X220 Machine Check - Thermal [ Edited ]

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I have a new X220 with the updated 1.21 BIOS. I am running Linux on it and I periodically get MCE in the system logs - these were present when I ran Windows too. These only appear when the system is under load - when doing compilations, video encoding etc.

My question - is that normal with this laptop or should I be concerned? The MCEs all seem to be Thermal/Throttling related (as opposed to bad RAM for e.g.)

 2062.384597] CPU1: Core temperature/speed normal
[ 2062.384600] CPU2: Package temperature/speed normal
[ 2062.384602] CPU0: Core temperature/speed normal
[ 2062.384603] CPU3: Package temperature/speed normal
[ 2062.384605] CPU0: Package temperature/speed normal
[ 2062.384607] CPU1: Package temperature/speed normal
[ 2098.375910] [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged
[ 2362.011683] CPU0: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 32474)
[ 2362.011687] CPU3: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 35277)
[ 2362.011689] CPU1: Core temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 32474)
[ 2362.011692] CPU2: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 35277)
[ 2362.011694] CPU1: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 35277)
[ 2362.011697] CPU0: Package temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled (total events = 35277)
[ 2362.013644] CPU0: Core temperature/speed normal
[ 2362.013647] CPU3: Package temperature/speed normal
[ 2362.013649] CPU1: Core temperature/speed normal
[ 2362.013651] CPU2: Package temperature/speed normal
[ 2362.013653] CPU1: Package temperature/speed normal
[ 2362.013655] CPU0: Package temperature/speed normal
[ 2398.018594] [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged


[Amphibulus]

What is the value of the threshold?

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Amphibulus wrote:

What is the value of the threshold?

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Do you mean the temperature threshold? Where can I find that?

Thanks

[blinkingled · Accepted solution]

If I clamp down scaling_max_freq to 2.4Ghz the errors disappear. As a bonus I don't get the infrequent throttling related MCEs - ie no overheating. Sounds like the the machine is not designed to really work out the CPU/GPU at it's maximum capacity.

For anyone else with X220 running Linux and having MCE errors logged (package power limit) - do this -

for i in 0 1 2 3; do echo 2400000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu$i/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; done