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Re: Laptop randomly reboots

On 01/20/2017 11:35 PM, David Christensen wrote:



Looking at the data sheet for your computer:


http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/content/pdf/system_data/t520_tech_specs.pdf



It covers three variants:

1.  ThinkPad® T520 4243 (Onsite)

2.  ThinkPad® T520 4243 (Optimus) - Onsite

3.  ThinkPad® T520i 4239 (TopSeller)


All three say:

    Memory

        8GB max7 / PC3-10600 1333MHz DDR3, non-parity,
        dual-channel capable, two 204-pin SO-DIMM sockets

    See footnotes for more detailed information


I can't find the footnotes.


It appears that you have exceeded the manufacturer's specifications.


Why do you believe installing two 8 GB memory modules will work in this
computer?


What operating system are you running?


Have you installed any software other than official Debian binary packages?


Some ideas:

1.  Put identifying marks/ sequential numbers on items that otherwise
look the same -- memory modules, SATA cables, adapter cards, etc..

2.  Keep detailed notes in a plain text file using a method that allows
access from multiple computers.  (I use CVS over SSH, with the
repository on my file server.)

3.  If everything is per the specifications, and module X in slot A and
module Y in slot B results in problems, swapping the modules sometimes
solves the problem.  This has worked for me more than once.

4.  I once built a computer with what appeared to be an infrequent
memory problem.  memtest86 ran for over a day before finding one error.

5.  I once upgrade a computer from 2 @ 256 MB memory modules to 2 @ 1
GB, and encountered memory problems.  I had another machine with the
same motherboard, 2 @ 512 MB memory modules, and no problems.  I swapped
memory between the two machines and both computers worked fine.


David
Ah yes, the docs for this model are actually screwed up. When first released, the chipset did in fact not support anything over 8GB (it would simply not be seen). However they updated the motherboard to support quad core i7. That also came with 16gb support built in. You can google "T520 16GB" and read all up on that.
I worked at a small office a few years ago when the T520 was still for sell and the whole office was populated with the bare bones model of these (crappy screen and 4gb of ram). All the employees went out and bought 8gb sticks and stuck them in, some bought 2 sticks. So the whole office had T520's with either 12GB or 16GB of ram. I don't ever recall there being any issues.
The only difference with this T520 and the ones back then is BIOS version, it has the i7 quad core while their's was all dual core, and this used motherboard (which I should note when I installed it, it had quite a bit of corrosion on it, either from a spill or condensation damage. So I already don't really trust it...)
But other than normal RAM testing tips (which I have already done a bunch of), what I am really curious about is why does the machine suddenly reboot? I've had genuine RAM issues in the past. On Windows you'd get a blue screen. On Linux, you'd get the kernel panic screen. But right now I get a hard reboot. So does the kernel now reboot on panic or something? How do I tell? Those are basically the questions I have. 

Regards,
Samuel
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