Operating system shows black screen with error messages

Question

I am using Ubuntu 20.04. After installing the NVIDIA drivers, when my laptop is idle for sometime, it shows a black screen with an error message at random times, and the fan is running at high speed. Also the laptop gets heated up.

Nvidia Graphics card Geforce MX130. Nvidia driver 470 was installed from additional driver section in ubuntu software updates. Cuda 11 was also installed.

OS kernel version : 5.11.0-38-generic

I am not sure what's causing this. On pressing power button, the operating system gets shut down and works as normal. This same thing can happen at any time if laptop is kept idle for sometime. Here is a photo of the issue:

sudo lspci -tv gave the following results
-[0000:00]-+-00.0  Intel Corporation Coffee Lake HOST and DRAM Controller
           +-02.0  Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 620 (Whiskey Lake)
           +-04.0  Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem
           +-08.0  Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th/8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
           +-12.0  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP Thermal Controller
           +-14.0  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP USB 3.1 xHCI Controller
           +-14.2  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP Shared SRAM
           +-15.0  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0
           +-15.1  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #1
           +-16.0  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP MEI Controller #1
           +-17.0  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI Mode]
           +-1a.0  Intel Corporation Device 9dc4
           +-1c.0-[01]--
           +-1c.4-[02]----00.0  NVIDIA Corporation GM108M [GeForce MX130]
           +-1d.0-[03]----00.0  Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           +-1d.1-[04]----00.0  Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
           +-1d.4-[05]----00.0  KIOXIA Corporation Device 0001
           +-1f.0  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP LPC Controller
           +-1f.3  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller
           +-1f.4  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP SMBus Controller
           -1f.5  Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP SPI Controller

FYI : Due to severity of the problem, i was forced to reinstall the OS. Now nvidia drivers are not installed. and the above said issue is not there. Wacom graphic tablet has also an issue before. The pointer got hang randomly at times when using. After reinstallation of OS its also working fine. But the problem is I am now using onboard graphics. I can use nvidia driver only after this issue is solved.

Laptop Model Info (Dell Latitude 3400)

# dmidecode 3.2
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.1 present.
Handle 0x0200, DMI type 2, 17 bytes
Base Board Information
    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Product Name: 0KVN26
    Version: A06
    Serial Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Asset Tag: Not Specified
    Features:
        Board is a hosting board
        Board is replaceable
    Location In Chassis: Not Specified
    Chassis Handle: 0x0000
    Type: Motherboard
    Contained Object Handles: 0

Impression: You have at least one hardware component in your laptop that gets so hot that it fails. That component failing, or fan control (hardware/software) failing to provide sufficient cooling? — Hannu, Oct 22 '21 at 19:07
Which Nvidia card? What version driver? Driver from Software & Updates Additional Drivers tab, or directly from Nvidia? Did you have this problem before? You also have AER errors... edit your question and show me sudo lspci -tv. Start comments to me with @heynnema or I'll miss them. — heynnema, Oct 22 '21 at 19:23
Look at the logs leading up to the crash sudo journalctl -b -1 -e, read man journalctl, also sudo journalctl --list-boots. — waltinator, Oct 22 '21 at 23:44
@waltinator I was forced to reinstall the OS. So i dont have those logs right now. I do appreciate if this can be solved — imhans33, Oct 23 '21 at 05:00
Yes, the reason that I asked all of the questions about your video card & driver was that I suspected that was where the problem was. What Nvidia card do you have? Is this a laptop or desktop? Is Secure Boot disabled? Show me a screenshot of the Software & Updates Additional Drivers tab. — heynnema, Oct 23 '21 at 14:46
@heynnema Nvidia Geforce MX130 is the card. Installed in laptop. Secureboot is disabled. Screenshot is attached in the question — imhans33, Oct 23 '21 at 15:42
Go ahead and choose the first video driver in the list. Report back. — heynnema, Oct 23 '21 at 15:48
@heynnema I chose the first video driver and rebooted the system. So far so good. What is the next step — imhans33, Oct 23 '21 at 16:12
@heynemma. the issue was when the system was kept idle for sometime. What are the chances that the same error can appear again. In the mean time can you upvote my question too since i am new here and i cannot do lot without points. Thanks in advance — imhans33, Oct 23 '21 at 16:26
Done. Hopefully the reinstalls fixed the problem. Keep me posted. Just to make sure, let's check your BIOS version. Do sudo dmidecode -s bios-version and tell me the EXACT make/model of your computer or motherboard. — heynnema, Oct 23 '21 at 16:30
You forgot to tell me the EXACT make/model of your computer or motherboard. Can't do much without it. — heynnema, Oct 23 '21 at 16:38
@imhans33 No. Rather than having you post it here (for privacy reasons), get the Service Tag # from the label on your computer, and then go to https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us and find if there's a newer BIOS. — heynnema, Oct 23 '21 at 16:48

heynnema · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-23T16:59:09.523

1

From the comments...

NVIDIA

Regarding Nvidia crashes...

reinstalled Ubuntu 20.04
reinstalled Nvidia 470 driver from Software & Updates Additional Drivers tab
rebooted, and it's working fine now

Update #1:

BIOS

Dell Latitude 3400

You have BIOS 1.18.1. BIOS 1.19.0 is available here.

Note: Have good backups before updating the BIOS

Note: Confirm that I have the correct web page for your model #

edited Oct 23 '21 at 16:59

answered Oct 23 '21 at 16:23

heynnema

70,711

Updated to the new BIOS version. Thanks :) The webpage is correct – imhans33 Oct 23 '21 at 17:08
@imhans33 Does it work if the computer is idle now? – heynnema Oct 23 '21 at 17:14
I will keep checking for few days. I will return here with the result ;) – imhans33 Oct 23 '21 at 17:25
@heynemma One more doubt. Was this issue due to cuda or cudnn driver. At that time I installed those drivers too. I started a post for the installation of both. If you are free please join with this . https://askubuntu.com/questions/1371165/installing-cuda-and-cudnn-in-ubuntu-20-04 – imhans33 Oct 23 '21 at 19:39

Operating system shows black screen with error messages

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