Best way to debug an Intel Core i5 hang - likely graphics (possibly power) related

[Mulyadi Santosa]

Hi :)

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 18:12, Graeme Russ <graeme.russ at gmail.com> wrote:
> I managed to make the system more unstable as I trimmed the kernel and
> added debugging info. The symptoms were slightly different (graphic freezes
> rather than flashing screen)

Ouch.....debugging brings more bugs...that's nasty..

> To isolate i915, I've installed a nVidia 8600GT from my old machine. Even
> though I blacklisted i915, it still loads, so I've done an 'rmmod i915' to
> force it out.
>
> So far it all seems pretty stable

If possible, try to run one or more games like Doom and see how it
goes... IIRC there's a mode in Doom to run kinda automated play but I
forgot the  name. Just enable as much feature as it can to pound your
graphic card at highest resolution possible.


>- I'll leave it powered on for a few days
> to make sure. I'm then going to buy an ATI 5450 (cheap and passively
> cooled) and see how that goes.
>
> After a week of uptime, I'll switch back to the i915 driver and see what
> happens. If I get a hang, I'll get the i915 maintainer on board with my problem
>
> I think the lack of any kernel messages is due to a hardware conflict which
> hard-locks the machine. Even the reset button does not respond.

Looks like you're already on the right debugging track. Keep us informed :)

-- 
regards,

Mulyadi Santosa
Freelance Linux trainer and consultant

blog: the-hydra.blogspot.com
training: mulyaditraining.blogspot.com