2.5.69 strange high tone on DELL Inspiron 8100

linux-2.5.69 (problem encountered since 2.5.67)
DELL Inspiron 8100
- Pentium3-M
- ESS Maestro3
- Intel chipset
- builtin eepro100
- builtin lucent winmodem (not used)
- builtin nVidia GeForce2 Go (yes happens without nvdia.com driver too)
- BIOS A15

using vanilla Debian GNU/Linux sid without incorporation of Debian's kernel-package mechanism.

ever since I've run ALSA's snddevices script to create the needed /dev entries the laptop creates a permanent low-volume high tone (beep-like, but definitely not sounding like a normal pc-speaker).

didn't happen with 2.5.x prior to running snddevices script and also doesn't happen with 2.4.x.

* I am not saying that this behaviour is ALSA related *
* just telling how it came into existence *

first I thought it has to be the "beep on init" issue Zach Brown also noted in the TODO-list in OSS maestro3.c. Zach told me to contact ALSA list or Takashi Iwai directly. I took the shortcut and tried to find out whether this could be ALSA maestro3.c (based off OSS maestro3.c) related and after some mailing with Takashi he concluded that it doesn't look like an ALSA problem.

now I tried again with 2.5.69 and also with a modified 2.5.69 that is basically ALSA CVS copied over vanilla 2.5.69.
without luck and while searching for an answer in #kernelnewbies William Lee "wli" Irwin III advised me to fire off a report to LKML.

description of the strange sound:
- high tone
- permanent
- happens before loading ALSA modules
- as I didn't DEBUG I couldn't see at which log-message (dmesg) the beep starts
- seems to come and go with HDD activity

* I am not in a position to say that this is a bug in the kernel *
* it just seems so to me *

thanks in advance for any helpful reply

.config (be warned about gmx.de webmailer signature at the end):

CONFIG_X86=y
CONFIG_MMU=y
CONFIG_UID16=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_ISA_DMA=y

CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y

CONFIG_SWAP=y
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
CONFIG_BSD_PROCESS_ACCT=y
CONFIG_SYSCTL=y
CONFIG_LOG_BUF_SHIFT=14

CONFIG_MODULES=y
CONFIG_MODULE_UNLOAD=y
CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD=y
CONFIG_OBSOLETE_MODPARM=y
CONFIG_KMOD=y

CONFIG_X86_PC=y
CONFIG_MPENTIUMIII=y
CONFIG_X86_CMPXCHG=y
CONFIG_X86_XADD=y
CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT=5
CONFIG_RWSEM_XCHGADD_ALGORITHM=y
CONFIG_X86_WP_WORKS_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_INVLPG=y
CONFIG_X86_BSWAP=y
CONFIG_X86_POPAD_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_GOOD_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_INTEL_USERCOPY=y
CONFIG_X86_USE_PPRO_CHECKSUM=y
CONFIG_PREEMPT=y
CONFIG_X86_TSC=y
CONFIG_X86_MCE=y
CONFIG_I8K=y
CONFIG_MICROCODE=y
CONFIG_X86_MSR=y
CONFIG_X86_CPUID=y
CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
CONFIG_MTRR=y
CONFIG_HAVE_DEC_LOCK=y

CONFIG_PM=y

CONFIG_APM=y
CONFIG_APM_DO_ENABLE=y
CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE=y
CONFIG_APM_DISPLAY_BLANK=y
CONFIG_APM_REAL_MODE_POWER_OFF=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_TABLE=y

CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP=y

CONFIG_PCI=y
CONFIG_PCI_GOANY=y
CONFIG_PCI_BIOS=y
CONFIG_PCI_DIRECT=y
CONFIG_PCI_LEGACY_PROC=y
CONFIG_PCI_NAMES=y
CONFIG_ISA=y
CONFIG_HOTPLUG=y

CONFIG_PCMCIA=m
CONFIG_CARDBUS=y
CONFIG_I82365=m
CONFIG_PCMCIA_PROBE=y

CONFIG_KCORE_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT=m
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC=m

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=m
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=m
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=4096

CONFIG_IDE=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
CONFIG_IDEDISK_MULTI_MODE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDESCSI=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y
CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y
CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ADMA=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PIIX=y
CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_MODES=y

CONFIG_SCSI=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR=y
CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SG=y

CONFIG_SCSI_CONSTANTS=y

CONFIG_NET=y

CONFIG_PACKET=y
CONFIG_NETFILTER=y
CONFIG_UNIX=y
CONFIG_INET=y
CONFIG_IP_MULTICAST=y
CONFIG_INET_AH=y
CONFIG_INET_ESP=y
CONFIG_INET_IPCOMP=y

