my dell d820 runs HOT! cooling/powersaving tips?

[Darren.Mansell at opengi.co.uk]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com [mailto:ubuntu-users-
> bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of Matt Price
> Sent: 27 September 2007 16:30
> To: ubuntu
> Subject: my dell d820 runs HOT! cooling/powersaving tips?
> 
> hi folks,
> 
> just upgraded my dell d820 laptop to gutsy with compiz enabled.  it
> seems pretty great, actually, and i don't really have many complaints.
> but having nvidia turned on again (i've tried this before) reminds me
of
> how darned HOT this machine runs, especially (I think) the gpu.  just
> pretty much idling, running gnome & compiz, the gpu runs at 87
degrees.
> without compiz it seems to settle at more like 75.  i can't really
wear
> shorts, for instance.  and my battery life is pretty poor -- i never
get
> as much as two hours, compared, say, to my girlfriend's 8+ on her new
> thinkpad x61.
> 
> So, i'd like to reduce my power consumption and also make sure
> everything's running at a safe temperature.  can people suggest tools
> and tips to do that?  it'd be especially great if there were something
i
> could do about the graphics chip, which is an nvidia GeForce Go 7400.
> I'd also appreciate help powering down the other parts of the
computer,
> which include a core duo processor, an intel 3945abg wireless card,
and
> various other bits.  I've got powertop installed and am taking all the
> steps it suggests for reducing wakeups, but it's hard to get it down
> very far.  here's the current powertop output:
> 
> Wakeups-from-idle per second : 3214.7   interval: 10.0s
> Power usage (5 minute ACPI estimate) :   1.0 W (99.4 hours left)
> 
> Top causes for wakeups:
>   29.5% (135.3)       firefox-bin : schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
>   22.8% (104.9)       firefox-bin : futex_wait (hrtimer_wakeup)
>   13.4% ( 61.6)       <interrupt> : nvidia
>   10.1% ( 46.6)       <interrupt> : ipw3945
>    4.7% ( 21.6)       gnome-panel : schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
>    4.4% ( 20.2)       <interrupt> : libata
>    2.7% ( 12.5)   hald-addon-cpuf : queue_delayed_work_on
> (delayed_work_timer_fn
>    2.7% ( 12.5)      S20powernowd : queue_delayed_work_on
> (delayed_work_timer_fn
> 
> ---------------------------
> note the total wakeups number -- over 3000!  anyway i'm looking for
help
> and hoping someone on the list can give me some.  thanks much!
> 
> matt
> 
> 
> --
> Matt Price
> History Dept
> University of Toronto
> matt.price at utoronto.ca
> 
>
________________________________________________________________________

Is your CPU actually scaling? Enable the gnome scaling applet and see.