Overheating Laptop

[Pastor JW]

On Monday 16 June 2008 08:23:29 am Derek Broughton wrote:
>
> Er, yes :-)  But the fact is that ACPI implementations are often buggy, and
> tested only on Windows, so things like fan controls fairly frequently work
> better in Windows than Linux.

You know, I think our OS developers really ought to spend a little more time 
to address this and fix the install process.  A normal (if there really is 
such a class) user is just looking for usability, not becoming a hardware 
repair tech!   An overheating computer is doomed to a short life!  Not a good 
idea if one wishes to promote a good solid OS is it?  It might please the 
manufacturer as he gets to sell more but even he ought to worry as the word 
will get out that he makes low grade merchandise. 

> Sorry, if I repeat anything that has already been said, as I wasn't
> following this thread, until I just now came across it while my laptop was
> literally burning my lap!
>
> The sensors command was telling me my laptop was at 71C:
> $ sensors
> coretemp-isa-0000
> Adapter: ISA adapter
> Core 0:      +71.0°C  (crit = +100.0°C)

My machine doesn't even have this command! It gives:

$ sensors
No sensors found!
Make sure you loaded all the kernel drivers you need.
Try sensors-detect to find out which these are.

Now how would an average user know which modules to work with?  Sensors-detect 
has a default set of answers but if one just uses them, nothing is changed.  

> yet:
> $  cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/temperature
> temperature:             0 C

yet this  command gives: 
$  cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/temperature
temperature:             42 C

> Now, I knew I'd seen a value there before, so figured that the "thermal"
> module was broken somehow (note, I used the * in that path because there is
> no way to say exactly what the ACPI controls are named on any particular
> system - this seems to be at the root of some later statements about files
> being "missing" - not all systems have the same files).  So I did:
> $ sudo modprobe thermal -r
> $ sudo modprobe thermal

A "remove and replace"?  ...but if the module is bad in the first place, 
wouldn't it just continue to be bad? Or did I miss something?  

> And, voila, the fan promptly started up at low speed and brought the
> temperature fairly quickly down to 50C (now visible in /proc/acpi/...)
> before turning off.  I suspect it's not resuming properly after hibernate,
> so if I ever find out (again) where to set that for pm, I'll have it
> remove "thermal" before hibernating, then insert it on resume.

Or are you saying hibernate corrupts the module?  or does something 
permanently turn off the sensor so the module gets no input.  


-- 
73 de N7PSV aka Pastor JW <n><   PDGA# 35276
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