Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

FlyingJay · 2016-07-15 23:38:51

Toshiba L350 laptop keeps shutting down because of the CPU overheating, despite tlp as described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TLP
Minor things like playing youtube video and several open browser tabs likely cause shutdown.

Why doesn't tlp help?
How to solve the problem?

dakota · 2016-07-16 00:45:21

wiki wrote:

TLP brings you the benefits of advanced power management for Linux without the need to understand every technical detail. TLP comes with a default configuration already optimized for battery life, so you may just install and forget it. Nevertheless TLP is highly customizable to fulfill your specific requirements.

I'm not sure I understand.

I'm not familiar with TLP, but from the wiki it sounds like a power management system intended to maximize battery life. How would you expect it to solve an over-heating problem?

FlyingJay · 2016-07-16 01:19:00

I actually found tlp through this article https://itsfoss.com/reduce-overheating-laptops-linux/ It claims that tlp prevents overheating.
Now I think this article gave me the false information.
thermald seems to be the package to try.

Edit:
No, the CPU AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 isn't supported by thermald.

Anybody knows how to prevent overheating then?

Last edited by FlyingJay (2016-07-16 01:35:19)

R00KIE · 2016-07-16 10:42:47

Check if the heatsink is not full of lint. Maybe remove the heatsink, clean it, apply new good quality thermal compound and check again. Make sure not to cover ventilation openings.

dakota · 2016-07-16 12:34:25

FlyingJay wrote:

Anybody knows how to prevent overheating then?

Is this a new problem? Or has your laptop always had cooling problems?

If it is new problem, I would check all the things that ROOKIE suggested. (Our laptops tend to collect cat hair.) Also check that the cooling fan is working.

If you have always had this problem, your laptop might have a poorly-designed cooling system and you might need to provide an external cooling system.

FlyingJay · 2016-07-16 18:15:37

dakota wrote:

Is this a new problem? Or has your laptop always had cooling problems?
If it is new problem, I would check all the things that ROOKIE suggested. (Our laptops tend to collect cat hair.) Also check that the cooling fan is working.
If you have always had this problem, your laptop might have a poorly-designed cooling system and you might need to provide an external cooling system.

This has always been this way, cleaning didn't help. This laptop model has poor heat sink design. But it was originally sold with Windows, Windows probably had some way to deal with this problem, otherwise everybody would have been returning it.

Now I am looking at "cpupower" package. It allows to get/set CPU frequency.
I know on FreeBSD there is "coretemp" kernel module that reads the CPU temperature.

Why can't there be a program that would monitor CPU temperature like "coretemp" module does, and adjust the CPU frequency like "cpupower" does?

dakota · 2016-07-16 19:07:11

Well.

I had no idea anything could be done on the software side to limit heat production! It looks like these products work by slowing down your computer (throttling back on CPU frequency) when the core temperature rises. Very interesting.

I did notice that there is a temperature controlling/CPU throttling script in the AUR. I have no idea how well it works, though. Might be worth a shot.

AUR wrote:

temp-throttle 2.20-1 -- A shell script for throttling system CPU frequency based on a desired maximum temperature.

FlyingJay · 2016-07-16 22:26:10

temp-throttle from AUR seems to work, thanks for finding it!

There is also https://github.com/aaronpuchert/throttle - this one isn't in AUR, but might also work.

It looks like temperature throttling is a must for some poorly made laptops to be usable.

This thread can be labeled as SOLVED.

Last edited by FlyingJay (2016-07-18 17:37:27)

Arch Linux

#1 2016-07-15 23:38:51

Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

#2 2016-07-16 00:45:21

Re: Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

#3 2016-07-16 01:19:00

Re: Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

#4 2016-07-16 10:42:47

Re: Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

#5 2016-07-16 12:34:25

Re: Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

#6 2016-07-16 18:15:37

Re: Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

#7 2016-07-16 19:07:11

Re: Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

#8 2016-07-16 22:26:10

Re: Laptop keeps shutting down despite tlp

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