Laptop gets hot even when idling

oxez · 2009-11-02 21:26:26

Hello. I recently switched to Arch after 8 years running on Gentoo. So far I love it, except I have this little problem on my laptop.

It gets hot very fast on Arch, even when idling or doing basic tasks (one terminal opened, in dwm, editing text in vim).

The CPU gets to nearly 60C in a matter of minutes, and then the noisy fans kickoff. I have a Sager NP9261, which is known for it's non-quiet fans so it's kind of annoying. I didn't have this problem on Gentoo (had my laptop compile ~1GB worth of upgrades for 5 hours straight with the CPU staying at ~45C). I can also play Left 4 Dead on windows 7 for hours before the CPU gets to that temperature.

I'm not sure where to look at to diagnostize the problem. 'top' doesn't print anything suspicious (top cpu usage is by firefox, with 2% used). I'm not sure how to analyze powertop output, but to me it looked fine.. 30-45 wakeups per seconds, is that normal? Most of them were from pata-jmicron (which is my chipset).

I'll post anything needed to help in resolving this, I'm running on Windows 7 right now as I need to finish my C project for school, and don't want my laptop to melt.

I really doubt this could be hardware related, since both Gentoo and Win7 were/are running just fineé

Thanks in advance!

rebugger · 2009-11-02 21:29:43

What cpu do you have?
(Not sure if i should ask you, if you have all modules for your cpu, etc loaded.)

oxez · 2009-11-02 21:37:40

Thanks for the quick reply.

Here's the info about my CPU:

processor    : 0
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family    : 6
model        : 15
model name    : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E6750  @ 2.66GHz
stepping    : 11
cpu MHz        : 2667.000
cache size    : 4096 KB
physical id    : 0
siblings    : 2
core id        : 0
cpu cores    : 2
apicid        : 0
initial apicid    : 0
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 10
wp        : yes
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 lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips    : 5321.30
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment    : 64
address sizes    : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor    : 1
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family    : 6
model        : 15
model name    : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E6750  @ 2.66GHz
stepping    : 11
cpu MHz        : 2667.000
cache size    : 4096 KB
physical id    : 0
siblings    : 2
core id        : 1
cpu cores    : 2
apicid        : 1
initial apicid    : 1
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 10
wp        : yes
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 lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips    : 5321.32
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment    : 64
address sizes    : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

And the modules currently loaded:

Module                  Size  Used by
ipv6                  338528  14
coretemp                7712  0
fuse                   74944  2
snd_usb_audio         106304  2
snd_usb_lib            20672  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi            26720  1 snd_usb_lib
usbhid                 47968  0
hid                    52608  1 usbhid
fan                     5704  0
snd_hda_codec_si3054     6400  1
snd_seq_dummy           3588  0
pcmcia                 41684  0
snd_seq_oss            36320  0
snd_seq_midi_event      8640  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_hda_codec_realtek   286788  1
arc4                    2240  2
ecb                     3584  2
snd_seq                64768  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          8372  4 snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_hda_intel          32232  2
snd_hda_codec          83168  3 snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm_oss            47360  0
snd_hwdep              10056  2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
cpufreq_powersave       1920  0
iwl3945               103008  0
sdhci_pci               9536  0
snd_mixer_oss          21024  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                91784  5 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
iwlcore               126208  1 iwl3945
sdhci                  20484  1 sdhci_pci
snd_timer              25424  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
mac80211              179344  2 iwl3945,iwlcore
snd                    77224  22 snd_usb_audio,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_seq_oss,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_hwdep,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
uhci_hcd               27232  0
yenta_socket           28684  1
ohci1394               34228  0
tifm_7xx1               7168  0
mmc_core               62368  1 sdhci
nvidia              10324072  28
cpufreq_ondemand        8976  0
i2c_i801               11584  0
soundcore               8768  1 snd
ehci_hcd               41808  0
rsrc_nonstatic         12832  1 yenta_socket
shpchp                 40252  0
joydev                 13376  0
led_class               5160  3 iwl3945,iwlcore,sdhci
pcmcia_core            41284  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
i2c_core               25664  2 nvidia,i2c_i801
ieee1394               99232  1 ohci1394
tifm_core               9608  1 tifm_7xx1
snd_page_alloc         10832  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
r8169                  41348  0
cfg80211              104408  3 iwl3945,iwlcore,mac80211
acpi_cpufreq           10288  0
usbcore               183764  6 snd_usb_audio,snd_usb_lib,usbhid,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd
pci_hotplug            33200  1 shpchp
iTCO_wdt               13712  0
mii                     5856  1 r8169
iTCO_vendor_support     3940  1 iTCO_wdt
rfkill                 24232  1 cfg80211
freq_table              4576  2 cpufreq_ondemand,acpi_cpufreq
intel_agp              34096  0
video                  24636  0
evdev                  13024  20
output                  3872  1 video
thermal                17760  0
psmouse                60708  0
pcspkr                  3296  0
battery                13896  0
button                  7264  0
serio_raw               7268  0
sg                     33664  0
ac                      5640  0
processor              42364  1 acpi_cpufreq
rtc_cmos               13756  0
rtc_core               22116  1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib                 3168  1 rtc_core
ext3                  151152  1
jbd                    59464  1 ext3
mbcache                 9028  1 ext3
sr_mod                 19556  0
cdrom                  41320  1 sr_mod
sd_mod                 31848  4
ata_generic             6244  0
ata_piix               27816  3
pata_acpi               5824  0
pata_jmicron            4320  0
libata                193612  4 ata_generic,ata_piix,pata_acpi,pata_jmicron
scsi_mod              133592  4 sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata

I forgot to mention that the CPU gets very hot even when running the powersave / conservative governors with cpufrequtils

guzz46 · 2009-11-02 21:40:51

This maybe a silly question but do you have cpufreq in your daemons list

oxez · 2009-11-02 21:47:16

guzz46 wrote:

This maybe a silly question but do you have cpufreq in your daemons list

No, I start it manually for now

rebugger · 2009-11-02 21:48:35

output of cpufreq-info?

oxez · 2009-11-02 22:00:30

rebugger wrote:

output of cpufreq-info?

oxez ~ > cpufreq-info 
cpufrequtils 005: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0
  hardware limits: 2.00 GHz - 2.67 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.67 GHz, 2.00 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: powersave, ondemand, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 2.00 GHz and 2.67 GHz.
                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 2.67 GHz.
analyzing CPU 1:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 1
  hardware limits: 2.00 GHz - 2.67 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.67 GHz, 2.00 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: powersave, ondemand, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 2.00 GHz and 2.67 GHz.
                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 2.67 GHz.

rebugger · 2009-11-02 22:08:16

You have set "performance" as govenor, so your cpu won't scale.
run: cpufreq-set -g ondemand
should be better for now. setup cpufreq for "ondemand"-govenor on startup

oxez · 2009-11-02 22:10:10

rebugger wrote:

You have set "performance" as govenor, so your cpu won't scale.
run: cpufreq-set -g ondemand
should be better for now. setup cpufreq for "ondemand"-govenor on startup

You're correct. But when I was at school this afternoon, I tried 'ondemand', 'powersave' and 'conservative' governors. My cpu scaled back to 2.00ghz, but that still didn't fix the temperature problem.

rebugger · 2009-11-02 22:14:15

Shouldn't the cpu scale more down than 2ghz? like 800mhz/1ghz?

guzz46 · 2009-11-02 22:14:25

Do you have any powersave modes activated for your graphics card

And is your /etc/conf.d/cpufreq min/max freq blank

#configuration for cpufreq control
# valid governors:
# ondemand, performance, powersave,
# conservative, userspace
governor="ondemand"
# valid suffixes: Hz, kHz (default), MHz, GHz, THz

Last edited by guzz46 (2009-11-02 22:17:31)

oxez · 2009-11-02 22:18:56

rebugger wrote:

Shouldn't the cpu scale more down than 2ghz? like 800mhz/1ghz?

