unprogrammed time out

[dougmack]

Strangeness is happening:  first, but not foremost, the Forum didn't recognize me--well, it knew my name, but it made me log in, which is not usual,
since I was up to now logged in forever.  Second, but still not foremost: Right after logging in after boot, frequently but not always, I get a black
notification, "Multimedia System  The audio playback device HDA Intel (ALC662 rev1 Analog) does not work. Falling back to"--but the audio works.
Now, the main thing: After some period of time--not measured, but less than about 1-1/2 hours, the screen goes black. The computer is still on, but
the monitor is black.  Nothing I do at the keyboard will bring it back to life--hitting return, or escape, or Alt+prtscrn +REISB, or anything. I have to
hit the shutoff switch on the machine, then turn it back on and boot up.  I have unchecked everything in Power Management, and also verified that
the settings in Screensaver are all greyed out. 
The Forum problem is new today, I think.  The audio complaint has been around for a week or so, and the time out to totality started yesterday.
Maybe after last system update, I'm not sure.  Before that, I had the Power Management set for 15 minutes screen darken, and 30 minutes
suspend session. That worked sometimes, and sometimes not--sometimes I could go to bed and in the morning the machine would still be up and
running, monitor and all. I'm baffled, and I don't have any idea what to do next.

--doug

[Rudge]

OK,, you have described several seemingly unrelated problems well.

You have not told us anything about what desktop you are using, how often you update or which problem we should address.

1 - "the Forum didn't recognize me--well, it knew my name, but it made me log in, which is not usual,"

2 - "Right after logging in after boot, frequently but not always, I get a black
notification, "Multimedia System  The audio playback device HDA Intel (ALC662 rev1 Analog) does not work. Falling back to"--but the audio works."

3 - "After some period of time--not measured, but less than about 1-1/2 hours, the screen goes black."

That's allot to tackle in one thread.  

[Just17]

I (using KDE) set the power button of the PC to "Shutdown".

This has saved me a couple of times when power went out and the PC stays on from the UPS but not the monitor.
Simply pressing the power button will shut down the PC properly - before the UPS runs out of juice.

I would guess that the same thing might work where the keyboard/mouse become unresponsive .....  ??


For the audio notification .....  try re-arranging the audio device in KDE - Hardware - Multimedia - Phonon so that the working device is at the top of the list for ALL audio sections.

[DeBaas]

For the screenblanking try this,  edit:
/home/[user]/.kde/Autostart/noblank.sh
to:

#!/bin/sh
xset s 0 0
xset dpms 0 0 0

now your screen and power saver are set to zero at startup and settings in the control panel(s) should work as expected.

(first make a backup noblank.sh)

[dougmack]

I posted all three problems in case they might be related. The one that is critical, of course, is the time-out.
To answer the questions:  I am running pclos 2012-12, KDE. Kernel: 3.2.18-pclos1.pae.bfs #1 SMP PREEMPT and KDE 4.9.5.
I upgrade regularly, probably twice a week, and I upgraded just about the time the time-out problem occurred, but I'm afraid I can't say
whether the problem started before or after the upgrade. I am using the Dutch repos.

I tried the fix that DeBaas proposed, but it did nothing.  For the record, there was no noblank.sh file before I added it.

I don't know where the routine proposed by Just17 is to be found, but that would not be much of an improvement over what I have to
do now. Also, there have been no power failures. (I do have a UPS on the computer, but if the power even glitched, the clock on my
microwave oven would surely be flashing zeros.)

Also, re the routine proposed by Just17: In the Control Center, under System, under Hardware>Sound card, are shown the two sound
demodulators in the system, the Intel which the notification complains about, and the nVidia, which is on the video card, and feeds
the HDMI port--only when running XP. Under Linux, it feeds nothing, even after a lot of attempted repair by a kind gentleman on this forum.
As it happens, the Intel is second, but I don't know how to move it. I could not find a sub-directory called phonon using the file-find utility,
so as to move it in the raw file. Anyway, this is only an annoyance--the soundcard works.

I ran a fsck -a before taking these actions, and found no errors.

--doug

[Just17]

As it happens, the Intel is second, but I don't know how to move it. I could not find a sub-directory called phonon using the file-find utility,

Configure your desktop - Hardware - Multimedia - Phonon on the left panel ..... select Intel on right and click on 'Prefer' to bring it up the list.

[dougmack]

OK, did the trick with the phonon, and put the (default) on the top (it was number 2, under another Intel entry). That makes no difference.
I still get the notification. At any rate, the audio still works. Since this is apparently not fixable, but doesn't actually do any harm, let's forget
about it.  I only posted it in case it was a symptom of something that made the machine time out.

--doug

 

[Just17]

OK, did the trick with the phonon, and put the (default) on the top (it was number 2, under another Intel entry). That makes no difference.
I still get the notification. At any rate, the audio still works. Since this is apparently not fixable, but doesn't actually do any harm, let's forget
about it.  I only posted it in case it was a symptom of something that made the machine time out.

--doug

 

Did you apply the new setting to all the audio options?     .....  Apply Device List to ....   at the bottom of the right panel.

[dougmack]

OK, followed the rest of the instructions, and now the notification did not come up--at least this time I rebooted. Thank you.

--doug

[Just17]

OK, followed the rest of the instructions, and now the notification did not come up--at least this time I rebooted. Thank you.

--doug

Good to hear 

[dougmack]

The notification is back.  I can live with it.  Please, somebody, tell me how to make the OS stop timing out!

Alternatively, tell me how to save all the Mozilla stuff--address book, filters (!) and FF bookmarks, and I will save my other files and
install a new system from scratch.  BTW, is the 64-bit system available now?

Thanx--doug

[Just17]

64 bit RC1 has just been released

Check   ~/.mozilla   to see if all your stuff is there .....  there is a ~/.thunderbird   folder for all the emails ....

[dougmack]

What do I have to do to get the 64-bit RC1? Unless there is something known not to work--which shouldn't be in a release
candidate--I might as well try it.  I assume the updates, as they come out, will fix whatever bugs are left.
Why not?  My existing version is not really functional anyway.

--doug

[Old-Polack]

What do I have to do to get the 64-bit RC1? Unless there is something known not to work--which shouldn't be in a release
candidate--I might as well try it.  I assume the updates, as they come out, will fix whatever bugs are left.
Why not?  My existing version is not really functional anyway.

--doug

Read this and follow the link in the announcement.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,112936.msg963908.html#msg963908