CONFIG_IP_NF_CONNTRACK=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_FTP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_IRC=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TFTP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_AMANDA=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_IPTABLES=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_LIMIT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_MAC=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_PKTTYPE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_MARK=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_MULTIPORT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_TOS=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_ECN=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_DSCP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_AH_ESP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_LENGTH=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_TTL=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_HELPER=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_STATE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MATCH_CONNTRACK=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_FILTER=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_NEEDED=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_MASQUERADE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_REDIRECT=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_LOCAL=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_IRC=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_FTP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_TFTP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_AMANDA=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_MANGLE=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_TOS=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_ECN=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_DSCP=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_MARK=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_LOG=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_TARGET_ULOG=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_ARPTABLES=y
CONFIG_IP_NF_ARPFILTER=y

CONFIG_IPV6_SCTP__=y

CONFIG_NETDEVICES=y

CONFIG_DUMMY=m

CONFIG_NET_ETHERNET=y

CONFIG_NET_PCI=y
CONFIG_EEPRO100=m

CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y

CONFIG_HERMES=m
CONFIG_PLX_HERMES=m
CONFIG_PCI_HERMES=m

CONFIG_PCMCIA_HERMES=m
CONFIG_NET_WIRELESS=y

CONFIG_INPUT=y

CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=y
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_PSAUX=y
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_X=1024
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_Y=768

CONFIG_SOUND_GAMEPORT=y
CONFIG_SERIO=y
CONFIG_SERIO_I8042=y
CONFIG_SERIO_SERPORT=y

CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBOARD=y
CONFIG_KEYBOARD_ATKBD=y
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSE=y
CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2=y

CONFIG_VT=y
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_HW_CONSOLE=y

CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS=y
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTY_COUNT=256

CONFIG_NVRAM=y
CONFIG_RTC=y

CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y
CONFIG_EXT3_FS=y
CONFIG_EXT3_FS_XATTR=y
CONFIG_EXT3_FS_POSIX_ACL=y
CONFIG_JBD=y
CONFIG_FS_MBCACHE=y
CONFIG_FS_POSIX_ACL=y

CONFIG_ISO9660_FS=m
CONFIG_JOLIET=y
CONFIG_ZISOFS=y
CONFIG_ZISOFS_FS=m
CONFIG_UDF_FS=m

CONFIG_FAT_FS=m
CONFIG_MSDOS_FS=m
CONFIG_VFAT_FS=m
CONFIG_NTFS_FS=m

CONFIG_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_DEVPTS_FS=y
CONFIG_TMPFS=y
CONFIG_RAMFS=y

CONFIG_PARTITION_ADVANCED=y
CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y
CONFIG_NLS=y

CONFIG_NLS_DEFAULT="iso8859-1"
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_437=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_737=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_775=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_850=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_852=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_855=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_857=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_860=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_861=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_862=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_863=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_864=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_865=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_866=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_869=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_936=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_950=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_932=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_949=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_874=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_8=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_1250=m
CONFIG_NLS_CODEPAGE_1251=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_1=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_2=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_3=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_4=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_5=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_6=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_7=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_9=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_13=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_14=m
CONFIG_NLS_ISO8859_15=m
CONFIG_NLS_KOI8_R=m
CONFIG_NLS_KOI8_U=m
CONFIG_NLS_UTF8=m

CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y

CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y

CONFIG_SOUND=m

CONFIG_SND=m
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=m
CONFIG_SND_RTCTIMER=m

CONFIG_SND_MAESTRO3=m

CONFIG_KALLSYMS=y

CONFIG_CRYPTO=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_HMAC=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_NULL=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_MD4=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_MD5=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_SHA1=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_SHA256=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_SHA512=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_DES=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_BLOWFISH=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_TWOFISH=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_SERPENT=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_AES=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_DEFLATE=y
CONFIG_CRYPTO_TEST=y

CONFIG_CRC32=y
CONFIG_ZLIB_INFLATE=y
CONFIG_ZLIB_DEFLATE=y
CONFIG_X86_BIOS_REBOOT=y

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What happens if you mute the microphone and line in ?

how to do that prior to booting up the kernel? if I should do it later (after module loading, maybe on amixer init) I'd have to consult amixer manuals to see how that works first...

hmm according to alsamixer everything is "ZERO". see asound.state below.

what I found out right now is that when there is load (moving mailer windows around) the sound is gone and reappears if there's no load aka I stop moving mailer window (while typing this mail).

