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gh403

Member

Registered: 2012-09-15

Posts: 23

Laptop temperature when plugged in

I have a Dell Inspiron 7520.  When I plug it in and force the fan to low speed, the temperature (as reported by "i8kctl temp"--a Dell laptop utility) hovers around 67 degrees Celcius.  When I unplug the laptop (keeping the fan at the same speed), the temperature drops, in under 5 minutes, to around 58 degrees C.

What is causing this extra power consumption and how can I fix it?

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: Laptop temperature when plugged in

That is not a lot of information to go on.  Do you use something that changes setting depending on the power state of your laptop (like tlp or laptop-mode-tools)?  Have you looked into something that might give you info on what might be consuming a greater amount of power when on battery (like powertop)?  Do you actually know that more power is being consumed, or is it possible that you simply have greater thermal output because you are overriding the fan settings (which is never a good idea unless you are increasing the cooling levels, or really know what you are doing)?

gh403

Member

Registered: 2012-09-15

Posts: 23

Re: Laptop temperature when plugged in

Thanks for the prompt reply!

laptop-mode-tools is installed; I see that it is configured to disable laptop mode when plugged in (the default); I'll change that and give that a shot.  As for quantitative data, I have none.  I don't know how to read powertop reports very well, and I'm more concerned with the CPU speed being fiddled with (by what, I don't know) and things of that nature.  I've simply noticed that the fan runs at higher speeds when the computer is plugged in, especially when wireless radios (Bluetooth & Wi-Fi) are on.  i8kfan is the only way to get the fan quieter.

Any other advice would be great!

Last edited by gh403 (2013-09-11 23:17:05)