Arch Linux

minedev

Member

Registered: 2014-06-26

Posts: 2

SSD heat problem - no fan control

Hi,
I already searched a complete night and didn't find anything, so you guys are my last hope. I installed Arch about a month ago on my new SSD as my new favorite OS, setting up Gnome was no problem at all.
After a month now, I notice my SSD getting really warm when Arch is idle. I thought this might be related to some search indexing, but I turned that off in the gnome-control-center. Also my fan isn't running at full speed, it sometimes just blows out a little air, so I guess it might be related to Arch's minimum and maximum temperature. So I tried the fan control tutorial from the wiki, but pwmconfig doesn't list a fan control. sensors-detect only lists this:

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +55.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:         +53.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:         +53.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2:         +53.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3:         +54.0°C  (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

asus-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
temp1:        +54.0°C  

radeon-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:            N/A 

I changed my grub command to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="net.ifnames=0 quiet acpi_osi=Linux acpi_enforce_resources=lax"

without any success at sensors-detect. pwmconfig doesn't show a new device either.

What really confuses me is, that if I boot my laptop with Damn Small Linux from a usb pendrive, the fan goes up to 9000% of the usual speed, no harddrive heating at all, everything is getting cooler than ever.
I also checked the runlevel-scripts in DSL, but I didn't find something about the fan speed.

My laptop is a ASUS K53SV with default mainboard and chipsets, I only replaced the originial HDD with a SSD.

Does somebody have an idea how I can stop overheating my SSD or at least turn up my fan to cool it?
I'm quite desperate, so I'm thankfull for every answer given.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,671

Re: SSD heat problem - no fan control

It has been suggested to move this to Kernel and Hardware.  Not a newbie issue.
Moving...

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R00KIE

Forum Fellow

From: Between a computer and a chair

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 4,734

Re: SSD heat problem - no fan control

I would run iotop and check if anything is using the ssd. I don't have much experience with ssds but you say problems started a month after install, maybe the ssd is working on background garbage collection if you didn't enable trim.

You could try booting with live media and see if the ssd still gets warm, it would tell if it's something with your install or something wrong with the hardware.

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Pse

Member

Registered: 2008-03-15

Posts: 415

Re: SSD heat problem - no fan control

Are you sure it is overheating? What temps does smartctl report? Have you opened your laptop to check for dust?

minedev

Member

Registered: 2014-06-26

Posts: 2

Re: SSD heat problem - no fan control

Thanks for your tips, I've been on a business trip this week, so I wasn't able to answer, sorry.
According to iotop my SSD isn't in use, and I also checked TRIM, I already activated it via /etc/fstab:

/dev/sda3           	/         	ext4      	defaults,noatime,discard	0 1

And I checked smartctl:

~ $ sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda | grep Temp
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0000   041   053   000    Old_age   Offline      -       43 (Min/Max 18/53)
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   041   053   000    Old_age   Always       -       43 (Min/Max 18/53

The temperature is actually rising, shortly after boot I had 39°C, now about 15 minutes later I already have 43°C.
Today I'm going to clean my fan and see if there's dust in it. I don't think there will be much, because I do this about every month, but I'll give it a shot. Also, when I boot into Windows 7, the SSD stays cool (Windows is on /dev/sda2).

Pse

Member

Registered: 2008-03-15

Posts: 415

Re: SSD heat problem - no fan control

If temps stay at 43ºC, I personally wouldn't worry too much about it (43ºC is definitely an acceptable temp for a SSD). If you still want to get lower temps, you may want to investigate the differences between DSL's kernel and Arch's.

BTW, what's the SSD temp on Windows?

Last edited by Pse (2014-08-02 18:07:03)