state.Dummy {
	control.1 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 100'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Master Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.2 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Master Capture Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.3 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 100'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Synth Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.4 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Synth Capture Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.5 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 100'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Line Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.6 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Line Capture Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.7 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 100'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.8 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Capture Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
	control.9 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 100'
		iface MIXER
		name 'CD Volume'
		value.0 52
		value.1 52
	}
	control.10 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'CD Capture Switch'
		value.0 false
		value.1 false
	}
}
state.VirMIDI {
}
state.PCI {
	control.1 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Master Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.2 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Master Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.3 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Master Mono Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.4 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Master Mono Playback Volume'
		value 0
	}
	control.5 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'PC Speaker Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.6 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 15'
		iface MIXER
		name 'PC Speaker Playback Volume'
		value 0
	}
	control.7 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Phone Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.8 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Phone Playback Volume'
		value 0
	}
	control.9 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.10 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Playback Volume'
		value 0
	}
	control.11 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Boost (+20dB)'
		value false
	}
	control.12 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Line Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.13 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Line Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.14 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'CD Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.15 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'CD Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.16 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Video Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.17 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Video Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.18 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Aux Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.19 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Aux Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.20 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'PCM Playback Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.21 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 31'
		iface MIXER
		name 'PCM Playback Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.22 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type ENUMERATED
		comment.item.0 Mic
		comment.item.1 CD
		comment.item.2 Video
		comment.item.3 Aux
		comment.item.4 Line
		comment.item.5 Mix
		comment.item.6 'Mix Mono'
		comment.item.7 Phone
		iface MIXER
		name 'Capture Source'
		value.0 Mic
		value.1 Mic
	}
	control.23 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'Capture Switch'
		value true
	}
	control.24 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 15'
		iface MIXER
		name 'Capture Volume'
		value.0 0
		value.1 0
	}
	control.25 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name '3D Control - Switch'
		value false
	}
	control.26 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type ENUMERATED
		comment.item.0 Mix
		comment.item.1 Mic
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mono Output Select'
		value Mix
	}
	control.27 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type ENUMERATED
		comment.item.0 Mic1
		comment.item.1 Mic2
		iface MIXER
		name 'Mic Select'
		value Mic1
	}
	control.28 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type INTEGER
		comment.range '0 - 3'
		iface MIXER
		name '3D Control Sigmatel - Depth'
		value 0
	}
	control.29 {
		comment.access 'read write'
		comment.type BOOLEAN
		iface MIXER
		name 'External Amplifier Power Down'
		value false
	}
}

Is this high tone comming out of external speakers or is it from internal speaker?

definitely not external speaker.
can't say whether there is an internal speaker it could come from. source of sound is right beneath the keyboard, and creating load aka moving an x11 window around produces funny patterns --> no high tone, it almost disappears, but just low-volume sound reacting to when I move the window around.
for a non-hardware-expert this is strange stuff.

That's the opposite of my Toshiba in any of the lower power modes.

When there's CPU activity, it emits a quiet high-pitched noise. When CPU activity stops, the noise stops. This doesn't happen in the maximum power usage mode (brigh screen, fastest clock), and I don't know if there's a way to turn it off.

-- Jamie

1) with SpeedStep enabled in BIOS and also enabled with software switching to full-speed mode turn down the volum a bit.

2) disabled SpeedStep in BIOS. init-scripts enabled speed step same behaviour as in 1)

funny side is that prior to booting 2.5 on the LILO prompt I listened and would bet that the same noise but very very quietly was still there.

rebooted with a reconfigured kernel to assure it's not cpufreq. same behaviour without cpufreq.
btw, I'm not 100% sure anymore now running 2.4 whether I really heard the same noise just quiet. hard to differentiate and also doesn't matter from my view as it doesn't annoy like the 2.5 noise effect.
--> if it's the same noise, it would be ok, as you don't hear it normally sitting in front of the box, but running 2.5 is not nice with that high-pitched tone.

You should perhaps try to enable/disable APM idle calls ..

Xav

disabling apm idle calls seem to fix it but on this notebook those calls are necessary so that it doesn't get too hot. or can ACPI be used to accomplish those calls?

I'm already running it always on SpeeStep power-saving mode so that it doesn't get REALLY hot. try typing on an Inspiron 8100 in the summer while compiling for a while. it's not healthy for your hands :D

besides fixing the noise issue by disabling a wanted feature, somehow pcmcia is borked, it just doesn't work and print lots of error messages and one of pcmcia processes (dunno which) segfaults.
may be my fault, who knows. well, we'll see...

well, I actually saw PCMCIA functioning properly after make clean'ing, recompiling and rebooting.
so no worries about that. now, off to find a replacement for "APM idle calls".

You can try cpufreqd (to set the cpu according to the usage).
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cpufreqd

I also use acpi performance states...

For instance on my laptop (Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 , 2Ghz) I have this on /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/performance :

[cioby@LNX cioby]$ cat /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/performance

state count:             2
active state:            P0
states:
   *P0:                  2000 MHz, 22000 mW, 250 uS
    P1:                  1200 MHz, 9800 mW, 250 uS

I often switch to performance state 1 even in if not running on battery. If I keep it in my lap, and do an kernel compile, I don't want my balls to get fryed :)

Cioby

exactly why I need it too except that I don't put it on my lap but my hands burn anyway. I hope not every laptop gets as hot as this one does.

do you
remember
http://www.google.de/search?q=cache:qGf0kfmazVgC:www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/22/1037697857595.html+&hl=de&ie=UTF-8
?

