Laptop overheating especially when compiling package

vaenby · 01-24-2014, 08:24 PM

Hi all fellow slackers, I have a problem with my laptop. When idle, the temperature (I know it using tlp-stat -t command) is around 65 degree Celcius and when compiling my laptop it's around 85 degree and sometimes it just shutdown because it overheated. Probably the temperature is more than 100 degree.

Some information about my system:

My laptop is HP 431 with graphic card Radeon HD 6470M. I tried to use the newest propietary driver from AMD but I uninstalled it because it's kind of messy when I use it using dual monitor. I tried to config it using aticonfig --initial=dual-head --screen-layout=left
but still no luck.
I use generic kernel as instructed in http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:beginners_guide
I use slackware64-14.1

My lsmod output:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
ipv6                  292446  30 
cpufreq_ondemand        8799  0 
lp                      9851  0 
ppdev                   5862  0 
parport_pc             19332  0 
parport                30389  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
fan                     2617  0 
fuse                   73848  7 
amd_iommu_v2            7116  0 
uvcvideo               71742  0 
videobuf2_vmalloc       2912  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops        1879  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core         27437  1 uvcvideo
videodev              102061  2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
i2c_dev                 5843  0 
ath3k                   6877  0 
btusb                  16152  0 
bluetooth             220516  3 ath3k,btusb
nvram                   5780  0 
radeon                807879  1 
i915                  567446  3 
intel_powerclamp        8391  0 
ath9k                  87291  0 
ath9k_common            1951  1 ath9k
ath9k_hw              369458  2 ath9k_common,ath9k
intel_agp              10864  1 i915
joydev                  9751  0 
ttm                    63381  1 radeon
coretemp                5870  0 
ath                    15545  3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     29622  1 
intel_gtt              12600  2 i915,intel_agp
mac80211              429423  1 ath9k
snd_hda_codec_realtek    34792  1 
rtsx_pci_sdmmc          9505  0 
snd_hda_intel          34861  5 
snd_hda_codec         143196  3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
cfg80211              380228  3 ath,ath9k,mac80211
drm_kms_helper         35118  2 i915,radeon
r8169                  57775  0 
drm                   229054  7 ttm,i915,drm_kms_helper,radeon
mmc_core               88717  1 rtsx_pci_sdmmc
rtsx_pci_ms             5138  0 
mei_me                  7728  0 
mperf                   1163  0 
memstick                6640  1 rtsx_pci_ms
mei                    42963  1 mei_me
processor              27543  0 
thermal                 8644  0 
snd_hwdep               6388  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                76009  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc          7098  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              18614  2 snd_pcm
snd                    58630  15 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
i2c_i801               13860  0 
hp_wmi                  7264  0 
agpgart                27267  4 drm,ttm,intel_agp,intel_gtt
soundcore               5354  1 snd
video                  11451  1 i915
thermal_sys            22993  5 fan,video,intel_powerclamp,thermal,processor
i2c_algo_bit            5351  2 i915,radeon
i2c_core               20936  8 drm,i915,i2c_i801,i2c_dev,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,radeon,videodev
psmouse                81058  0 
sparse_keymap           3074  1 hp_wmi
rfkill                 15522  5 cfg80211,hp_wmi,bluetooth
freq_table              2628  2 cpufreq_ondemand,thermal_sys
hwmon                   1337  3 coretemp,radeon,thermal_sys
mii                     3955  1 r8169
evdev                  10032  12 
lpc_ich                12841  0 
rtsx_pci               22092  2 rtsx_pci_ms,rtsx_pci_sdmmc
battery                11579  0 
button                  4696  1 i915
ac                      4311  0 
serio_raw               4585  0 
kvm                   363491  0 
crc32_pclmul            2883  0 
crc32c_intel           14113  0 
ghash_clmulni_intel     4333  0 
wmi                     8243  1 hp_wmi
microcode              13140  0 
loop                   18479  0 
ext4                  446312  2 
jbd2                   76403  1 ext4
mbcache                 5666  1 ext4
hid_generic             1145  0 
usbhid                 37080  0 
hid                    87523  2 hid_generic,usbhid
ehci_pci                3688  0 
ehci_hcd               39275  1 ehci_pci
usb_storage            46020  0

I use TLP package but I don't change anything in /etc/default/tlp because I don't understand what to change there.

