[SOLVED] Might desktop environments' fancy effects cause CPU overheating?

spacelander · 01-19-2016, 02:42 AM

Hello everybody,
I have a fanless laptop (Acer TM B115M — Intel Pentium N3520 Quad-core 2.17 GHz, 4 GB RAM), and under Gnome and KDE, it sometime freezes. I tried a number of distros and it still freezes. It doesn't accept any input (not even magic sysrq), and I can't ping it from another computer either. I installed OpenBox + Tint2 and it didn't freeze yet. At first I suspected it might be bug, but now I am inclined to think my CPU is overheating (possibly due to the fancy desktop effects of gnome and kde). Moreover, journalctl doesn't complain about anything after a freeze and hard restart.
I would appreciate any help to pinpoint the exact cause. Thanks!

TobiSGD · 01-19-2016, 05:34 AM

The desktop effects should be handled by the GPU, not the CPU, unless your system is not properly set up. In any case, if your system overheats this is a sign for an insufficient cooling system, a system should be able to handle 100 CPU usage over longer periods and no program, including desktop effects, can exceed 100% CPU usage. If your problems are really caused by high temperatures (have you monitored the temperatures when this happens?) I would return this machine to the manufacturer/vendor because it is badly designed and you certainly will run into more problems in the future.

spacelander · 01-19-2016, 07:36 AM

Thank you for your response.
No, I didn't monitor the temperature. I had three theories: (1) it might be a bug, (2) it might be bad RAM, (3) it might be the CPU/GPU/IGS/IntelHD/etc. I did, however, check the RAM with memtester, and didn't find anything.
The machine froze after hours of usage, but also just after a few minutes. It doesn't feel especially hot to touch, however.
I have no idea what could be causing it. The last journalctl entries were the usual NetworkManager requests to the dhcp server, as far as I can tell (I'm not really that knowledgeable in networkmanager or systemd).

NGIB · 01-19-2016, 07:45 AM

The heavier the distro (and DE), the more resources are consumed just idling. Lots of new flashy DEs require native hardware acceleration just to run and this can be an issue for sure. Personally, I'd load a light distro with a modest DE (like XFCE) and see how it works. As usual, I'll recommend a very good one - MX-15...

http://www.mepiscommunity.org/mx

MX-15 has inxi installed OOTB and this is handy for determining exactly what hardware and drivers are being used. Output looks like this:

Code:

System:    Host: amd Kernel: 4.1-7.dmz.1-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.9.2)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.2 (Gtk 2.24.25) dm: lightdm Distro: MX-15_x64 Fusion 24 December 2015
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP ENVY dv6 Notebook PC v: 088B110000305910000620100
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 182D v: 55.24 Bios: Insyde v: F.13 date: 09/04/2012
           Chassis: type: 10
CPU:       Quad core AMD A10-4600M APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 18364
           clock speeds: min/max: 1400/2300 MHz 1: 1800 MHz 2: 1600 MHz 3: 1600 MHz 4: 1600 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7660G] bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:9900
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@59.99hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD ARUBA (DRM 2.42.0, LLVM 3.5.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.0.6 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1022:780d
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9902
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.1-7.dmz.1-amd64
Network:   Card-1: Ralink RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe
           driver: rt2800pci v: 2.3.0 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 1814:3290
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 9c:2a:70:23:8d:11
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 2000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 08:2e:5f:7b:ef:3d
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 750.2GB (9.1 used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD7500BPKX size: 750.2GB serial: WD-WX31A14W1740
Partition: ID-1: / size: 84G used: 7.2G (10%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 37.5C mobo: 30.0C gpu: 36.0
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 157 Uptime: 37 min Memory: 436.4/7397.4MB
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.88 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301 running in xfce4-terminal) inxi: 2.2.31

spacelander · 01-19-2016, 08:03 AM

Thank you for your reply,
I installed a lightweight WM (Openbox) on my preferred distro. I'm waiting to see if it crashes, though it's only been three days

TobiSGD · 01-19-2016, 09:06 AM

If Openbox does not crash, while WM with 3D effects (or effects using OpenGL) crash this might be a driver problem. Which distribution in which version are you using?

dugan · 01-19-2016, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

The desktop effects should be handled by the GPU, not the CPU, unless your system is not properly set up.

Well, yes, but on many systems the GPU and CPU are on the same physical chip. On those systems, overheating the GPU would overheat the CPU too.

TobiSGD · 01-19-2016, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

Well, yes, but on many systems the GPU and CPU are on the same physical chip. On those systems, overheating the GPU would overheat the CPU too.

Desktop effects are a peace of cake for GPUs, even for those which are integrated into CPUs, while they are very hard on the CPU when software rendering is active (read: your system is not set up correctly). It should be near to impossible to overheat a GPU with desktop effects. In any case, if overheating is the problem (which I doubt) monitoring temperatures should reveal that.

spacelander · 01-20-2016, 07:58 AM

I'm using openSUSE tumbleweed, with OpenBox as a WM + kde apps (dolphin, okular, etc.)

spacelander · 01-20-2016, 08:14 AM

I don't actually know if it's the WM which crashes. As far as I'm concerned, it could be the input driver who's crashing As I said, it just doesn't accept any input (not even ping, which I know isn't input and is handled by the network, but nonetheless; I didn't try pinging the laptop every time it crashed, but just once, when I had access to another computer).

TobiSGD · 01-20-2016, 08:31 AM

That sounds like a kernel crash (are keyboard LEDs, if they exist on that machine, blinking?). Do you have the same problem when running software that makes use of 3D functionality, like games or Blender?

spacelander · 01-20-2016, 10:02 AM

I don't use blender and don't play games. Shouldn't the kernel display the kernel panic message?
Edit: I guess it doesn't, sorry!

TobiSGD · 01-20-2016, 10:15 AM

The kernel does indeed display a kernel panic message, on the console. The problem is, once the kernel has panicked you can't switch to the console anymore.

Ihatewindows522 · 01-20-2016, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spacelander

I'm using openSUSE tumbleweed, with OpenBox as a WM + kde apps (dolphin, okular, etc.)

That might be it right there. Tumbleweed is a development release of SUSE.
Nevermind, it's just a rolling release version.

Still could have something to do with updates, though. Did this happen from a clean install or after you got updates?

Also, what happens if you get a CPU intensive process running like Handbrake, or a GPU intensive game like 0 A.D.?

There are also other desktops with 3D effects, MATE and Enlightenment for example. While the 3D desktop is running, what is your CPU utilization?

spacelander · 01-20-2016, 03:11 PM

It all started on fedora with gnome (after a fresh install), then I switched to opensuse with gnome, then opensuse with kde. After that, I didn't install a new distro, just Openbox and tint2 (taskbar) through the package manager. I also experienced a similar crash while using a live usb.