please help! newbie badly in trouble

[snd5014]

Double posting in kernel, sorry not sure where to put this:

I am new to linux, just installed a couple days ago. Friend suggested using mint 10, now after updates my system is barely working. The programs were no longer showing in the task bar, and the system was running much slower.

Problem started with following error:
Apr 24 08:10:47 steve-asus kernel: [43547.415448] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:11:32 steve-asus kernel: [43592.357708] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:13:17 steve-asus kernel: [43697.222938] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:15:02 steve-asus kernel: [43802.088208] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:16:02 steve-asus kernel: [43862.011184] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:19:07 steve-asus kernel: [44046.773778] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:20:22 steve-asus kernel: [44121.677495] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:22:07 steve-asus kernel: [44226.542728] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:23:07 steve-asus kernel: [44286.465734] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:23:27 steve-asus kernel: [44306.440067] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded
Apr 24 08:23:32 steve-asus kernel: [44311.433675] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: MCP power or thermal limit exceeded


This repeated over and over again. My temperature was never to high 40-55, and I found a suggestion to update my kernel to 2.6.37-020637. After doing so there is no longer the thermal limit exceeded error but the computer is still running poorly. The system is slow and again no programs are showing up in the task bar when open.

PLEASE PLEASE help!!!!!
if u need full log let me know, I wasn't sure how to post it without taking up too much space.

[Nagarjuna]

First thing we should do is take a look at the running processes on the system and see what is using up all your resources. One of the best programs to achieve this is top:

top

The above will show you a dynamic list of running processes on your system. Try to look for a resource hog. Also take note of your CPU and memory usage. One useful tip with top: Hold shift and use the <, > keys to sort by CPU, MEM ext.

You can output the information into a file or simply copy and paste the results to this thread.

Another useful command that will give similar, though static results and sort it by memory is:

ps aux --sort -rss

The below command will tell us more about your memory usage in megabyes:

free -m

So, try to take note of these things and see if you can find any heavy processes. Feel free to post some of the results to a post so the community can take a look and help you out.

[fanderal]

There's a bug (#636045) filed against Ubuntu's 2.6.37-020637 kernel with the same "intel ips... thermal limit exceeded" description.

In addition to what Nagarjuna posted, is it possible to boot to the previous kernel?

[richleonhardt]

Hmm,,, well top and htop will help.
Try # tail -f /var/log/messages in one window
One a second window try # grep error /var/log/messages (some releases it's /var/adm/messages (like Solaris).
Next look at the anaconda log and see what is installed.
Did you try a yum update all ? To get the newest everything ?
Also are you SURE that the hardware you have will run this software w/o some special drivers ?
Try lspci and check out your hardware with # cat /proc/<lots of things here like cpuinfo, meminfo, etc)
How did you setup your harddisk ? If you have little or no swap it will run so slowly// Try #/sbin/swapon -l to see swap. Also try # fdisk -l to look at the hard disk drives. Now does it run slowly in single user (ie. boot -s or hit space bar at boot splash screen and e to "edit" and change the line to "single" and hit return. If ok in single user then something is wrong in multi user mode..
Let me know..
Thanks
Rick.. AIX (old but ok), Red Hat new...Linux admin for ages ..hee hee..l
Later

[snd5014]

W/ the kernal 2.6.35-22-generic
First not sure if my hardware will support it, how would I know? Here is a system info:

Think from top problem might Xorg


Also found this in the log
14.982743] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
Apr 25 12:45:44 steve-asus kernel: [ 15.036735] asus_laptop: Asus Laptop Support version 0.42
Apr 25 12:45:44 steve-asus kernel: [ 15.082902] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: Warning: CPU TDP doesn't match expected value (found 25, expected 35)
Apr 25 12:45:44 steve-asus kernel: [ 15.082935] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: PCI INT C -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
Apr 25 12:45:44 steve-asus kernel: [ 15.122717] intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: IPS driver initialized, MCP temp limit 65535
Apr 25 12:45:44 steve-asus kernel: [ 15.136224] asus_laptop: BSTS called, 0x3800 returned

Let me know if you need anything else

[elija]

This appears to be a bug. You can view the report here. There are a couple of work-arounds suggested that seem to have worked for people.

[sgosnell]

@richleonhardt: A yum update? On Mint? Really? Very little of Redhat stuff translates to any other distro.