firefox running hot on laptop Toshiba Satellite A-100

S. Chapelin · 07-26-2012, 10:08 AM

My laptop is running very hot and I fear for its longevity.
After googling, I am (maybe mistakenly) blaming it on firefox and its plugins.
I like firefox because it is useful and it is open source and that is important to me.
Question: Is it really Firefox?

273 · 07-26-2012, 10:11 AM

You could try installing Google Chrome or the open source version Chromium. Chromium should be in the repositories for your distro, assuming you're running Linux with a package manager.
Then just use Chrom[e|ium] instead for a while and see whether your laptop overheats.
Can't think of a simpler way of testing it than that.

S. Chapelin · 07-27-2012, 12:51 AM

Thanks. Should have thought of that.
I didn't know about chromium, though, and for me that makes a difference.

S. Chapelin · 07-27-2012, 12:46 PM

I've been running chromium for several hours and my laptop runs much cooler. I don't hear the fan as much.
This is sad, because I have been using Firefox for several years. It would remain open on my laptop for several days (weeks) on end as I used it extensively.
I still haven't learned to use Chromium to do all I did with Firefox. However, it ran so hot that I was afraid of shortening the lifetime of my laptop.
Were Firefox to run cooler on my laptop, I would run back to it in a minute.

TobiSGD · 07-27-2012, 01:52 PM

It may be that Chromium just is less CPU hungry than Firefox and therefore the symptoms are not occurring in that extreme way.
I would recommend to nonetheless check the cooling system for dust and make sure that you have the usual powersaving options enabled.

S. Chapelin · 07-28-2012, 02:43 AM

Checked the power saving settings. For some reason, I had disabled the suspend function.

I put it back on for 10 mins. I'll make it longer if necessary. Thanks.
Now to find the in hole for ventilation. The out hole is on the side because I can feel the heat, but the in hole is not as evident. Guess I'll google for it.

S. Chapelin · 07-28-2012, 03:27 AM

Just googled it. There are even youtube videos of guys completely disassembling a laptop to clean the fan.
I used to open my desktop, back when I had an AT, then XT. 386 I think. Then a pentium running Windows 95 and something like fedora core 3. Then I assembled a box from parts at the local pawn shop, an 866 mhz, I think, which I had upgraded to 3.5 ghz. But I haven't opened a box in quite a while, since I started buying new, and I specially have never opened a miniaturized laptop. Scares me. Every thing in there is so tiny and costly. (sigh!)
Guess I'll just have to renew my stock of screwdrivers and tweezers and brushes and pull up my sleeves and dive into it.

TobiSGD · 07-29-2012, 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by S. Chapelin

Checked the power saving settings. For some reason, I had disabled the suspend function.

I put it back on for 10 mins. I'll make it longer if necessary. Thanks.

Aczually I mean things like: is the powersaving module for your CPU loaded, are you using the ondemand governor?

S. Chapelin · 07-30-2012, 03:54 AM

How would I go about finding out if the powersaving module for my CPU is loaded and if I am using the ondemand governor?
BTW, this is the first time I hear about the beasts.

S. Chapelin · 07-30-2012, 03:55 AM

How would I go about finding out if the powersaving module for my CPU is loaded and if I am using the ondemand governor?
BTW, this is the first time I hear about the beasts.

TobiSGD · 07-30-2012, 05:28 AM

Since you have an Intel CPU

Code:

lsmod | grep cpufreq

should show the the modules acpi-cpufreq and cpufreq_ondemand.

S. Chapelin · 07-30-2012, 06:52 AM

Code:

$ lsmod | grep cpufreq
$ su
Password: 
# lsmod | grep cpufreq
# exit
exit

This is the result, both as ordinary user and as root: no result.
I am running Fedora 16.

Code:

$ uname -a
Linux portable 3.4.4-4.fc16.i686 #1 SMP Thu Jul 5 20:58:10 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

BTW, sorry about that double post. I don't know how that happened.

TobiSGD · 07-30-2012, 06:57 AM

Seems that the powersaving modules are not loaded. Try, as root:

Code:

modprobe acpi-cpufreq
modprobe cpufreq-ondemand

Then again have a look at the temperatures.

S. Chapelin · 07-30-2012, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

Seems that the powersaving modules are not loaded. Try, as root:

Code:

modprobe acpi-cpufreq
modprobe cpufreq-ondemand

Then again have a look at the temperatures.

lm_sensors gives the following:
$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +56.0°C (crit = +106.0°C)
temp2: +57.0°C (crit = +96.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +54.0°C (high = +85.0°C, crit = +85.0°C)
Core 1: +57.0°C (high = +85.0°C, crit = +85.0°C)

dhruvats · 07-31-2012, 04:04 AM

You could try to see which CPU frequency scaling governor is active on your system:

Quote:

#cpufreq-info

Usually, this is set to "ondemand".

If the above command indicates that no governor is available, then I think that is the problem.

---------- Post added 07-31-12 at 02:35 PM ----------

You could try to see which CPU frequency scaling governor is active on your system:

Quote:

#cpufreq-info

Usually, this is set to "ondemand".

If the above command indicates that no governor is available, then I think that is the problem.