[Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

r_dlfo · 2011-05-16 05:04:06

EDIT: The overheating problem was traced to my Desktop Enviromen KDE and nVidia drivers.

Right now I'm worried that my wireless chip fries like the last time the computer was left on with ubuntu installling updates.
I have been watching my computer's temperature for about an hour and it seems like there is something I may be missing in order to keep it cool. Right now this is my actual use of the computer and it's results.

At boot:
Core 1: 44C° - 111.2 F
Core 2: 42C° - 107.6 F
acpitz-virtual-0: 41C° - 105.8 F
acpi: 44C°

After 15 minutes idle:
Core 1: 53C° - 127.4 F
Core 2: 53C° - 127.4 F
acpitz-virtual-0: 52C° - 125.6 F
acpi: 53C° - 127.4 F

After 30 minutes idle:
Core 1: 58C° - 136.4 F
Core 2: 55C° - 131 F
acpitz-virtual-0: 53C° - 127.4 F
acpi: 57C° - 134.6 F

After 30 minutes of web-use:
Core 1: 64C° - 147.2 F
Core 2: 64C° - 147.2
acpitz-virtual-0: 64C° - 147.2
acpi: 64C° - 147.2

After an hour and a half of constant web-only use:
Core 1: 70C° - 158 F
Core 2: 70C° - 158 F
acpitz-virtual-0: 70C° - 158 F
acpi: 70C° - 158 F

And now it won't go higher or lower with 14 web tabs open, no youtube, only images; 2 bash screens with no current work and emesene running. I'm getting these lecture from the KDE software with an update interval of 2.0s. Total CPU workload is 50% when idle, and fan is working non-stop.

I have installed cpufreq and laptop-mode-tools which are set at the "ondemand" option, CPUfreq display 800MHz on both cpus and scale accordingly (800MHz, 1.60 GHz or 1.80GHz). At idle it is still 800MHz and won't cool down either.

My computer is an old HP Pavillion dv6000 2006 model with a AMD Turion 64 X2 TL56, and a nVidia Ge Force Go 7200 video card. I'm using the powernow-K8 module and the current nvidia drivers; my startup daemons at the rc file are: hwclock, syslog-ng, dbus, @acpid, !network, netfs @net-profiles crond and laptop-mode. I'm using KDE4.

Also I installed powerTop and tried all the suggestions in the console; according to the software the Top Causes for Wakeups are:
python2 40.4% (369) [note: It looks like it is the msn]
kworker 17.5% (165)
[kernel schelduer] Load balacing tick 17.5% (165)
and when I use the mouse PS/2 keyboard/mouse touchpad interrupt 34% (592.3)

By the time I finished writing this article and getting all the info (about 25 minutes of idle time), the computer is still at 70 C° -158 F°.
Any suggestions on what should I look for in order to make this computer run cooler?

Last edited by r_dlfo (2011-05-19 18:50:43)

x33a · 2011-05-16 05:42:18

Have you had this problem previously and/or with other operating systems?

Firstly you should clean the laptop, remove dust bunnies etc.

Total CPU workload is 50% when idle, and fan is working non-stop.

This is something to worry about. Also if it's showing 50% load, means it isn't idle, i.e, some process is causing the problem.

Use htop to see which processes are consuming the cpu.

r_dlfo · 2011-05-16 06:09:10

x33a wrote:

Have you had this problem previously and/or with other operating systems?
Firstly you should clean the laptop, remove dust bunnies etc.
Total CPU workload is 50% when idle, and fan is working non-stop.
This is something to worry about. Also if it's showing 50% load, means it isn't idle, i.e, some process is causing the problem.
Use htop to see which processes are consuming the cpu.

Yeah there hasn't been any much problem with win7 or ubuntu.

I tried what you said about htop and it seems that X process is taking 65% of the CPU, the comment says:
/usr/bin/X :0 vt7 -nolisten tcp -auth var/run/xauth/A:0-hzJfXa, so it might be KDE?

It has reached 80C° while I was looking at a video on youtube, I guess i will just turn it off for now.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention that the other process that is taking quite high CPU power is the chromium browser at 35%, but that should be expected with 22 tabs open.
Emesene is taking about 1.0% of CPU usage, there is a 35.4% of cpu consumption from user 29.8% of system and 6.8% of low at the core#1, and about 23.3% user, 12.6% of sys and 24.5% of low at core#2.

BTW is it okay to have like 52 akonadiserver open? They seem to not be using the cpu anyways.

Last edited by r_dlfo (2011-05-16 06:24:05)

x33a · 2011-05-16 10:29:03

r_dlfo wrote:

Yeah there hasn't been any much problem with win7 or ubuntu.
I tried what you said about htop and it seems that X process is taking 65% of the CPU, the comment says:
/usr/bin/X :0 vt7 -nolisten tcp -auth var/run/xauth/A:0-hzJfXa, so it might be KDE?

