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#1 2021-10-22 14:17:39

p_noumenon
Member
Registered: 2021-10-22
Posts: 22

thermald not doing its job

Not sure if this is the right place for this at all, so feel free to move it.

Earlier this year I bought a laptop with fanless cooling, but that doesn't seem to work very well, and the computer easily overheats. This is typically not a problem as long as I take some precautions, but if I want to do certain things, such as playing certain games, or even watching 60 fps videos on YouTube, it very quickly rises above 100 °C, to the point where the computer shuts down (around 105 °C I believe).

To counteract this, I searched around and found out that there's a service that's supposed to be able to mitigate this by throttling the CPU and taking certain other measures in order to keep it from overheating, namely thermald.

I installed it and got it up and running, and while it was supposed to work without any configuration, it never did, and my computer kept overheating and crashing. I gave up on it, and left it running in the hopes that maybe it was doing something regardless (it's still running to this day), but recently I've been wanting to fix this problem again.

Does anyone have any pointers as to why it's not working, or alternatively how to configure it to get it to work?

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#2 2021-10-22 15:21:44

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,427

Re: thermald not doing its job

What are your exact specs? thermald can't work magic, and if you have any other reason that leads to an overheat, e.g. a dedicated graphics card that's always active or so.

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#3 2021-10-22 15:37:03

icar
Member
From: Catalunya
Registered: 2020-07-31
Posts: 442

Re: thermald not doing its job

Have you tried to check if it outputs errors?

sudo systemctl status thermald

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#4 2021-10-22 16:07:53

p_noumenon
Member
Registered: 2021-10-22
Posts: 22

Re: thermald not doing its job

V1del wrote:

What are your exact specs? thermald can't work magic, and if you have any other reason that leads to an overheat, e.g. a dedicated graphics card that's always active or so.

What specs in particular are you thinking of?

Here's the output of lscpu:

Architecture:            x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):        32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:         39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:            Little Endian
CPU(s):                  4
  On-line CPU(s) list:   0-3
Vendor ID:               GenuineIntel
  Model name:            Intel(R) Pentium(R) Silver N5000 CPU @ 1.10GHz
    CPU family:          6
    Model:               122
    Thread(s) per core:  1
    Core(s) per socket:  4
    Socket(s):           1
    Stepping:            1
    CPU max MHz:         2700.0000
    CPU min MHz:         800.0000
    BogoMIPS:            2189.00
    Flags:               fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology n
                         onstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave rdrand lahf_lm 3dnowprefetch cpui
                         d_fault cat_l2 pti cdp_l2 ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp ibrs_enhanced tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase tsc_adjust sgx smep erms mpx rdt_a rdseed smap clflushopt intel_pt sha_ni xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 
                         xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts umip rdpid md_clear arch_capabilities
Virtualization features: 
  Virtualization:        VT-x
Caches (sum of all):     
  L1d:                   96 KiB (4 instances)
  L1i:                   128 KiB (4 instances)
  L2:                    4 MiB (1 instance)
NUMA:                    
  NUMA node(s):          1
  NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0-3
Vulnerabilities:         
  Itlb multihit:         Not affected
  L1tf:                  Not affected
  Mds:                   Not affected
  Meltdown:              Mitigation; PTI
  Spec store bypass:     Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Spectre v1:            Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Spectre v2:            Mitigation; Enhanced IBRS, IBPB conditional, RSB filling
  Srbds:                 Not affected
  Tsx async abort:       Not affected

And here's the output of lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake Host Bridge (rev 03)
00:00.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Processor Participant (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation GeminiLake [UHD Graphics 605] (rev 03)
00:0c.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCH CNVi WiFi (rev 03)
00:0e.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor High Definition Audio (rev 03)
00:0f.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Trusted Execution Engine Interface (rev 03)
00:12.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor SATA Controller (rev 03)
00:13.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCI Express Root Port (rev f3)
00:13.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCI Express Root Port (rev f3)
00:13.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCI Express Root Port (rev f3)
00:14.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCI Express Root Port (rev f3)
00:14.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Gemini Lake PCI Express Root Port (rev f3)
00:15.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:16.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO I2C Host Controller (rev 03)
00:16.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO I2C Host Controller (rev 03)
00:16.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 31b0 (rev 03)
00:16.3 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 31b2 (rev 03)
00:17.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 31b4 (rev 03)
00:17.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 31b6 (rev 03)
00:17.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 31b8 (rev 03)
00:17.3 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 31ba (rev 03)
00:18.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO UART Host Controller (rev 03)
00:18.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO UART Host Controller (rev 03)
00:18.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO UART Host Controller (rev 03)
00:18.3 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO UART Host Controller (rev 03)
00:19.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO SPI Host Controller (rev 03)
00:19.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO SPI Host Controller (rev 03)
00:19.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Serial IO SPI Host Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor LPC Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 SMBus: Intel Corporation Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor Gaussian Mixture Model (rev 03)

