CPU running hot?

stitchman · 05-09-2006, 05:03 PM

I just enabled tempurature monitoring in Gkrellm and i noticed that i idle at around 125 degrees farenheit. That seems kind of high, is this a normal temp? Thats only at 800mhz, when it kicks up to 1600mhz it is around 155 degrees. The bottom of the laptop doesnt feel hot but i just want to make sure i dont fry my beloved slacktop.

Brian1 · 05-09-2006, 05:22 PM

Yes the 155 does seem a bit high. If you another OS like windows installed see what the temperture range it runs at. Mine runs in the 120° to 140° farenheit when compiling kernels and high processor usage. If the bios has the feature of showing the processor temperture then when it is at the highest reboot into the bios and see what it says. Reason is some default settings of lmsensors may be off and require tweaking of the /etc/sensors.conf file.

Brian1

stitchman · 05-09-2006, 05:39 PM

Hrmm...no /etc/sensors.conf file. Is lmsensors something i should compile into the kernel?

EDIT---err nevermind about the kernel comment. I looked up lmsensors and it doesnt look like 2.6 kernel is supported :/

raska · 05-09-2006, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stitchman

....I looked up lmsensors and it doesnt look like 2.6 kernel is supported :/

look deeper buddy

-- http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/

you need sysfsutils
-- http://linux-diag.sourceforge.net/Sysfsutils.html

Old_Fogie · 05-09-2006, 09:25 PM

does your bios tell temperatures too? do those temps you show in linux correspond to what's going on in the bios?

rje_NC · 05-10-2006, 08:11 AM

If your laptop is several years old, you might want to consider taking the keyboard off to get to the cpu cooler and cleaning it.

I support desktop and laptop systems at a local university, and we have seen significant laptop heating issues and system instability from clogged CPU cooling fans on several models of laptops. On most models, you can access the cooling fan by removing the keyboard cover and keyboard to get to most of the m/b components. Cleaning the cpu cooler fan and duct has almost always corrected the system problems.

My daughter uses an old Toshiba Satellite 1805, and it was having problems shutting down after playing movies or other CPU heavy stuff. When she was last home, we disassembled and cleaned out a lot of dust from the cpu cooler and installed Slackware and Dropline Gnome along with Windows in a dual boot setup. The system has been running flawlessly since the cleaning in both Windows and Slackware.

Bob

stitchman · 05-10-2006, 11:30 AM

Thanks for the responces everyone. As for the BIOS monitoring the temp, I do not believe it does. I downloaded lm_sensors and sysfutils but havent installed them yet. Too many other things to get working (latest victory was 3d acceleration yay!)

Also, as for opening the laptop...I tried openening my last laptop, it wasn't very intuitive, there was a HIDDEN screw under a bit of rubber that didnt look like it was supposed to be removed. I found that screw after being fed up with the opening process and I nearly cracked the plastic housing on the thing. I got the impression that laptops shouldn't be opened by mere mortals, so now I am afraid

(desktops are no problem though)

luke1011 · 05-10-2006, 12:21 PM

fwiw, that's about the temp range of my compaq presario m2000 running Xubuntu (Ubuntu with Xfce instead of Gnome) Dapper Beta. I think it was about the same on SUSE 10.0 as well. don't know if that means i SHOULD be concerned or you should NOT be concerned...

cwwilson721 · 05-10-2006, 12:34 PM

I have an old Gateway laptop, and I can choose when the fan comes on/off using the following script (must have all ACPI functions in kernel for this):

Code:

# Set the trip point temperatures (in Celsius) Note:Change the 58 to whatever you wish
echo -n "100:0:90:80:58" > /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/trip_points

# Activate the temperature control system of the kernel. Checks every 30 seconds
echo -n "30" > /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/polling_frequency

# Turn off the fan. It will turn on by temperature
echo -n "3" > /proc/acpi/fan/FAN0/state

I put it in /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Old_Fogie · 05-10-2006, 02:22 PM

Just throwing this out.

I'm not going to even give the impression that I know about sensors/linux for thermal monitoring.

But since you could try "motherboard monitor". Just be sure to get it from somewhere reputable.

Old_Fogie · 05-10-2006, 02:24 PM

Oh one last thing. I took the keyboard off my old laptop that has slackware and wireless on it, as it was boiling my legs sitting on my couch.

I put some Arctic Silver on there...now the fan almost never ever kicks on and my legs don't look like I've fallen asleep on the beach anymore.

cwwilson721 · 05-10-2006, 02:26 PM

Mine is named 'toaster' for pretty much the same reason, until I dropped the CPU temp in that script

Old_Fogie · 05-10-2006, 02:34 PM

For my old laptop, I really do not know if it is ACPI compliant. I have an email into compaq about it. I turned on the options in kernel config. Maybe I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

shotwellj · 05-10-2006, 02:36 PM

My sister has one of those laptops and that is the operating temperature it reports. Also, I and my brother have HP zv5320's (which are essentially the same as your compaq) and both operate at the temperatures you describe. Somewhere in official gentoo forums there is an entire thread devoted to this on the HP's. I believe these temperatures are normal seeing as how everyone is reporting them.

There is no lm-sensors for the chipset on my HP, and I am pretty sure that the same chipset is used on your Compaq R3000. I am not near any of the laptops now to tell you what chipset my HP uses.

I wrote to HP and asked them if the temperatures were normal and they responded with some ridiculous thing about defraging the disk and running a virus checker. I also asked at Best Buy (in the hopes that they'd have some sort of specifications book) and the Geek Squad guy told me that his laptop runs at 100C, that 100C is a perfectly normal temperature for laptops, that he overclocks, and that I should look into liquid cooling. It became apparent to me that he was an idiot, so I just left.

The high temperatures worry me quite a bit, even though they are apparently normal. Something that helps a lot is to elevate the laptop and point a very strong fan at it. During long compiles, I can sometimes manage to keep it below 60C this way. The trip points are already reported by acpi as being something like 80C and 90C. Also, acpi support is pretty limited on these laptops and the 'fan' module won't do anything for you.

Regards,
Jacob

cwwilson721 · 05-10-2006, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shotwellj

I also asked at Best Buy (in the hopes that they'd have some sort of specifications book) and the Geek Squad guy told me that his laptop runs at 100C, that 100C is a perfectly normal temperature for laptops, that he overclocks, and that I should look into liquid cooling. It became apparent to me that he was an idiot, so I just left.

100 C? 212 F? Boiling? What a MORON!!!
But I'd love to see liquid cooling on a laptop, tho.....