Celeron M Model 13 Dothan -- Is there ANY way to mod frequency?
 

Hello Everyone,

I have a laptop running F11. It has a Celeron M cpu, Model 13 Dothan, and I know that this cpu lacks the speedstep feature. Therefore, all of the conventional methods of attempting cpu freq stepping will not work. The cpu and laptop run at its full 1.4GHZ speed 100% of the time and the laptop gets VERY hot with F11.

I don't want to have to consider a lighter weight distro for this laptop because I have had Fedora on it since F8. But, I don't want my laptop to be damaged.

Does anyone know of any method of running the cpu at a lower speed for general tasks?

Any advice is appreciated.

Bob

No. Basically, you're asking, "How do I change the CPU speed when the processor does not support changing the CPU speed?" :scratch:

Well, since that processor runs at a 1 volt input voltage, you could rewire your power supply to deliver less then one volt. But the processor clock may be insensitive to voltage changes, so that may not work. And rewiring a laptop's power supply is, I think, a non-trivial task. (I've never tried it, and, insh'allah, I never will.:jawa:)

On the other hand, if I read the Celeron-M specifications correctly, the processor operating temperature range extends to 100°C so you may have no need to be worried. Also, are you sure that the "hot laptop" is from the processor temperature? On mine (quite different from yours) most of the heat comes from the hard drives, and F11 does access the drives fairly frequently.

Well, I figured that when someone knowledgable replied, that would be the answer. But, what the heck, I asked anyway. No, I am not 100% sure it is the processor generating all the heat, it could be the hard drive, since I cannot even install lm-sensors, I can't check the processor temps (sensors-detect reports that the hardware does not support it).

I only know that when F11 is running, the laptop gets so hot the fan comes on about every 10 seconds. I have tried a couple of live distros to see if I get the same result, and I don't with Pupply, Mandriva, etc., so you may have a point in the hard drive possibility since it is not being accessed with a live CD. It DOES still get pretty hot with live distros, but the fan does not come on nearly as often. But, if, as you say, it will allow running up to 100c, I doubt it is getting that hot. It's just a little irritating for the fan to come on so much just browsing the web.

Thanks for your reply. The information is helpful.

Bob

You will find the modes covered here http://www.tomsguide.com/us/does-eve...iew-240-3.html. It is only the ULV model that has a voltage down as low as 1 volt, but I wouldn't recommend rewiring anything. There may be options in the bios for undervolting or underclocking the processor, but this kind of machine is often very poorly provisioned with such options.

If the bios allows it you could probably underclock the processor or the bus and achieve a little power saving, but it will work slower all of the time, and this isn't a hypersonic speed demon to start with, so that might not seem like a desirable option to you, even if the bios does allow it.

Thanks, good of you to reply. This particular laptop is just my auxiliary
notebook that I sometimes take on the road (it's lighter than my main laptop and for when I need something more capable than my netbook.) It is four years old and I am not going to do anything to it or spend any money on it. It has 1.5GB memory, so it runs OK for speed for a 1.4GHz. I don't use it an awful lot, but enough that I wanted to get the heat thing sorted.

As it is, I will either just live with it as it is with Fedora 11 on it, or put something lighter weight on it.

Thanks again

Bob

Might I recommend cleaning out all of the fans on the laptop? I find that after a year cleaning the fans on a lappy (particuarly my Toshiba, with a 1.7GHz Celeron M) drops the operating temperature by at least 10 degrees Celsius