NUC8i7BEH4 boots only if CPU restricted.

[AndrewR]

NUC has been running Ubuntu flawlessly since I received it 8 months ago, then yesterday morning on boot it came up with the message "Could not install PciConfig handler for Root Bridge PCI0 (20170831/evrgnini-241)".

Not sure what was going wrong, I tried a recovery boot off USB or DVD, both of which failed with issues unpacking the ramdisk. I confirmed the USB, DVD, and hard drive all worked fine in other units.

I tried upgrading to the latest Visual BIOS (didn't help), and doing a reset to defaults (also didn't help).

Trying everything, I turned off Turbo Boost in the Processor Performance page, and it booted. However, about 5 minutes later it spontaneously shut down, refusing to respond to the power button until the power was removed and re-added.

After the second time this happened I also turned off Hyper-Threading, and since then it crashes only about once every hour or two, and does respond to the power button after dying. Note if it was a Linux panic I'd expect it to reboot, but it just stops.

It seems inconsistently related to CPU. Restoring all tabs on a web browser has a fairly high chance of causing it to die, but restoring the same pages one at a time does not (same memory, less multi-core CPU).

I don't think it's heat-related, because (a) the fan is still in the default Balanced mode and there's no increase in fan noise before it dies, and (b) typically it crashes within half a second of starting high-multi-CPU activity (video conferencing, restoring multiple browser tabs), which seems to fast for heat.

I have tried to rule out memory. The system has 2 memory DIMM's, I've tried running with only one (and done this with both) but the problem is consistent. Running command line tools that use a single core to exercise as much memory as possible ("memtester") doesn't crash it or report any errors.

I reduced the maximum number of cores from 4 to 2 and the problem hasn't recurred yet, but it's only been two hours.

Thoughts? Any ideas what might trigger the above?

[Esteban_D_Intel]

Hello ARuth1,

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.   

Do you have any update about how the unit is working with only two cores enabled? Do you experience the same behavior?

To better assist you I would appreciate if you could download and run the Intel® System Support Utility for the Linux* Operating System  and share results with me:

Intel® System Support Utility for the Linux* link  

1. Open the application and click on "Scan" to see the system and device information. By default, Intel® SSU will take you to the "Summary View".  
2. Click on the menu where it says "Summary" to change to "Detailed View".  
3. To save your scan, click on "Next", then "Save".  

Esteban D.  

Intel Technical Support Technician   

[AndrewR]

Unit's been running fine with only 2 cores enabled, currently been up 22.5 hours uninterrupted after at least 5 crashes yesterday after disabling TurboBoost and HyperThreading. (I lost count of the crashes before then!)

The output you requested is attached.

[Esteban_D_Intel]

Hello ARuth1,

We will review this report to update this thread as soon as possible 

Esteban D.  

Intel Technical Support Technician  

[Esteban_D_Intel]

Hello AndrewR,

I would like to provide an update on this thread.

After checking the report attached it seems to be in order.

It’s worth mentioning that the Intel® NUC Kit NUC8i7BEH is not fully validated with Linux* operating system. However, it should not crash or experience this behavior.

By any chance have you tried this unit with a validated operating system?

Please check the following articles with Supported Operating Systems for Intel® NUC Products.

I will be waiting for your response. 

Esteban D.

Intel Technical Support Technician

[Esteban_D_Intel]

Were you able to check the previous post?  

Let me know if you need more assistance.  

Esteban D. 

Intel Technical Support Technician  

[Esteban_D_Intel]

Hello ARuth1,

We have not heard back from you, so we will close this inquiry.

If you need further assistance, please post a new question.  

Esteban D. 

Intel Technical Support Technician