Laptop Overheating

[mrligugu]

My laptop has started to overheat ever since I installed Linux mageia 2 a few months ago. Before, I had Windows 7 but switched to mageia. My laptop specifications are as follows:
Intel core i3, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB hard drive and is an HP pavilion G6.

My laptop just seems to heat very quickly and it gets so hot that I to put it on hibernate before it has to shut down due to the heat. With Windows 7 I didn't have a problem with the heat, but now there seems to be a problem. All help would be much appreciated.

Thank you very much, MrLigugu. :)

[zugunder]

Hi,

Looks like either your CPU is loaded with something all the time or the cooling system doesn't function properly.
To check your CPU load, quit from all active programs, start terminal, run

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top

and take a look at the numbers in %CPU load column. Is there anything consuming a lot?

[Ken-Bergen]

Most laptops are not meant to run their CPUs at full frequency all the time or they will over heat.
What's the output of

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cpupower frequency-info

[zugunder]

Ken-Bergen
Is cpupower default in Mageia 2? In Mageia 1 it was cpufreq as far as I remember.

[Ken-Bergen]

Is cpupower default in Mageia 2? In Mageia 1 it was cpufreq as far as I remember.

Good question.
Both are in the repositories but as I'm running M4 I can't check.

[doktor5000]

The command cpufreq had no response from terminal, neither did cpupower frequency-info. And the "top" command gave this:

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988 root      20   0  139m  29m  16m S    5  0.5   6:52.98 X
14853 billy_bu  20   0  512m  31m  21m S    3  0.5   0:02.66 konsole
 2554 billy_bu  20   0 2953m  96m  38m S    2  1.6   1:29.34 plasma-deskt
 2545 billy_bu  20   0 2787m  50m  23m S    2  0.9   3:05.50 kwin
 2602 billy_bu  20   0  926m  43m  21m S    1  0.7   1:03.75 ktorrent
  217 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:05.25 rtsx-polling
  729 root      20   0  481m  940  716 S    0  0.0   0:02.60 nscd
 2530 billy_bu  20   0  701m  27m  18m S    0  0.5   0:01.78 kded4
 2557 billy_bu  20   0  9268 1296  780 S    0  0.0   0:06.10 ksysguardd
 2575 billy_bu  20   0  731m  38m  23m S    0  0.6   0:02.70 krunner
 2615 billy_bu  39  19  509m  47m 6272 S    0  0.8   0:11.90 virtuoso-t
 2651 billy_bu  20   0  383m  48m  15m S    0  0.8   0:04.06 mgaapplet
 2652 billy_bu  20   0  326m  50m  15m S    0  0.8   0:17.11 net_applet
 2748 billy_bu  20   0 1240m 168m  46m S    0  2.8   6:20.65 chrome
 2886 billy_bu  20   0  260m  15m  12m S    0  0.3   0:00.18 akonadi_nepo
13389 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.53 kworker/0:3
15032 root      20   0 10920 1140  804 R    0  0.0   0:00.13 top
    1 root      20   0 44396 4988 1996 S    0  0.1   0:01.25 systemd
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.01 kthreadd
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.30 ksoftirqd/0
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.29 migration/0
   17 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 cpuset
   18 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 khelper
   19 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kdevtmpfs
   20 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 netns
   21 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.02 sync_supers
   22 root      20   0     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 bdi-default
   23 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kintegrityd
   24 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 kblockd

I closed all internet tabs except this one, im normally on facebook and various social networks. So what does that output above mean? I asked my friend who is a techy, and he said something about the amd gpu if that helps?

Thank you very much for the responses!

[djennings]

neither did cpupower frequency-info

You need to install the cpupower package

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su -
urpmi cpupower
cpupower frequency-info

[doktor5000]

Please next time use code tags as explained in ftp://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mandriva/m ... e_tags.ogv

[mrligugu]

Sorry doktor! Anyway here are the results of the cpupower command:

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[root@localhost John_Smith]#cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1 2 3
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 2.20 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.20 GHz, 2.10 GHz, 2.00 GHz, 1.90 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.70 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.50 GHz, 1.40 GHz, 1.30 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 1.10 GHz, 1000 MHz, 900 MHz, 800 MHz
  available cpufreq governors: ondemand, conservative, powersave, userspace, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 2.20 GHz.
                  The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 2.20 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).
  boost state support:
    Supported: no
    Active: no
    25500 MHz max turbo 4 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 3 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 2 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 1 active cores
[root@localhost John_Smith]#


[Ken-Bergen]

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current CPU frequency is 2.20 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).