There's no dedicated graphics card, it's integrated. I understand that it can't work magic, but ideally I'd like to see if it could possibly use whatever means necessary to keep temperatures around 90 °C or so, even if at the cost of throttling the CPU hard.

icar wrote:

Have you tried to check if it outputs errors?

sudo systemctl status thermald

I've checked, it mentions that I have no configuration file (as I mentioned), but also something about a sensor having "no temp sysfs for reading raw temp", not exactly sure what that's referring to, if it were an error I would assume the daemon would halt:

$ systemctl status thermald
● thermald.service - Thermal Daemon Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/thermald.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-10-22 16:27:38 CEST; 1h 36min ago
   Main PID: 10287 (thermald)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 8917)
     Memory: 1.2M
        CPU: 3.894s
     CGroup: /system.slice/thermald.service
             └─10287 /usr/bin/thermald --systemd --dbus-enable --adaptive

Oct 22 16:27:38 jane systemd[1]: Started Thermal Daemon Service.
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: 24 CPUID levels; family:model:stepping 0x6:7a:1 (6:122:1)
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: 24 CPUID levels; family:model:stepping 0x6:7a:1 (6:122:1)
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: Polling mode is enabled: 4
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: sensor id 9 : No temp sysfs for reading raw temp
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: sensor id 9 : No temp sysfs for reading raw temp
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: sensor id 9 : No temp sysfs for reading raw temp
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: Config file /etc/thermald/thermal-conf.xml does not exist
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: Config file /etc/thermald/thermal-conf.xml does not exist
Oct 22 16:27:38 jane thermald[10287]: Config file /etc/thermald/thermal-conf.xml does not exist

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#5 2022-12-23 11:53:24

p_noumenon
Member
Registered: 2021-10-22
Posts: 22

Re: thermald not doing its job

Revisiting this thread because I never got to the bottom of it. Still struggling with my computer overheating and shutting down on a regular basis due to it being fanless and not having a dedicated video card. I assume throttling would negatively affect performance in e.g. some simple games anyway, but it would be great to try.

Does anyone have any idea about what I can try, or how to properly configure thermald?

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#6 2022-12-23 13:01:11

Erus_Iluvatar
Wiki Admin
Registered: 2010-04-01
Posts: 122

Re: thermald not doing its job

A quick search shows you're not the only one with this kind of issues, and even on Windows it can manifest itself.
The N5000 has a 6W TDP: it really should not need a fan to be properly cooled. What's the exact laptop model you're having issues with?
Skimming through the man page for thermald, it looks like there is a tool to create an automatic configuration file: dptfxtract. Did you try using it?
If you are still under guarantee and the issue also shows up on Windows, I would return the laptop if I were you.


I'm french, don't mind my mistakes in english.

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#7 2022-12-23 13:27:25

p_noumenon
Member
Registered: 2021-10-22
Posts: 22

Re: thermald not doing its job

Well, perhaps it shouldn't need it, but empirically speaking it does happen. The laptop is a custom build from a leading manufacturer here, so it's not mass-produced, at least not in the sense of many other manufacturers.

I did not try using that, no, didn't know it existed. And no idea if it happens on Windows or not.

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#8 2022-12-23 13:40:33

3beb6e7c46a615a
Member
Registered: 2021-03-27
Posts: 165

Re: thermald not doing its job

I don't think it'll help. thermald does this by itself, see https://github.com/intel/dptfxtract

Thermald version 2.0 and later has in built parser for thermal tables. So this utility is not required.
Make sure that thermald "--adaptive" option is used.

This option is the default, see https://github.com/intel/thermal_daemon … service.in so thermald would already use the thermal tables of your hardware correctly.

