CentOS 7 + Dell Latitude E6420 Laptop = Thermal Shutdown

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Hi,

Thanks for reading this.

I installed CentOS 7 (tried the latest ISO image and the previous build) on the laptop and got to the point where I am logging into the desktop environment and the laptop just shuts down. I check the event log in BIOS and find that a thermal event has occurred and the system powered off to prevent damage.

I can take the same laptop with Windows 7 installed and run graphically intensive tests for an hour solid and it doesn’t lock up. I installed Ubuntu 15.04 and that seemed solid too.

Is this a known issue with CentOS 7? Should I be using a particular boot option?

It does not seem to matter whether Gnome or KDE is chosen as the desktop environment.

Any help you can provide is appreciated.

Thanks.

8 thoughts on - CentOS 7 + Dell Latitude E6420 Laptop = Thermal Shutdown

  • I want to thank you for posting your installation experience with CentOS 7. My laptop is Latitude E6500 and I am quite certain it will experience the same issue because it is almost the same as your laptop. Difference might be in cpu speed and in RAM. My cpu is 2.81GHz dual core, and RAM is 8GB.

  • Install lm_sensors and use the “sensors” command to watch the fan speed.
    That might give you a direction to go with diagnosing the problem.

  • the E6x00, E6x10, and E6x20 are completely different generations of the Core I processors and chipsets. The x can be 4 (14″) or 5 (15″). so a E6520 and E6420 are nearly identical.

    the -00 were Core 2 Duo processors, with GM45 chipset.
    -10 were i5/i7 1st gen (3 digit) with QM57 chipset
    -20 were i3/i5/i7 2nd gen 2xxx with QM67 chipset
    -30 were i3/i5/i7 3rd gen 3xxx with QM77 chipset
    -40 are i3/i5/i7 4th gen 4xxx with QM87 chipset (these are current generation)

    each of these has a different set of choices for graphics, wifi, bluetooth, etc.

    so, no, what does or doesn’t work on a E6500 has little to do with what will or won’t work on a E6420.

    that said, these are very mainstream business laptops, I’d expect C7 to mostly work with them.

  • Thanks for the feedback. Did you have to install or configure any packages differently for the laptops than you would a desktop?

  • I use a dell e6420 as my daily laptop/workstation. It stays docked and on 24/7 while at home, often running multiple vms or docker containers. I’ve not experienced what you have described. The laptop does get a little warm during certain video conference meetings, I do not have any thermal shutdown events. I would check for fan function and speed, then firmware for possible related updates.

    If it helps, my specifics are (according to dmidecode):

    BIOS Information
    Vendor: Dell Inc.
    Version: A19
    Release Date: 06/24/2013
    System Information
    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Product Name: Latitude E6420
    Version: 01
    Base Board Information
    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Product Name: 032T9K
    Version: A01

  • Thanks for that. I have the laptop running now and am logged into a virtual console.

    dmidecode details for my laptop:

    BIOS Information
    Vendor: Dell Inc.
    Version: A21
    Release Date: 11/14/2013

    System Information
    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Product Name: Latitude E6420
    Version: 01

    Base Board Information
    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Product Name: 032T9K
    Version: A02

    I might try downgrading the BIOS version to see if that helps. I don’t know that I’ve tried doing that with Dell’s utility before, but I’ll give it a shot.

    I setup a short loop to append the output of /usr/bin/sensors to a log file and then call ‘sync’ just after.

    This is the last entry just before the system shut down:

    and this is the first entry just before I logged in:

    Looks like the system is a bit warm, but not overly so? So far I’ve not figured out how to check the fan speed. I’ll keep looking.