Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

sensory · 2010-05-01 01:51:55

Hi there, first time Arch-user and loving it so far.

But, I'm having a problem with my CPU usage. I'm using the Openbox environment and a pretty minimal setup which I love after coming from Ubuntu (Jaunty and Karmic). Whenever I've been on my laptop for a half an hour or more my CPU fan is spinning at full tilt. Normally I never have this problem although my laptop IS notorious for overheating when under strain of 70% or more due to bad airflow.

I always bring up htop to see what's going on and yes, there'll be some CPU usage, but it's never a great deal and even when I close down the offending apps for a while, the heat build-up doesn't subside and my laptop usually goes a little wonky.

Here's what htop shows and the fan is blowing quite a bit: http://imgur.com/77kE8.png

Now, am I right in saying that my swap should be used more than 0? Because I've never seen it being used at all, whereas my memory often goes into orange even when it's at 200mb out of 1gb being used. Could this be the problem?

Other than this I am at a loss. My CPU usage is very low most of the time and I'm loving it, but my laptop shouldn't be running this hot if there isn't something else going on. Or maybe htop isn't giving the correct read-outs.

I used the Arch installer as usual, and let it auto prepare the hard drives into /boot, /, /swap, and /home.

A lot of the time this happens when Firefox (Namoroka 3.6.3) has been open and browsing for a while. I'm test-driving Chromium to see if there's a memory leak that I'm not aware of that's driving my machine nuts, but I really prefer Firefox.

Any help would be greatly appreciated so I can get on with customising this nifty OS.

P.S autostart.sh contains the following:

nitrogen --restore &
tint2 &
thunar --daemon &
setxkbmap gb

And my CPU is a AMD Turion64 Mobile running an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M. HP Pavilion.

Last edited by sensory (2010-05-01 02:01:15)

cesura · 2010-05-01 02:15:28

My laptop was extremely loud and hot, so I took some compressed air and shot it into the fan, which seemed to get all of the junk out and now it runs fine. It is from having it on clothes, bed sheets, carpet, etc. All that material gets caught in the fan, making it heat up which, in turn, makes the fans faster/louder.

About the Swap, mine isn't ever used either. Swap is sort of like a safety net to use if your memory gets too high, so don't worry.

Last edited by cesura (2010-05-01 02:16:56)

sensory · 2010-05-01 03:04:26

Indeed, compressed air usually does the trick, but this started happening as soon as I installed Arch. I'm wondering if I did any thing wrong or if there could be some issues with my setup.

cesura · 2010-05-01 03:06:22

sensory wrote:

Indeed, compressed air usually does the trick, but this started happening as soon as I installed Arch. I'm wondering if I did any thing wrong or if there could be some issues with my setup.

Which kernel version are you using?

uname -r

Also, what brand is your laptop (and model number if you know it)?

sensory · 2010-05-01 04:01:11

Hiya,

Kernel version is 2.6.33-ARCH and my laptop's an HP Pavilion dv8000

cesura · 2010-05-01 04:19:05

You may want to read this:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardwar … oblem.html

It mentions that is the BIOS doing it, but if it is only happening with Arch, then that is highly unlikely to be the BIOS

EDIT: Unless it is just a coincidence that this started happening when you installed Arch. It could also be a problem with the kernel. Is this your first time with Arch or Linux overall?

Last edited by cesura (2010-05-01 04:23:14)

sensory · 2010-05-01 04:27:32

Thanks for the help and for the link! I'll have a look and see if it really is my BIOS or the design flaw that's so prevelant in these models and report back. It could be that it does indeed need a good clean out again and that the timing from me switching to Arch was just a coincidence. Stranger things have happened.

Again, thanks for your time and help.

cesura · 2010-05-01 04:28:14

sensory wrote:

Thanks for the help and for the link! I'll have a look and see if it really is my BIOS or the design flaw that's so prevelant in these models and report back. It could be that it does indeed need a good clean out again and that the timing from me switching to Arch was just a coincidence. Stranger things have happened.
Again, thanks for your time and help.

No problem, and welcome to Arch

Arch Linux

#1 2010-05-01 01:51:55

Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

#2 2010-05-01 02:15:28

Re: Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

#3 2010-05-01 03:04:26

Re: Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

#4 2010-05-01 03:06:22

Re: Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

#5 2010-05-01 04:01:11

Re: Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

#6 2010-05-01 04:19:05

Re: Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

#7 2010-05-01 04:27:32

Re: Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

#8 2010-05-01 04:28:14

Re: Some CPU issues but no CPU usage shown

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