I think if thermald doesn't work all you can do is throttle the CPU manually. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling

I guess returning the laptop is not an option anymore after a year?  I don't think it's right for it to shutdown due to over-heating, in particular if there's no dedicated GPU producing extra heat.  I'd very much expect the firmware to throttle the CPU automatically if there's too much heat, even before the operating system needs to step in.  At least, that's my experience with passively cooled laptops; I've never seen one shutting down due to overheating.

And worst case the firmware already does this, yet it still overheats to the point of shutting down.   That'd indicate a manufacturing issue, and it'd also explain why thermald has no effect.

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#9 2022-12-23 13:48:34

p_noumenon
Member
Registered: 2021-10-22
Posts: 22

Re: thermald not doing its job

lunaryorn wrote:

I don't think it'll help. thermald does this by itself, see https://github.com/intel/dptfxtract

Thermald version 2.0 and later has in built parser for thermal tables. So this utility is not required.
Make sure that thermald "--adaptive" option is used.

This option is the default, see https://github.com/intel/thermal_daemon … service.in so thermald would already use the thermal tables of your hardware correctly.

I think if thermald doesn't work all you can do is throttle the CPU manually. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling

I guess returning the laptop is not an option anymore after a year?  I don't think it's right for it to shutdown due to over-heating, in particular if there's no dedicated GPU producing extra heat.  I'd very much expect the firmware to throttle the CPU automatically if there's too much heat, even before the operating system needs to step in.  At least, that's my experience with passively cooled laptops; I've never seen one shutting down due to overheating.

And worst case the firmware already does this, yet it still overheats to the point of shutting down.   That'd indicate a manufacturing issue, and it'd also explain why thermald has no effect.

I did send them a few mails when I first got it and experienced the problem, but they told me they could only guarantee it wouldn't overheat using Windows, couldn't help me if I was using Linux.

Is there a way for me to determine if it's a manufacturing issue?

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#10 2022-12-23 14:03:37

3beb6e7c46a615a
Member
Registered: 2021-03-27
Posts: 165

Re: thermald not doing its job

Install Windows, do what you're doing on Linux to make it overheat, and see if it shuts down under Windows, too?    As far as I remember you're free to use Windows 10 for up to one month without activation; I think that's more than enough to reproduce the problem.

This won't determine whether it's actually a manufacturing issue, but if it shuts down under Windows too it'll at least convince your manufacturer to provide you with replacement hardware or refund you.

Last edited by 3beb6e7c46a615a (2022-12-23 14:05:31)

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#11 2022-12-23 14:07:38

p_noumenon
Member
Registered: 2021-10-22
Posts: 22

Re: thermald not doing its job

lunaryorn wrote:

Install Windows, do what you're doing on Linux to make it overheat, and see if it shuts down under Windows, too?    As far as I remember you're free to use Windows 10 for up to one month without activation; I think that's more than enough to reproduce the problem.

I guess I could try that at some point. I'm not sure if that conclusively shows it's a manufacturing issue, though, but maybe the company would take a look at it in that case. As for what I'm doing, simply watching YouTube in 720p is enough to make it overheat and shut down, despite the fact that I'm using hardware acceleration (before I turned on hardware acceleration watching YouTube at all very quickly overheated it).

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#12 2022-12-23 15:12:10

3beb6e7c46a615a
Member
Registered: 2021-03-27
Posts: 165

Re: thermald not doing its job

> I'm not sure if that conclusively shows it's a manufacturing issue, though, but maybe the company would take a look at it in that case.

Do you need to know?  If the manufacturer promises that the hardware will work with Windows, and it doesn't, then you can have the hardware replaced or perhaps even ask for a refund.  And if it does work with Windows, at least you know that you should really look into thermal management under Linux, e.g. open an issue in the thermald repository and ask for help.

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#13 2022-12-23 15:31:00

p_noumenon
Member
Registered: 2021-10-22
Posts: 22

Re: thermald not doing its job

lunaryorn wrote:

> I'm not sure if that conclusively shows it's a manufacturing issue, though, but maybe the company would take a look at it in that case.

Do you need to know?  If the manufacturer promises that the hardware will work with Windows, and it doesn't, then you can have the hardware replaced or perhaps even ask for a refund.  And if it does work with Windows, at least you know that you should really look into thermal management under Linux, e.g. open an issue in the thermald repository and ask for help.

You're right. I should get to trying that. Thanks for the help, maybe I'll get back to this thread later at some point.

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