Fix Acer Aspire ONE Ubuntu "Freezing" Issue (Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04)

Previously, I was looking at Official Ubuntu help page for Acer Aspire series for help but it didn't really work at all. It told us to set the following:

intel_idle.max_cstate=3

I have turned to add the following option to the boot parameters to solve system freezing when the power is connected:

intel_idle.max_cstate=1

Just add it to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT string in /etc/default/grub.

$
$
$ sudo update-grub
$ sudo reboot now
$
$

c_state = 1 makes CPU running at full power and not falling asleep anymore. It's such a power hunger setting for battery life but it fixed the random freeze issue.

For more advanced option of C state which may suits different CPUs categories. Please check:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-cpu-c-states-power-saving-modes/

Quickfix: Boot up screen stuck with spin freezes after Mac OS Sierra upgrade

After a major upgrade of Mac OS Sierra, my MacBook didn't boot up anymore. It freezes on the grey screen with dead spinning wheel.

After checking any non-apple Kext module in Safe mode and fixing any disk error in DiskUtility in Recovery mode, I nearly have no clue on what's happening to the hard drive.

Here come across 7 steps which can be useful for anyone who cannot resolve the boot up problem after upgrading to Sierra.

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Press the power button to start up your Mac.
3. Immediately Hold down Command-S for single-user mode.
4. On the terminal window Type fsck –fy and press return
5. Type mount –uw and press return
6. Type touch /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone and press return
7. Type exit and press return

Through Steps 1 to 3, you should have launched your Mac on a Single user mode.

In Step 3, the screen shows up the raw booting messages which show clearly what is running behind the scene.

Steps 4 to 7 will help check for file system consistency and remount the boot volume.

Regarding Step 6, what's point of creating empty file .AppleSetupDone?
Every time OS X boots, it checks for the existence of a file known as .AppleSetupDone. This empty file is created after the completion of Setup Assistant. It doesn't exist on a brand-new, out-of-the-box Mac, nor on one that has had a clean installation of OS X.
By removing this file, OS X will assume that Setup Assistant has never been run and will launch it as soon as OS X boots.
Setup Assistant is also run with root privileges, which is why it can create a new user account with administrator privileges without the need for any authorisation.

As I have gone through the wizards of Setup Assistant before bootup problem is encountered. I have not seen any wizard of Setup Assistant again.

After step 7, my MacBook booted into the logon screen which I usually see. I quickly login, and then restart it to see if things are working again. Finally, it booted up quickly and successfully to logon screen and let me login as usual.

As of writing, I can boot back into my Mac OS Sierra v10.12.2.

[RESOLVED] Slow Windows 7 Guest VM after upgrade to SP1

VMware has pointed out that VMware Workstation prior to version 7.1.4 is known to have problem with Windows 7 Host upgraded to Service Pack 1 (SP1).

So, what about Windows 7 Guest VM equipped with SP1? I have my PC installed VMware 7.1.3 which only allows the administrator to perform any upgrade on it. Thanks to the company policy.

After the upgrade of Guest VM to SP1, Guest VM nearly caused the system to hang for minutes to do simple tasks and a high CPU usage at all time. People blamed on VMware's memory optimization feature which is enabled by default to optimize Guest VM memory consumption.

Temporary solution would be adding the following line into config.ini file located at C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation:

vmmon.disableHostParameters = TRUE


This turns off VM memory optimization feature and some other possible host configurable features. After saving the change onto config.ini file, a clean reboot on hosting system is recommended.

Now, your favourite Win7 SP1 Guest VM should be back on track with presumably high performance.

Reference:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1036185