Shows that your CPUs were running maximum frequency at the time you issued the command.
If you didn't reboot after installing cpupower it might not be in control yet.

[mrligugu]

Now I have rebooted and here are the results of the cpupower command:

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[John_Smith@localhost ~]$ cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1 2 3
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 2.20 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.20 GHz, 2.10 GHz, 2.00 GHz, 1.90 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.70 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.50 GHz, 1.40 GHz, 1.30 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 1.10 GHz, 1000 MHz, 900 MHz, 800 MHz
  available cpufreq governors: ondemand, conservative, powersave, userspace, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 2.20 GHz.
                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 2.20 GHz.
  boost state support:
    Supported: no
    Active: no
    25500 MHz max turbo 4 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 3 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 2 active cores
    25500 MHz max turbo 1 active cores
[John_Smith@localhost ~]$

[djennings]

The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use

The 'performance' governor will keep your CPU running at full speed regardless of demand. To change it
issue the command (as root)

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su -
cpupower frequency-set -g ondemand

You should then see the CPU frequency drops immediately.

The governor in use at boot time is determined by the file /etc/sysconfig/cpupower which should default to 'ondemand', so I suspect you have something installed on your laptop which is changing the governor after boot is complete. Which desktop are you using, and have you installed any other power management packages such as cpufreqd?

[mrligugu]

The only packages I have installed are the ones I've been told to use in this thread...
Should I install cpufreqd? That command you gave me seemed to have lowered the CPU usage by quite a bit. It still gets warm quite quickly though...


Thanks again for all the help given!

[djennings]

Should I install cpufreqd?

No. That was an example of an application that could change the default governor and cause your problem.

Which desktop are you using? and does /etc/sysconfig/cpupower specify the ondemand governor?

[mrligugu]

I didnt get the second question but im using the 3rd desktop. (Out of 4)

[tom_]

I think the first question was "are you using KDE or gnome or..."?
the second question was "may you show us the output of the following command?"

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cat  /etc/sysconfig/cpupower

[mrligugu]

cheers! I think im using KDE. Output of command:

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[root@localhost John_Smith]# cat  /etc/sysconfig/cpupower
# See 'cpupower help' and cpupower(1) for more info
CPUPOWER_START_OPTS="frequency-set -g performance"
CPUPOWER_STOP_OPTS="frequency-set -g ondemand"
[root@localhost John_Smith]#

[tom_]

ok, mime is:

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$ cat  /etc/sysconfig/cpupower
# See 'cpupower help' and cpupower(1) for more info
CPUPOWER_START_OPTS="frequency-set -g ondemand"
CPUPOWER_STOP_OPTS="frequency-set -g ondemand"


you should edit that file (as root) and change 'performance' to 'ondemand'.
then reboot

[doktor5000]

CPUPOWER_START_OPTS="frequency-set -g performance"

As tom mentioned before, every time your system boots, it will use performance governor by default and cpu will run at full speed the whole time.
You probably want to change this to something else (e.g. ondemand or conservative, depends on what is available on your system).

[mrligugu]

So how could I change it?

[doktor5000]

Read the two last posts again.

[mrligugu]

I know what to do I just dont know the command, im a noob.

[doktor5000]

Open the file /etc/sysconfig/cpupower in your favorite editor (e.g. vi, nano, emacs, mcedit or whatever you like) as root and change it.

[mrligugu]

Change it how though, scratch that last bit, im a total noob, sorry

[tom_]

open a terminal
become root typing

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su

and type your root password and press ENTER also if you can't see what you are typing on the screen
the prompt must change from $ to #

now edit the file

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vim  /etc/sysconfig/cpupower

move the cursor on the p of the word "performance"
press the letter 'x' until 'performance' disapper
press 'i' (command to go in insert mode)
write ondemand
press ESC (exit from insert mode)

if all is fine you must save your job pressing :wq
if you don't want to save your job press :q! and retry