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Try this (which will make no difference to the effectiveness of APM on this machine):

Reasoning:
cpufreq and speedstep don't work on Dell P3 laptops anyway, and the *internal power supplies* of the i8x00 series make wierd noises when APM tries to idle the CPU. The board will do this anyway, without making noise, so linux need not.

Andrew

hmm, at least now I know where that strange sound comes from. I'm not quite sure that SpeedStep does not work,
with SpeedStep disabled in the BIOS the fans turned on again with cpu load. this doesn't happen with SpeedStep. so I suppose it works to some extent, right?

so what options should I set?
as I've already stated it's not bearable to do coding (incl. compiling) on this box without "Battery Optimized Mode" as SpeedStep calls it. on Linux I did that with a simple tool called speedstep. I've seen autospeedstep from Fritz Ganter which seems to use ACPI, dunno how that compares to cpufreqd.

anyway, this laptop is not-so-nice anyway, I'm just happy I didn't buy it but my employer did ;)

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Hi there...

Sounds like it to me. It certainly does not work on my i8000, but the 8100 is possibly different.

Hmm. Maybe the 8100 has working speedstep, then. I'd suggest you see if disabling just the APM idle calls, but leaving speedstep and cpufreq on makes the noise.

I have had no success whatever with ACPI on an i8000, but again an 8100 may be different.

Same here, and I mostly agree. Good price for such a nice screen, though (I have the 1600x1200 15" screen).

Andrew

one thing none of you most probably wants to hear:
if this "APM idle calls" is that "HLT" stuff, then I have to tell you that on win32 I had not such problems while using the CpuIdle tool. sorry.

as time permits. didn't mess around with ACPI or CpuFreq before.

may be, but for now somehow 2.5.69 segfaults in /etc/init.d/pcmcia :( could be the PCMCIA changes I read in the -69 changelog
quote: "don't unload PCMCIA"

ok, it happened while loading.
anyway, waiting for -70 or some -bk* patchset that fixes PCMCIA up

any PCMCIA fixes already available in linus -bk?

does CpuFreq depend on ACPI ? just in case i8k1 doesn't have proper ACPI support.

yep.

No, HLT on idle is always on in Linux. APM idle is a separate feature, which Windows never did (although Windows does do the equivalent thing with ACPI).

I don't know.

No, it doesn't depend on ACPI.

ok, so I'm unsubscribing now from LKML, as my problem seems to be fixed in some way or other.
thanks to all of you for your assistance.

Dell Latitude C840 (1.6G Pentium4 Mobile) has the "power supplies buzz at 1Khz on APM idle" symptom too. I haven't checked the ACPI side of the fence yet, nor have I gotten brave enough to try the cpufreq and speedstep stuff.

Even *more* bizarre, there's "something odd" done by the seti@home client (which usually causes 100% CPU use and thus silence) several minutes into a workunit that causes the noise to change frequencies - it will start down around 500hz, sweep up to 1Khz (taking about 2 seconds to do so), and repeat (so the buzzing is exhibiting a sawtooth wave). I'm not seeing any paging or swapping or I/O, so I'm wondering if it's some code walking through a large array with strides 1/2/4/8/16 (like an FFT) causing different cache hit ratios, and thus different power consumption patterns while it's stuck on a L1/L2 cache miss.....

AFAIK Speedstep should always work on P4M systems, so it's worth a try.

That's pretty bizzarre, I agree :-)

Probably it's an autocorrelation with a sliding offset. I'd guess that the reason the buzz starts at 500Hz and sweeps up is that if the frequency is below 500Hz you don't hear it. Maybe the RAM starts sucking more power as the cache hit ratio drops...

Andrew

My Dell Latitude C600 shows the exact same problem. I noticed it after upgrading to from RH7.x to RH8 with kernel 2.4.18-27.8.0. I believe this kernel is customized by RH to use HZ=500 or something in that region.

With your analysis of the problem I was able to remove the noise by using the "apm=idle-threshold=100" parameter on the kernel commandline. This turns off APM idle calls without requiring kernel recompilation.

Using the "i8k" kernel module, I have verified that the temperature of the CPU is unchanged with APM idle turned off. I have not tried to measure power consumption or battery use.

Thanks for the tip!

Troels Walsted Hansen

so, cool no need to turn that on at all then.
--> no kernel bug, just a case of bad internel psu inside an overpriced laptop :D

no problem. actually, I'm glad the thread I've started did help you and also myself to understand the problem.

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