Power spikes on laptop

thesupertechie · 2026-05-18 05:02:14

Recently, I've been noticing some power spikes on my laptop. Usually up to 4-6 W when idle (other apps open) and up to 7-8 W in normal web browsing, but I've been noticing a lot of spikes recently? It's spiked to 12W multiple times, and up to 19W once (after sleep). I'm using KDE and ppd right now (I tried TLP previously, but my mileage was worse; it went up to 12W in normal web browsing). For sanity reasons, I reinstalled my OS (I broke a thing or two and kinda needed it anyway). Is there any way to investigate this more deeper? I have a hunch it's an issue with sleep. (I wrote this while powertop was open and it never exceeded 6W, but the occasional spikes are concerning...)

Is there any way to investigate this spiking behaviour? Here's a powertop output if it's helpful:

                                                                               ▒
The battery reports a discharge rate of  5.90 W                                ▒
The energy consumed was  124 J                                                 │
The estimated remaining time is 7 hours, 54 minutes                            │
                                                                               │
Summary: 1221.8 wakeups/second,  0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 38.0%│
                                                                               │
                Usage       Events/s    Category       Description             │
             11.5 ms/s     460.1        Timer          tick_nohz_handler       │
              3.3 ms/s     201.4        Interrupt      [27] idma64.0           │
             17.3 ms/s     173.2        Interrupt      [7] sched(softirq)      │
             43.5 ms/s      53.3        Interrupt      [14] INTC1055:00        │
              1.6 ms/s      53.8        Interrupt      [166] i915              │
             78.5 ms/s      22.0        Process        [PID 1122] /usr/bin/kwin│
             68.1 ms/s      18.4        Process        [PID 60101] /usr/lib/lib│
             13.6 ms/s      30.2        Process        [PID 1163] /usr/bin/kwin│
              1.0 ms/s      29.9        kWork          intel_atomic_cleanup_wor│
             13.4 µs/s      29.9        kWork          intel_atomic_commit_work│
             32.6 ms/s       5.5        Process        [PID 100267] /usr/bin/ko│
              2.8 ms/s       9.3        Timer          hrtimer_wakeup          │
            432.4 µs/s       9.4        Process        [PID 1667] /usr/lib/org_│
             15.8 ms/s       2.9        Process        [PID 100927] /usr/lib/li│
            427.7 µs/s       9.8        Process        [PID 1667] /usr/lib/org_│
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Last edited by thesupertechie (2026-05-18 05:02:59)

thesupertechie · 2026-05-18 05:12:29

Note: The above measurements were on 60 Hz. When on 120 Hz, the computer is at 6-8 W when typing this, but is more frequently jumping to 12 or 15 W. This really is bothering me so I'd really like to find the solution to this. If it helps, I've been at 200% scaling the entire time.

Last edited by thesupertechie (2026-05-18 05:14:13)

seth · 2026-05-18 08:59:46

"noticing a lot of spikes" where and how long are they?
Does stressing the CPU or GPU in isolation bring up the power draw to those values?
Is this an nvme/ssd/hdd? Is there an optical drive?

On KDE is suspect baloo might be able to cause a lot of CPU draw and IO

V1del · 2026-05-18 10:07:45

Baloo should™️ suspend it's indexer when on battery. FWIW I'd surmise somewhat of a spike while resuming stuff from sleep to be normal.

thesupertechie · 2026-05-23 21:52:13

Seth wrote:

"noticing a lot of spikes" where and how long are they?

Less than 10 seconds each time, in the total watts consumed.

Seth wrote:

Does stressing the CPU or GPU in isolation bring up the power draw to those values?

I'm not sure how to test this, my apologies.

Seth wrote:

Is this an nvme/ssd/hdd? Is there an optical drive? [On] KDE is suspect baloo might be able to cause a lot of CPU draw and IO

It's an NVMe drive, with no optical drive. I've turned off Baloo and am observing whether it's happening again.

V1del wrote:

FWIW I'd surmise somewhat of a spike while resuming stuff from sleep to be normal.

So you're saying that a spike when resuming is normal?

EDIT: Nope, turning off Baloo didn't help. I closed an app and it just spiked to (20!) Watts.

Last edited by thesupertechie (2026-05-23 21:53:29)

thesupertechie · 2026-05-23 23:27:39

A little update, I tried switching to TLP instead, on the default settings, but now it is spiking to upwards of 12-20 watts repeatedly. All with a browser window and PowerTop running. So it definitely is not a PPD issue.

Last edited by thesupertechie (2026-05-23 23:31:14)

seth · Yesterday 06:55:00

I'm not sure how to test this, my apologies.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Stress_testing

So you're saying that a spike when resuming is normal?

The GPU might easily enter full power mode before it settles for normal desktop behavior.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-05-18 05:02:14

Power spikes on laptop

#2 2026-05-18 05:12:29

Re: Power spikes on laptop

#3 2026-05-18 08:59:46

Re: Power spikes on laptop

#4 2026-05-18 10:07:45

Re: Power spikes on laptop

#5 2026-05-23 21:52:13

Re: Power spikes on laptop

#6 2026-05-23 23:27:39

Re: Power spikes on laptop

#7 Yesterday 06:55:00

Re: Power spikes on laptop

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