What is the next diagnostic step?

[DLoom]

tl;dl version: Bought a used laptop. Installed Fedora 22. System logs machine check events in Fedora Journal and fails IPDT.

I recently bought a used Toshiba Satellite P75-A with an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700MQ CPU @ 2.40GHz. I brought the system home, removed the HDD and installed an SSD, then installed Fedora 22. Over the next few days I saw some machine check events and discovered a mix of thermal events and other errors. I wasn't interested in disassembling and reassembling a laptop so I had a PC shop run a thermal diagnostic and reseat the heat sink with high quality thermal paste. This resolved the thermal issues although the processor can still run hotter than I like (Assuming lm_sensors is reporting accurate temperatures.) I did some investigation and downloaded the Linux bootable IPDT iso and ran it per instructions. The first test failed without any output. Through the process of elimination I found that the processor fails the PCH test. With this test disabled all of the remaining tests pass.

Where do I go from here? Is this a bad processor, a bad MB or both?

Here is a representative example of the machine check events that Fedora wrote to journalctl.

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Hardware event. This is not a software error.

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCE 0

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: CPU 0 BANK 5

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MISC 38a0000086 ADDR ff882100

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: TIME 1434691415 Thu Jun 18 22:23:35 2015

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCG status:

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi status:

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Uncorrected error

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi_MISC register valid

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi_ADDR register valid

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Processor context corrupt

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCA: corrected filtering (some unreported errors in same region)

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Generic CACHE Level-2 Generic Error

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: STATUS ae0000000040110a MCGSTATUS 0

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCGCAP c09 APICID 0 SOCKETID 0

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: CPUID Vendor Intel Family 6 Model 60

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Hardware event. This is not a software error.

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCE 1

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: CPU 0 BANK 6

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MISC 38a0000086 ADDR ff881e40

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: TIME 1434691415 Thu Jun 18 22:23:35 2015

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCG status:

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi status:

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Uncorrected error

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi_MISC register valid

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi_ADDR register valid

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Processor context corrupt

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCA: corrected filtering (some unreported errors in same region)

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Generic CACHE Level-2 Generic Error

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: STATUS ae0000000040110a MCGSTATUS 0

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCGCAP c09 APICID 0 SOCKETID 0

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: CPUID Vendor Intel Family 6 Model 60

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Hardware event. This is not a software error.

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCE 2

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: CPU 0 BANK 8

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MISC 38a0000086 ADDR ff881fc0

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: TIME 1434691415 Thu Jun 18 22:23:35 2015

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCG status:

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi status:

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Error overflow

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Uncorrected error

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi_MISC register valid

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCi_ADDR register valid

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Processor context corrupt

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCA: corrected filtering (some unreported errors in same region)

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: Generic CACHE Level-2 Generic Error

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: STATUS ee0000000040110a MCGSTATUS 0

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: MCGCAP c09 APICID 0 SOCKETID 0

Jun 18 22:23:35 xanadu mcelog[857]: CPUID Vendor Intel Family 6 Model 60

Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool from the Linux Bootable ISO.

--- IPDT64 - rev 2.20.0.0.L.MP ---

--- Start Time: 06/20/2015 14:02:13---

--- Skipping Config ---

--- Reading CPU Manufacturer ---

Expected --> GenuineIntel

Detected --> GenuineIntel

Found --- Genuine Intel Processor ---

--- Temperature Test ---

Temperature Test Passed!!!

Temperature = 40 degrees C below maximum.

--- Reading Brand String ---

Detected Brand String:

Intel Core i7-4700MQ 2.40GHz

Brand String Test Passed!!!

--- Reading CPU Frequency ---

Expected CPU Frequency is --> 2.40

Detected CPU Frequency is --> 2.39223

CPU Frequency Test Passed!!!

--- FSB NOT Supported on this Processor ---

--- Running Base Clock test ---

Detected Base Clock --> 104

Base Clock test Pass ---

..QPI rate Test not supported..

..Skipping QPI rate Test..

Skipping QPI rate Test

--- Running Floating Point test ---

Million Floating Points per Second, MFLOPS --> 403.2

Floating Point Test Pass ---

--- Running Prime Number Generation Test ---

Operation Per Second--> 4.65205e+06

Prime Number Generation Test Pass ---

--- Reading Cache Size ---

- Detected L1 Data Cache Size --> 4 x 32

- Detected L1 Inst Cache Size --> 4 x 32

- Detected L2 Cache Size --> 1024

- Detected L3 Cache Size --> 6144

Cache Size Test Passed!!!

--- Determining MMX - SSE capabilities ---

--- CPU FEATURES DETECTION FOR ---

--- MMX SSE ---

MMX - MMX Supported --> Yes

SSE - SSE Supported --> Yes

SSE2 - SSE2 Supported --> Yes

SSE3 - SSE3 Supported --> Yes

SSSE3 - SSSE3 Supported --> Yes

SSE4.1 - SSE4.1 Supported --> Yes

SSE4.2 - SSE4.2 Supported --> Yes

--- MMX SSE - capabilities check complete ---

MMX Test Result --- PASS

SSE Test Result --- PASS

SSE2 Test Result --- PASS

SSE3 Test Result --- PASS

SSSE3 Test Result --- PASS

SSE4.1 Test Result --- PASS

SSE4.2 Test Result --- PASS

MMX SSE Testing Passed !!

--- Determining AVX AES PCLMULQDQ capabilities ---

--- CPU FEATURES DETECTION FOR ---

--- AVX/AES/PCLMULQDQ ---

AVX - Advanced Vector Extensions Supported --> Yes

AVX OS Support - AVX Operating System Supported --> Yes

AES - Advanced Encryption Standard Supported --> Yes

PCLMULQDQ - Polys Carry-Less Multiply Supported --> Yes

--- AVX AES PCLMULQDQ capabilities check complete ---

AVX Compare Test ...

[Allan_J_Intel1]

If your processor fails running the processor diagnostic tool, I would recommend downloading the latest BIOS for your computer. The BIOS may have fixed some thermal issues. If you still experienced same problem, I recommend contacting computer manufacturer to see if you could honor warranty for your processor or laptop model.

Allan.

[DLoom]

BIOS Updated from 1.4 to 1.6. Processor still fails IPDT PCH test. Passes all the others. Doubt there is any warranty remaining on this system.

A kudos to Toshiba for distributing a bootable ISO with the BIOS update. It made updating a Linux system much easier than expected.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

I would recommend contacting Toshiba and check if you have any warranty for your processor.

http://support.toshiba.com/ http://support.toshiba.com/

Allan.

[DLoom]

Used laptop bought at a pawn shop (Now I know why it was hocked.) Warranty expired last February. Can anyone tell me if this is a problem with the processor or the chipset on the MB or both? If the problem can be fixed by replacing the MB I'll price it out. (Toshiba charges around four hundred for this on out of warranty products.)