Interrupt loop, and suspend

As mentioned earlier, the problem isn’t specific to HP laptops, nor to Linux Mint as the operating system. I currently also have it, or something similar, on a Clevo laptop bought in 2021 from Dutch computer shop BTO (‘Built To Order’), which markets it under their own brand name.

It has an Intel Core i3-10110U CPU. I run BunsenLabs GNU/Linux 12 (Boron) on it, and the Linux kernel is 6.1.135-1. Command dmidecode reports the presence of SMBIOS 3.2.0, vendor is INSYDE Corp., version 1.07.13, BIOS revision: 7.13, firmware revision: 7.5.

The problem is an endless loop of interrupt handling, which in process reporter top is visible as “kworker/0:2-kacpi_notify”, which occupies 15.3% of one processor core. There are two physical cores, allowing for 4 simultaneous threads.

This is not a heavy load of course, and indeed the computer remains quite responsive. However it does generate extra heat, and so drains the battery, seeing that after a few minutes the cooling fan starts working, like it normally never does for how I use the computer, with the rather light OS that Bunsenlabs Linux is.

The pci=noaer trick that I wrote about in the previous article, doesn’t work in this case. But strangely, after I put the laptop in suspense mode, and wake it up again (by pressing any key, specifically Ins, F12, or briefly pressing the On switch), the problem’s gone, and doesn’t return until the next boot.

No idea why, but it’s true. Perhaps this helps someone.