per hour while doing nothing more than navigating the GUI.

I will update this comment if I find any new info or any info which contradicts my preliminary experience so far.

x84

[Edward Cherlin (echerlin)]

I have seen several remedies proposed for this bug, each of which seems to work for some people and not others.

I am running Ubuntu 16.10. I had the mouse problem recurring every few minutes, with the cursor moving normally but unable to click on anything. Sometimes I could click in one window and not another. Sometimes I could not click in any window, but the toolbar menu worked.

I also have Windows installed on this computer. The bug never occurs in Windows.

Upgrade BIOS to A05: No effect on the bug on my computer.

Remove deprecated video driver: No effect on the bug on my computer.

Install most recent version of non-free Nvidia driver, 367.57 0ubuntu3: Fixes bug on my computer almost completely.

Workarounds:

Switch console ctrl-alt-f1 and back ctrl-alt-f7. Mouse usually resumes normal action.

Switch to Guest account and back using toolbar menu. Mouse usually resumes normal action.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) reached end-of-standard-support on April 29, 2021.
No comments on the issue for over six years
Bug report was not reported against a specific Ubuntu package
Closing as 'Invalid'

Please report all Ubuntu bugs against a specific package:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage