Overheating problems compaq presario c700
 

I am running Slackware linux 12.2 on a compaq presario c712nr laptop. I have almost full functionality on the laptop (wireless, sound, graphics, etc...) but have run into a problem with overheating.

In windows the laptop idles at around 55 C without any special cooling. In Slackware however, the laptop consistently runs at
63-82 degrees Celsius while under no load.

This causes problem when I try and put a load on the laptop (recompiling a kernel, watching movies, etc...) as it can run the laptop up to the shutoff temperature of 100 C.

I have looked through the LQ forums and found similar problems but nothing that seemed to help. I started looking into management through ACPI, thinking that I could control the cpu frequency and throttle it down based upon load as well as control the fan speed, however I have no fan control listed in /proc/acpi/ and using "modprobe fan" results in an empty directory.

Possibly relevant info:

% cat /proc/acpi/
ac_adapter/ info
battery/ power_resource/
button/ processor/
dsdt sleep
embedded_controller/ thermal_zone/
event video/
fadt wakeup

% cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/temperature
temperature: 71 C

% cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/trip_points
critical (S5): 100 C

% cat /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/info
processor id: 0
acpi id: 1
bus mastering control: yes
power management: yes
throttling control: yes
limit interface: yes

% top n 1
Tasks: 103 total, 1 running, 102 sleeping, 0 stopped,
Cpu(s): 1.1%us, 0.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 96.1%id, 0.7%wa, 1.0%hi
Mem: 2060364k total, 231956k used, 1828408k free, 18
Swap: 1951888k total, 0k used, 1951888k free, 137

I am running WMII as a windows manager, and this output is with 4 xterms up running nothing (other than one instance of vim).

Distro information:
Slackware Linux 12.2 kernel 2.6.27.7-smp

I am completely stymied. Any ideas on how to reduce the temperature to avoid overheating? (I noticed one common suggestion was to clean out the fans. I have already done this, to no avail).

Hi.

Looks like there's no trip point specified to turn on the fan. Could you run:

# cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/trip_points
then
# echo 90:0:52:50:48 > /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/trip_points
and then
# cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/trip_points
again, and see if the 'cat' outputs differ?

Dave

Thanks for responding Dave,

The output of trying to echo settings for different temperatures to the trip_point file is listed below.

root% cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZO1/trip_points
critical (S5): 100 C

root% echo 90:0:52:50:48 > /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/trip_points
bash: echo: write error: Input/output error

Of course after the error there is no change to the trip_points file.

As far as I understand (from other posts and the ACPI-Howto*) this means that my computer either 1) doesn't support multiple trip points or 2) something is setup improperly, though I could be way off.

Any other ideas?

*The ACPI-Howto is listed here:
http://www.columbia.edu/~ariel/acpi/...tml#check_bios
It hasn't help solve my problem but has been very useful to understanding ACPI and may help someone out.

little thought have you set bios to non OS or Non windows OS. this way bios does the fan not the operating system. and this allows linux to read it and report what bios are doing. then In bios set your power management how you want it. then Linux will try and I say try. to interface with the.acpi. I run mine this way and when I boot Slackware scripts disable thermal trip but bios will run the thermal at what ever you set it. I do this because I want my system if it goes bad not to burn up my machine. look around for some programs that will allow you to turn your fan on and off at will. I did this with my Toshiba because I found keep the fan on when under power and on the internet keep the system running cool and faster.

I have checked my BIOS and I have found no settings pertinent to thermal or OS controls. Searching yielded no updates to the BIOS that would activate any such capabilities.

The options I do have are the standard Mem Test, HD test, Diagnostic Logs (which all ran clean), System Clock, Boot Order, Boot Password, etc...

I may simply be misunderstanding you however. Could you explain what you mean in more detail?

well then that machine was built for windows iguess and 90 percent of the bios up grades are for windows. so I want you to read around and actually find the hp_acpi module and use it not the generic module that loads. lsmod and look for it. if not read about this problem and why we added the hp_acpi modle to the kernel. wow never seen a laptop that did not have power managment in bios but I am not saying there not there you need to learn how to turn the page in bios.
all the problems I read is the fan stays on or is not running fast enough.bios this is for linux.hp your model

I have read those HP pages before and as I mentioned I have already cleaned out the fans and checked the BIOS for relevant updates (The only BIOS updates available add increased security for the start up and bios password, according to the release notes). Thanks for the links nonetheless.

I am still working on figuring out the hp_acpi, but I have found little about it under that name. I will continue researching however.

A small update, which may or may not help diagnose this problems:

Upon booting into a Mepis Live CD

mepis1:~#cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/temperature
temperature: 55 C

Obviously this is an improvement as the temperature seems to hold around 55 C (low of 48, high of 63).

Now the obvious 'easy' solution is to switch distributions, but that seems to be an easy way to gain very little knowledge very quickly (can't run from every problem that shows up).

So, upon further inspection:

mepis1:~#ls /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/
cache cpufreq crash_notes thermal_throttle topology

The cpufreq exist and seems to be working. It is set to ondemand (according to /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor).

It seems I simply need to discover how to enable cpu scaling and the cpufreq functionality on my laptop in Slackware as I believe it is either not enabled or set to userspace by default (once again I could be wrong). Any thoughts on what else this could mean?


Solved:
After reinstalling Slackware (I had loaned my computer to a friend as their motherboard had fried) and modprobing acpi-cpufreq (as I had in the last install) I found that the install of cpufrequtils would recognize the cores, and (in conservative mode) keep the laptop around 48C when idle. This is obviously a marked improvement, and leads me to believe something was either silently failing or I had not properly configured the previous setup.

Thanks to everyone that helped!

over heating compaq presario c700
 

i also have a compaq presario c700 and every few minuites it just ramdomly turns off would you have any reasons why it may do that??????

I would check the same files mentioned above (those pertaining to temperature), namely:
cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/temperature
cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/trip_points

The first command will tell you the temperature of the laptop (you may have to tweak the file path slightly)
The second command will tell you the trip points used, of specific interest is the critical temperature.

If the temperature received is very high, or close to the critical temperature, then there is a good chance it is an overheating issue.

You may even wish to enter something like
watch cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/temperature
and watch it until the computer shuts down. If the shutdown coincides with a temperature increase, it is a heat problem, and we can go from there.

Further questions:
What OS are you using? (Slackware, Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE, etc...)
Are there any other symptoms (fan making a weird noise, screen flicker, motherboard beeps, error messages during shutdown/startup?)
What is the exact model of the laptop (mine is a c712nr, so a different member of the same family may have vastly different issues)?
What level of experience do you have with Linux (not necessary to answer this one, but it helps to know how much you know when explaining the why and how of fixing a problem)

Post all the info that you can, and we'll go from there.

compaq presario c700 problems.
 

hi again!

firstly how would you go about checking the files
cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/temperature
cat/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/trip_points
and were would you measure temperature or tweak the file patch.
and if i wish to enter something like
watch cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/temperature
and what is os (i am on vista if that is what that means!)
oh the fan dose make weird noises e.g it randomly goes loud then quieter if that is what you mean!
mine model is the Compaq presario c700 (or is that not right?)
um i have no clue what linux is ? please tell me!!



as you probually gathered i am new to all this computer stuff and i really want to fix the problem

all i know is that the fan makes loud noises and after about 10-15 minutes from the start up the screen goes black then stays black for about 2 seconds then everything just shuts down

thanks for the help and i am looking forward to hearing a reply soon so that we can fix the problem

An operating system (os) is, simply, the way you interact with the computer hardware. Vista, XP, OSX, Solaris, Unix, and Linux are all different types of operating systems. Linux is a pretty generic term used to discuss any number of different operating systems that use the Linux Kernel. For more information about Linux I recommend starting at wikipedia, though it is not really relevant to your problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

The above recommendations of files to check, etc... are invalid as Vista does not have those files (different Operating Systems are set up differently). This forum is meant for questions pertaining to the Linux Operating System (running Linux on different hardware, different types of linux operating systems, etc...), thus you're not likely to find much help here specific to Vista.

Operating system aside, however, it sounds like it may be a heat issue, thus I would recommend take a can of dust cleaner and blowing out the vents on the left hand side of the laptop, and on the bottom. This will clear any dust buildup, etc... and allow for better airflow. Then you should find a program that will help you determine the temperature of your laptop. I recommend Speedfan:
http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

If the temperature is very high (above 55 degrees Celsius) when you aren't doing much, then it is a heat issue.

Another, simpler way of determining if heat is the problem is to run the computer until shutdown, and feel the bottom. Is it warm, or very hot? If it is not very hot, then there is another issue.

As this is a linux forum there is not much more I can help you with here, but there are plenty of resources you can use to solve this! A good resource is http://forums.techguy.org/ or more specifically http://forums.techguy.org/75-windows-vista/

Ultimately however, if you do not know much about computers and just wish it to work, I recommend taking it to a more computer literate friend. They will be able to help you fix the problem step by step in person, which can make all the difference.

ok thanks so to clean it out should i take the back of and blow it or should i blow it from the side or what? and do you mean that i should speack to someone online to fix it or go in in person but i don't really know were to go PLEASE HELPPPP!!!!!

I have it was common with some of the older compaq systems. They don't have a standard bios interface but rather a "user friendly" interface that is missing alot if not all of the advanced features.

what is bios?

and how do you acess it?

BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. Think of it like a really simplistic operating system for your computers hardware. Bios controls the computer hardware at the very basic level you can access it several diffrent ways when your computer boots. Sometimes you have to hold down f12 sometimes you have to hold down delete. Sometimes you have to press f2 at the right time. Back in the day compaq had a strange pratice of using f11.