Power problems

[wintermute]

I recently upgraded from 12.10 to 13.04, and I have two problems that unfortunately exacerbate each other:

1) The system doesn't start properly with the 3.8 kernel; I need to go into grub and choose the 3.5 kernel, or I just get a noise-like pattern across the screen.

2) I prefer to leave my system running constantly, and that's never been a problem before, but now it shuts down after being unused for a while; it's hard to tell how long or what's happening as (by definition) it only happens when I'm asleep or out of the house.

Has anyone else had these problems? How did you solve them?

Thanks.

[wintermute]

As these type of problems are likely hardware dependent you might want to inform us what you are running.
Brand and type of computer or when a desktop the motherboard and CPU.
The type of video card and the drivers installed.

I have had it shut down on me while I'm actively using it now, and there's no warning that anything's about to happen, but it does seem to be running hot, so that may well be the problem there.

It's a Pangolin Perfomance (series 7 - not the current iteration) laptop from System 76.

Graphics card: (from lspci)

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV710/M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4530/4570/545v] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: CLEVO/KAPOK Computer Device 0770
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 43
        Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
        Memory at cfef0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at cfe00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: radeon
        Kernel modules: fglrx, radeon

Motherboard: (from dmidecode)

        Manufacturer: CLEVO                            
        Product Name: W76x/M77xCUH                      
        Version: Not Applicable                    
        Serial Number: Not Applicable                    
        Asset Tag: Tag 12345
        Features:
                Board is a hosting board
                Board is replaceable
        Location In Chassis: Not Applicable
        Chassis Handle: 0x0003
        Type: Motherboard
        Contained Object Handles: 1
                0x0000

CPU: (from dmidecode)

        Socket Designation: CPU 1
        Type: Central Processor
        Family: Core i7
        Manufacturer: Intel
        ID: 55 06 02 00 FF FB EB BF
        Signature: Type 0, Family 6, Model 37, Stepping 5
        Flags:
                FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
                VME (Virtual mode extension)
                DE (Debugging extension)
                PSE (Page size extension)
                TSC (Time stamp counter)
                MSR (Model specific registers)
                PAE (Physical address extension)
                MCE (Machine check exception)
                CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
                APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
                SEP (Fast system call)
                MTRR (Memory type range registers)
                PGE (Page global enable)
                MCA (Machine check architecture)
                CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
                PAT (Page attribute table)
                PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
                CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
                DS (Debug store)
                ACPI (ACPI supported)
                MMX (MMX technology supported)
                FXSR (FXSAVE and FXSTOR instructions supported)
                SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
                SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
                SS (Self-snoop)
                HTT (Multi-threading)
                TM (Thermal monitor supported)
                PBE (Pending break enabled)
        Version: Genuine Intel(R) CPU
        Voltage: 3.3 V
        External Clock: 133 MHz
        Max Speed: 3200 MHz
        Current Speed: 2660 MHz
        Status: Populated, Enabled
        Upgrade: Slot 1
        L1 Cache Handle: 0x0005
        L2 Cache Handle: 0x0006
        L3 Cache Handle: 0x0007
        Serial Number: Not Specified
        Asset Tag: Not Specified
        Part Number: Not Specified
        Core Count: 2
        Core Enabled: 2
        Thread Count: 4
        Characteristics:
                64-bit capable

[wintermute]

No proprietary drivers seem to be in use.

[wintermute]

I do appreciate the help, but I really don't appreciate the condescension.

Nothing stopped me from doing that, and seeing that there were no proprietary drivers shown there.