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

Didier Spaier · 01-24-2014, 10:28 PM

Someone will probably suggest to clean dust and change the thermal paste if possible. As I had the same problem I ended up getting a cooler (Zalman ZM-NC1500B). Its not expensive (I paid 32€95 including 19.6% VAT in Paris) nor too noisy and does the job.

vaenby · 01-24-2014, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Someone will probably suggest to clean dust and change the thermal paste if possible. As I had the same problem I ended up getting a cooler (Zalman ZM-NC1500B). Its not expensive (I paid 32€95 including 19.6% VAT in Paris) nor too noisy and does the job.

What was the temperature of your laptop before and after using the cooler? I already cleaned the dust, not much effect there. About the thermal paste, the fan is quite new. About 5 or 6 months ago I got a replacement for the fan because there was a problem before with the fan and HP replaced it.

zrdc28 · 01-24-2014, 10:55 PM

i8kutils from slackbuilds solved the problem on my dell laptop, might work on yours too.

vaenby · 01-25-2014, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zrdc28

i8kutils from slackbuilds solved the problem on my dell laptop, might work on yours too.

Mine is HP laptop. i8kutils is for dell

freakTux · 01-25-2014, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vaenby

Mine is HP laptop. i8kutils is for dell

I don't know how Dell is...but I can say that Asus (that I like so much) is a little strange...I had overheating problem with my notebook, so I replace the thermal paste...I can say that even if the notebook was pretty new, the way how the thermal paste was applied was very sick and after the replacement the temperature was 10 degrees under...XD...the thermal paste is much more important than the dust inside...Check it and you'll be surprised...

TobiSGD · 01-25-2014, 02:04 AM

This is a software problem. While replacing the thermal paste and cleaning out the cooling system isn't a bad thing, it will not fix the overheating.

The problem is that you use the Slackware kernel. The 3.10 kernel lacks dynamic power management for your videocard, so that it by default always runs on full power, heating up the system. Install a 3.13 kernel, which has dynamic power management enabled by default and you should immediately see much better temperatures.

Didier Spaier · 01-25-2014, 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vaenby

What was the temperature of your laptop before and after using the cooler? I already cleaned the dust, not much effect there. About the thermal paste, the fan is quite new. About 5 or 6 months ago I got a replacement for the fan because there was a problem before with the fan and HP replaced it.

I didn't measure the temperature after using the cooler.

But what I know for sure is that I use the cooler whenever I use a VM or do demanding compilations and the laptop doesn't get hot anymore. I hope that'll extend its life several of several years.

Of course you can try a 3.13 kernel, as TobiSGD suggested (though it be fairly new so if that was me I would wait a few weeks till it has been more widely used so possibly some more bugs in it will be fixed).

Notwithstanding I think it's a shame that we can't use our laptops at their full potential without overheating, but that's another topic.

TobiSGD · 01-25-2014, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Notwithstanding I think it's a shame that we can't use our laptops at their full potential without overheating, but that's another topic.

If I had such a laptop I would return it to vendor, since this clearly is a problem with its design. Regardless which OS or which applications you use, there is only a certain amount of heat a system can produce under load (thermal design power). If your cooling system is not able to transport that heat away reliably it is poorly designed.

enorbet · 01-25-2014, 04:46 AM

Or poorly assembled. I have seen brand name laptops in which the heatsink did not make firm contact with the CPU. Others must resort to overly thick so-called thermal paste tabs with dbl-sided adhesive. Ridiculous. Even the best designed laptops rarely like to have holes, even as grillework, so airflow is not at a premium.... looks are. This is horrible too. Anything you can do to improve heat transfer is smart work. Even a copper shim between HS and CPU with proper thermal compound, can make your laptop more usable and for a lot longer, if poorly designed or assembled. Sadly, many consumer laptops are both.

schmatzler · 01-25-2014, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet

Others must resort to overly thick so-called thermal paste tabs with dbl-sided adhesive. Ridiculous.

