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I recently installed Kubuntu 16.10 on my Thinkpad X201 Tablet. It works fine except for one thing; the screen sometimes suddenly turns black and the laptop seems to perform a shutdown, because about 20 seconds later, the system turns off without me doing anything. After this I can boot without a problem.

It appears kind of randomly, sometimes only a few minutes after starting, sometimes after hours. But it seems to need me using the laptop. It always occurs when I'm typing something. So far it's happened when I'm using Kate, Scite and Konsole. On the other hand the laptop was running for more than two days without me using it, just attached to a docking station.

The kernel log doesn't show anything obvious. I thought these error messages might be related, but they appear even when nothing happens:

Mar 31 15:09:18 Aurea kernel: [ 1481.084267] [drm:intel_cpu_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* CPU pipe A FIFO underrun
Mar 31 15:09:18 Aurea kernel: [ 1481.084330] [drm:intel_pch_fifo_underrun_irq_handler [i915]] *ERROR* PCH transcoder A FIFO underrun

Kernel version is

Linux version 4.8.0-45-generic (buildd@lgw01-15) (gcc version 6.2.0 20161005 (Ubuntu 6.2.0-5ubuntu12) ) #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 24 11:46:39 UTC 2017

Is there anything else you need to know? Please tell me what and how I can get it (I'm new to Linux).

Zanna
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gdrauvniedr
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  • Check the other logs in your /var/log/ and the X error log. My guess: Look for a hardware or compatiility problem. Battery or overheat. Have you detected a (much) different fan or battery. Problems like that used to happen to me regurlarly some years ago. Check your hardware compatibility. Is the problem happening with Live Kubuntu or other Linux? Did you try nomodeset start (in case GPU problems) If it went Kernel panic (Linux BSOD) maybe a Kernel crash dump would help https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/CrashdumpRecipe. http://askubuntu.com/questions/104771/where-are-kernel-panic-logs#104793 – Yves Mar 31 '17 at 18:04

1 Answers1

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I had the exact same problem, nothing useful in logs. It happened on anything newer than 16.04 or if I upgraded HW stack with 4.8 kernel on 16.04. This is on a Lenovo Thinkpad T410 Intel i5 560M, integrated graphics, 8GB ram. Same brand, similar original specs as OP.

I ended up cleaning my laptop (cleaned dust from heatsink, fans, etc) and applied new thermal paste to the CPU and the problem went away. Been running Kubuntu 17.04 for 3 ish weeks and the problem hasn't happened since.

Zanna
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Josue Rivera
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  • Please don't post comments as answers. You don't know it's the same problem. That's why the other one was deleted and this will be as well. –  Aug 19 '17 at 04:34
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    @MichaelBay I voted to delete his other answer because he didn't answer the question at all. I voted not to delete this answer because he did answer it. Downvoting and deletion is not appropriate for this answer. – karel Aug 19 '17 at 05:29
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    @MichaelBay It was presenting with the same symptoms under the same conditions. Same cpu gen, I'm imagining (comparing laptop pictures) internals would be pretty near identical. Occam's razor is 2 almost identical devices have the same symptoms, likely same thing. I hope it isn't deleted, only answer out there for this problem. – Josue Rivera Aug 19 '17 at 13:39
  • I agree with that: https://superuser.com/questions/985365/mobile-devices-given-name-of-occam-or-razor-when-viewing-network-in-windows/985392#985392 – karel Aug 20 '17 at 00:28