Not mine apparently =/

oxez · 2009-11-02 22:19:52

guzz46 wrote:

Do you have any powersave modes activated for your graphics card
And is your /etc/conf.d/cpufreq min/max freq blank
#configuration for cpufreq control
# valid governors:
# ondemand, performance, powersave,
# conservative, userspace
governor="ondemand"
# valid suffixes: Hz, kHz (default), MHz, GHz, THz

here's my config:

#configuration for cpufreq control

# valid governors:
#  ondemand, performance, powersave,
#  conservative, userspace
governor="ondemand"

# valid suffixes: Hz, kHz (default), MHz, GHz, THz
#min_freq="2.25GHz"
#max_freq="3GHz"

guzz46 · 2009-11-02 22:28:20

What about powersave modes for your graphics card

oxez · 2009-11-02 22:35:53

guzz46 wrote:

What about powersave modes for your graphics card

Never looked into that (didn't know these existed until you asked this, tbh). I'll follow http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVI … wer_saving and post again when I have some results

Edit: By looking at PowerMizer in nvidia-settings, they are already at the lowest values.

Last edited by oxez (2009-11-02 22:38:21)

oxez · 2009-11-04 05:28:28

Laptop was still heating nearly at ~60C today, only with dwm opened and one vim instance. This is really strange. I had my cpu scaled back to the lowest possible value, monitor backlight to minumum, turned off every service. Ram was 8% used, CPU stayed at ~1-2% the whole time. And yet on windows / gentoo it still stays nearly 45-50C

Any other suggestions?

oxez · 2009-11-04 17:39:03

I was looking into http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fan_speed_control , which I think would help, but to do that I need lm_sensors to be able to read fan temperatures, which is not possible right now due to my chipset not having a driver (Intel ICH8). I believe the opensource SDK from intel is coming soon (last update was in august telling that it was pending for approval), so I'll have to wait and test it once it gets included in lm_sensors.

takedown · 2009-11-04 18:25:11

acpi cant see your temps? and your actual fan speed?

oxez · 2009-11-06 06:33:41

takedown wrote:

acpi cant see your temps? and your actual fan speed?

acpi / lm_sensors can only see CPU temps, nothing else.

http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/Devices (look for ICH8)

phohammer · 2010-03-07 18:44:31

So I'm having a very similar problem. My CPU temp just hit 61C running at only 1%... I can't seem to get cpufreq-info to do anything. Any ideas?

[root@myhost tr]# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU
maximum transition latency: 0.00 ms.
analyzing CPU 1:
no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU
maximum transition latency: 0.00 ms.

JimboP · 2010-03-08 15:24:17

phohammer, looks like you have not correctly loaded the kernel modules - see

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cpufrequtils

Roline · 2010-03-08 17:08:34

I had the same problem. Powernowd fixed this for me.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-02 21:26:26

Laptop gets hot even when idling

#2 2009-11-02 21:29:43

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#3 2009-11-02 21:37:40

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#4 2009-11-02 21:40:51

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#5 2009-11-02 21:47:16

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#6 2009-11-02 21:48:35

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#7 2009-11-02 22:00:30

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#8 2009-11-02 22:08:16

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#9 2009-11-02 22:10:10

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#10 2009-11-02 22:14:15

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#11 2009-11-02 22:14:25

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#12 2009-11-02 22:18:56

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#13 2009-11-02 22:19:52

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#14 2009-11-02 22:28:20

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#15 2009-11-02 22:35:53

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#16 2009-11-04 05:28:28

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#17 2009-11-04 17:39:03

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#18 2009-11-04 18:25:11

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#19 2009-11-06 06:33:41

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#20 2010-03-07 18:44:31

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#21 2010-03-08 15:24:17

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

#22 2010-03-08 17:08:34

Re: Laptop gets hot even when idling

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