Hi, i've got a big problem using KDE on Dell Vostro 3700 Laptop.

The thing is that on AC power everything works fine but on battery laptop freezes and i can only make hard reset.

Is there some alternative to power manager used in KDE? I've tried to hunt application that causes it but nothing have changed. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it freezes on battery over and over.

Please help

That looks like a hardware problem. How old is your battery? Is there any error message when you run the command "dmesg"?

Battery has maybe a Year, dmesg gives a lot of data...

http://justpaste.it/xy7

Before KDE i used LXDE, it was ok but now after login and changing to battery there is freeze too.

Tried second battery but it gives the same freeze.

So i think it must be some software problem.

Currently in synaptics i can see: upower and pm-utils <- the same laptop with Mint got this problem before, with pm-utils it freezes so i add upower. Now there are two of them maybe that is the problem...

pm-utils is here from KDE installation?

you can use pm-utils and upower at the same time, they do different things. pm-utils is not part of KDE, it is used to trigger the suspend action in the kernel (upower just inform you about acpi events, like pressing the power button). Maybe acpi is not stable with your notebook, that used to happen with several notebooks some long ago.

hmmm, fine, so how can i work on battery now? With LXDE i could work without problems, KDE mess up?

KDE works on battery but its sometimes 5 sec after login, sometimes a half battery then freezes, LXDE does the same, freezes after radome time.

In OpenBox i could work without problems. I can't remove pm-utils or upower because it will remove kde desktop...

Any ideas? Thank You in advance

Can you verify that your system is not attempting to perform a suspend when it freezes?

It freezes when i'am working. So its not a problem with suspend action.

Another test on OpenBox shows that it works perfectly (mean no freeze at all on battery). So it must be a problem with power manager actually on KDE packages...

Next test was on KDE without AC power, some times freezes, some times not. It can work a half of battery power without freeze then it freeze. I tried work with ot without some applications: Chrome, Firefox, Radiotray, Pidgin, Skype, Kopete, Qutecom.... Anything that i used to work with. So there is no influence of those apps on freeze. It just freezes.

So I'am concered now that it's fault of pm-utils but i can't remove it without removing all KDE desktop packages... Is there a way to remove it manually or replace it?

Open System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Service Manager. Uncheck Power Management, then logout and back in again and see if this makes a difference.

Done, I'll try how it works now.

Nothing, still freezes. The strange thing is that when i'am out of the city in mountains, i can work without of any problems on battery. When i'am back it freezes again... How it is possible?

Next thing to check here is what is different?
Is your computer, when on battery connected to a dock, or using hardware that it will not be using when in the mountains?

Best guess for me would be the Wifi. Which manufacturer made your wifi card?

Code: Select all

lspci | grep -i net

12:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
13:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)

No i think it is not it. After all i checked it in the city, it works on a battery fine only at morning start of pc. In the middle of day, after recharging it freezes after turning power off. It looks like the impact is also on the brightness of screen....

Strange

Could you try adjusting the clock when it freezes during the day, to a time during the morning - to see if that is related?

No it's not related, and it freezes on battery even on first start. Sometimes it can work for all battery capacity, then i plug AC an unpluggin it causes freeze. But there is no rule for that. It freezes, in the morning, afternoon and night without warning. CPU monitors shows nothing before freeze... On AC works perfectly... And it's not related to brightness setting as i thought before.

What type of graphics card and driver is your system using?
I am suspecting that the graphics driver is related to this, given that KDE uses Desktop Effects and LXDE wouldn't (unless you use Compiz for instance).

Also, have you tried disabling Desktop Effects?