Laptop Mode and powernowd in Dapper

[Kent Borg]

I am wondering about how to make my notebook run long and cool.

I have powernowd installed and laptop mode enabled (in
/etc/default/acpi-support, "ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true").

Wanting to control the powernowd settings I created
/etc/default/powernowd and put in it 'OPTIONS="-m2 -u90 -l40"'.  The
idea is to be aggressive about saving power.

I have CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor installed on my menu bar.

When I am plugged in it will sometimes scale back to 600 MHz, but not
always.  For example, as I type this my load is 0.20, 0.31, 0.45, yet
I am running at 1.3GHz.  If I unplug power and plug it back in again
it scales back to 600MHz and stays there until some activity moves it
up.  But then I let things die down, I watch the load fall back to
under 0.1 0.35 0.39, yet the speed stays at 1.3GHz.  A few minutes
later I see the speed drop to 600 MHz for a short time when the load
isn't as low.

How do I get my CPU to only run fast (and hot) when needed?


Thanks,

-kb