[Bug 370173] Re: laptop overheats and suddenly shuts down/off

[ybaruss]

** Description changed:

- Ubuntu 9.04, fresh install on Acer Aspire 5005.
- (confirmed also with 9.10)
+ Ubuntu 9.04, fresh install on Acer Aspire 5005 / Toshiba Satellite.
+ (confirmed also with 9.10 and 10.04)
  
- Not sure about package, but it seems the problem is with CPU frequency adjustment or fan control.
+ Not sure about package, but it seems the problem is:
+   * with CPU frequency adjustment,
+   * fan control,
+   * thermal sensors,
+   * control of cooling itself.
+ 
  Laptop shuts down right in the middle of CPU-greedy operation overheated. I haven't seen it before (since 7.10).
  The issue is discussed at several forums (eg. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7399158 )
  
       *-cpu
            product: AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-37
            vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
            physical id: 1
            bus info: cpu at 0
            version: 15.4.2
            size: 2GHz
            capacity: 2GHz
            width: 64 bits
            capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt x86-64 3dnowext 3dnow up pni lahf_lm cpufreq
+ 
+ also: AMD Turion Ultra 64 X2 RM-80 @ 2.1 GHz, AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60,
+ Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 540 @ 1.86GHz
+ 
  
  -----
  Replication:
  
  You can try:
  # sudo apt-get install stress
  # stress --cpu 16 --vm 2 --vm-bytes 128M
  
  But it may be the graphics card (gpu), connected to the same heat sink
  as the cpu, that causes the shutdown. And the gpu will only overheat
  when cpu is not getting very stressed/hot and thus the fan is not
  running fast enough to keep the gpu from overheating.
  
  It may also be reproducable by installing the ubunu alternate CD into
  virtualbox (without guest additions).
  
  -----
  Workarounds:
  
  Hint 1: Make sure the heatsink/vent system is not dusty. (Do clean it with pressured air/vacuum at own risk.)
  Hint 2: Using your laptop standing on its side or front edge (even if opened), i.e. when it is connected to external monitor etc., can change the heat flow and make parts like the gpu overheat which won't get so hot in normal orientation.
  
  In some cases using some additional kernel modules (or other cpu
  throttling packages) seem to work around the problem.
  
  Comment #308 points out how with ati graphics cards supported by the
  fglrx driver you can disable its acpi functions as a workaround.
  
  An example /etc/X11/xorg.conf to keep the gpu cooler in general is the
  following:
  
          Section "Screen"
     Identifier	"Configured Screen Device"
         Device	"Configured Video Device"
          EndSection
  
          Section "Device"
     Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
     Option "ClockGating" "true"
     Option "DynamicPM" "true"
     Option "DynamicClocks" "on"
          EndSection
  
  Comment #327 points to the "server" edition which does not use acpi and
  does not suffer from this bug.
  
  Comment #328 hinted that adding the "acpi.power_nocheck=1" AND
  "acpi_osi=linux" boot options can help, if your (updated) BIOS supports
  it. (Making nocheck=1 the default was proposed
  https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/23156/ but it is not upstream as of
  april 2010.)
  
  ---
  
  If your fan does not start at all, but in emergency overheating
  conditions, you may be seeing an (source code wise) unrelated issue/bug,
  that can be worked around however by the same acpi.power_nocheck=1 boot
  option as well, though. (Or by staying 10 seconds or so in the grub boot
  menu until the fan starts controlled by the bios can help.)

-- 
laptop overheats and suddenly shuts down/off
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/370173
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