And it is a "pure coincidence" that these tabs are drying out so the notebook gets unusable shortly after the end of the warranty period.

That reminds me of the mobile desaster that NVIDIA had with their G84 or NVS135M graphic chips. The first bunch they produced failed when they reached 90 degrees or above, so NVIDIA had to produce a new one that could withstand the heat.

A better option would have been to just produce notebooks that don't behave like microwaves - but that would have been to easy.

I have an old Fujitsu notebook here with a chip from the first (faulty) series. It is never reaching these high temperatures and playing games is no problem on that device.

On the other hand, a Dell D630 with the same chip failed two times (the second time after two weeks).

At least there are still good notebooks out there with a good coolant system. You just have to look. The Thinkpad series from Lenovo is still one of the most reliable in my opinion.

Claudiu.Ionel · 01-25-2014, 05:21 PM

From what I have seen with my Dell D630 from 2007:
-overheating is caused by heavy graphics, desktop environment, cpu demanding programs.
-you use the nouveau video drivers and this is hotter by ~10°C , use the proprietary drivers instead. Find an older version if the newest is causing problems.
-try the 3.2.53 kernel
- and almost forgot but you can use the jfs file system and you will get lower cpu usage (lower temps) than ext4 .
-you can try to underclock the cpu a little and not letting it to go to max all the time by adding this to /etc/rc.d/rc.local :

cpufreq-set --cpu 0 --max 1200000
cpufreq-set --cpu 1 --max 1200000

After setting the max frequency for ondemand governor now I read from sensors:
temp1: +34.5°C (crit = +99.0°C)

PS: If you tweak the cpu frequency to minimum you don't have to worry about heat anymore

metaschima · 01-25-2014, 05:41 PM

All the right modules are modprobed, so I suspect a hardware issue. Probably the fans are clogged with dust, and you may want to use compressed air to clean all the air ports. As this is a laptop, I do NOT recommend taking it apart. If the problem persists I would ask the manufacturer about the issue.

enorbet · 01-25-2014, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metaschima

<snip> As this is a laptop, I do NOT recommend taking it apart. <snip>

The above advice is generally wise since we can only guess at someone else's electro-mechanical experience and expertise. However there are a few situations when you should throw such advice out the window and just fix it yourself, or at least see how it's built and what could be wrong.

If it is out of warranty or you don't care about warranty.
If it is not your main or a production machine, or you have a backup machine.
If you're just sick of risking sterility everytime you actually place it on your lap and the manufacturer won't do anything about it.

Laptops are not rocket surgery. Like a PC all the components are keyed so they only go together one way. As long as you pay attention to the order that things disassemble and don't just yank on wires but grasp the connectors and activate any obvious locking mechanism disassembly is no big deal for anyone with even moderate mechanical skills. The only gotcha here is that sometimes manufacturers cover up the locations of bolts or screws with adhesive labels - not that big of a deal to discover and defeat.

Re-Assembly just requires not overtightening into plastic, brass or aluminum and it isn't a bad idea to use the crosshatch method of applying torque evenly. Do it in diagonals a step at a time and it's easy peasy.

The most important thing to remember and follow in both steps is to use the right tools. Don't try to use a Phillips Screwdriver that is too big or too small for a bolt head. I really don't have to say don't use a flat blade on a phillips do I? If your laptop uses Torx heads, stop, and do not continue until you have the proper tool. For most people as long as you don't rush, you will be just fine. Just think it through before you commit to an action. There is no shame in putting it back together and thinking about it for a few days while you re-evaluate your skills to go any further.

Obviously if you decide to do this the responsibility is all yours but there is a lot of help on the Net, including here. A big plus is de-mystifying your lil' lap buddy. It's just a machine and one that is built to be easily assembled on a line. Not magic.

ReaperX7 · 01-25-2014, 08:04 PM

Since you have a laptop, you might also want to search Slackbuilds for Laptop related tools to manage fan controls, power usage, and other laptop related factors.

laptop-mode-tools is a must have, as is ibam, and maybe wmpower, all of which are available from www.slackbuilds.org website.