X process is the xorg server on top of which kde is running. My first guess would be bad drivers. check if you are using the latest video drivers. also, you may want to try some other DE like xfce, lxde, just to be sure that kde is causing the problem.

BTW is it okay to have like 52 akonadiserver open? They seem to not be using the cpu anyways.

I haven't used kde, but i think it's important to have akonadi running with kde.

r_dlfo · 2011-05-16 17:25:49

Right now I tried booting without X, in console mode after one hour and a half the temperature of both cores is 53C°. htop seems to be reporting a 0.7% of user use 1.3% sys use and 0.0 low use (all the parameters are 0 on the second core).

From the boot start the fan is running not quite fast but I can still hear it is constant, I'm still wondering if these lectures are normal, as 53° seems a bit too high for being idle.
I will boot a ubuntu live cd with KDE to see how it performs. Thank you x33a for your suggestions.

Last edited by r_dlfo (2011-05-16 17:29:13)

toad · 2011-05-16 21:55:49

What does iotop say?

r_dlfo · 2011-05-17 17:06:44

Yesterday I tried using the live CD of Ubuntu, it seems that my lectures from the console apply when using the live enviroment, about 52°C so I guess it is quite normal. I might check the fan again in order to see if there is a problem in there.
Also I want to install the bios update in order to get the fixes for the bios, sadly there is only support for windows installation.

What I was surprised the most was that if I loaded the same amount of webpages and videos as on KDE on the live cd on it it would still stay at ridiculous low amounts of use.
So I might just say that the problem is KDE4, a quick search on google lead me to this other thread which might be useful.

@toad I will try iotop later this day, will post in the evening

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Last edited by r_dlfo (2011-05-17 17:13:10)

dodo3773 · 2011-05-17 17:22:42

r_dlfo wrote:

It has reached 80C° while I was looking at a video on youtube, I guess i will just turn it off for now.

Flash seems to use a lot of cpu on any Linux system I have used. I have a dv9000 and had the same overheating problems. What I did was buy a cooling stand / usb hub. They work pretty well.

toad · 2011-05-18 05:33:42

Yep, I can confirm that flash eats CPU and the temp shoots up. Same goes for nepomukservices if you run KDE. Oh, and forget iotop - I must have lapsed into a "senior moment"...

moljac024 · 2011-05-18 11:43:23

Last time I tried KDE4 my processor fan was spinning so crazy it almost blew out, and CPU usage with an idle desktop was between 20% and 50% (I don't remember, but an idling desktop shouldn't use more than 1% anyway).

So try XFCE4 and see if it's KDE4 causing the problem or bad drivers.

r_dlfo · 2011-05-19 18:48:46

Hey everyone, its been a troublesome week and I couldn't get time to play with arch and linux.

Right now I'm completely sure that KDE4 is the culprit of the overheating; I checked with the live CD of ubuntu and as I said the average temp was about 55C° with 14 loaded tabs and including flash video. KDE4 looked too sexy to be trully good For what I have read, the workaround is to install the opensource nvidia drivers but for me until they have a power saving feature it won't be much of use.

Right now I'm testing openbox with the same test, and the temperature is just fine, about 55C° -58C°, so I may keep this setup. Also I switched to firefox, as I feel it is more stable and less memory consuming than chrome on linux.

I will mark this thread as solved, I might start a thread on the KDE official forums to see what can be done if I find something useful I will repost in this thread; thank you all for time and suggestions.

TigTex · 2011-05-20 03:11:49

KDE might have a problem but you should note that your cpu must be capable of running at 100% load without overheating. If it is overheating something is bad and it's not software fault. It's something with the cooling system... Be careful

r_dlfo · 2011-05-20 19:24:07

TigTex wrote:

KDE might have a problem but you should note that your cpu must be capable of running at 100% load without overheating. If it is overheating something is bad and it's not software fault. It's something with the cooling system... Be careful

It is not 'overheating' per se, it did not cause major shutdown or flicker because of the heating; yet at the levels that it reached it seemed wrong to blame the hardware specially after comparing to another DE which lead to a lower temperature under the same program loads.

Last edited by r_dlfo (2011-05-20 19:25:15)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-05-16 05:04:06

[Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#2 2011-05-16 05:42:18

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#3 2011-05-16 06:09:10

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#4 2011-05-16 10:29:03

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#5 2011-05-16 17:25:49

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#6 2011-05-16 21:55:49

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#7 2011-05-17 17:06:44

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#8 2011-05-17 17:22:42

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#9 2011-05-18 05:33:42

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#10 2011-05-18 11:43:23

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#11 2011-05-19 18:48:46

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#12 2011-05-20 03:11:49

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

#13 2011-05-20 19:24:07

Re: [Solved] Reducing the heat emission of a laptop

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