# [UNSOLVED] Laptop temperature high at 90C

## whitesouls

Greetings,

I'm getting this temperature during compilation time. Anyhelp anybody?

```
root@sysresccd /root % cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0/temperature

temperature:             90 C

```

Is the reading accurate? How can i know that for sure?

```
root@sysresccd /root % cat /proc/cpuinfo 

processor   : 0

vendor_id   : GenuineIntel

cpu family   : 6

model      : 13

model name   : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.60GHz

stepping   : 6

cpu MHz      : 1594.840

cache size   : 2048 KB

fdiv_bug   : no

hlt_bug      : no

f00f_bug   : no

coma_bug   : no

fpu      : yes

fpu_exception   : yes

cpuid level   : 2

wp      : yes

flags      : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe up bts est tm2

bogomips   : 3191.09

clflush size   : 64

```

----------

## DaggyStyle

clean the fan...

----------

## pappy_mcfae

...and the heat sink.

Blessed be!

Pappy

----------

## Cyker

It may be normal; Most laptops have got awful heat dissipation.

My Eee 900 idles at 60 without me even doing anything, and my MSI M677, well, during heavy use the 7600GS alone claims to be >100C and since the CPU shares a heat pipe I doubt it's far behind!!!

----------

## whitesouls

 :Sad:   I've cleaned the fan and the heatsink by removing the keyboard..and it was use to be at 70C few years back..three years i think.. cause i use to monitor the temp using conky. any other options guys?

Currently am using this

```
http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?act=detail&id=2581
```

----------

## Monkeh

There's nothing unsafe about those temperatures. If you really want to reduce them however, you could remove the heatsink, properly clean it and the CPU, and reapply with suitable TIM.

----------

## pappy_mcfae

Yes, my new Compaq runs at 125 degrees, and can get up to 135 while compiling. I keep the fan, it's holes, and the heatsink clean by using canned air weekly. So, while you are running a little on the hot side, it's nothing to worry about.

Blessed be!

Pappy

----------

## pdw_hu

125 Celsius? That mustn't be healthy. My C2D idles around 44 and during compilation it maxes out aroun 65 with fans blowing.

----------

## djinnZ

 *whitesouls wrote:*   

> during compilation time

 seems to be normal but is better if you verify with a termometer if the surface of heat sink has similar temperatures, for some crappy bestards of producers is needed to fix the dsdt or manually configure the hardware sensors package (in eve cases to adjust the moltiplicator) in order to have the right temperature reported.

In most cases the difference has a big value.

But IMHO 90° is normal for a big compilation, my laptop (amd64 3600 processor, cleaned every month) will report 80° as i emerge world.

If you want a better dissipation can try to put the laptop on marble or similar materials (in my office I have an old desktop with marble surface and the laptop will report 70/75° of cpu temperature), strange but true.

----------

## Monkeh

 *djinnZ wrote:*   

> seems to be normal but is better if you verify with a termometer if the surface of heat sink has similar temperatures

 

Heatsink temperature != sensor temperature. If the temperature has increased by 20C over a few years, it's likely due to the TIM drying out or the heatsink losing pressure (vibration undoing the screws.. it happens), which means the heatsink temperature won't match the CPU or sensor temperature.

----------

## pappy_mcfae

 *pdw_hu wrote:*   

> 125 Celsius? That mustn't be healthy. My C2D idles around 44 and during compilation it maxes out aroun 65 with fans blowing.

 

I live in the US, therefore, I was speaking of Fahrenheit. I know the difference. I don't have that l33t rating for nothing, ya know!

Blessed be!

Pappy

----------

## djinnZ

 *Monkeh wrote:*   

> Heatsink temperature != sensor temperature

 I know, but verify by example if there are an increment of the surface temperature in same time the sensor report can be a rude empiric test.

If the heat surface warm up after more time as normal (or you see an increment of them) you can suppose a loose of the pressure (I have not think at those problems, thanks for suggestions).

In order to verify the correct report if you see a surface temperature of 60° and the sensor will report a temperature of 100° you can think (even if there are no hardware problems) also at an error in the data conversion.

----------

## depontius

There have been things going on, not sure if it's in the kernel or exactly where, that may shut off "thermal polling."  From what I've heard, most systems don't really need thermal polling, and run the fan correctly even with it turned off.  But apparently there may be some systems that count on thermal polling to make the fan run properly, and yours might be one.  I did a quick google search with "linux", "polling", and "thermal", and got some interesting hits.  I didn't see anything about "frequency", and seem to remember it being part of the problem.

Hope this at least gives a few leads...

----------

## whitesouls

 *depontius wrote:*   

> There have been things going on, not sure if it's in the kernel or exactly where, that may shut off "thermal polling."  From what I've heard, most systems don't really need thermal polling, and run the fan correctly even with it turned off.  But apparently there may be some systems that count on thermal polling to make the fan run properly, and yours might be one.  I did a quick google search with "linux", "polling", and "thermal", and got some interesting hits.  I didn't see anything about "frequency", and seem to remember it being part of the problem.
> 
> Hope this at least gives a few leads...

 

Okie..thanks for lead..I'm installing conrad on my laptop now..as I was using opensolaris previously and the temperature was at 60C at 1600MHz.. If all fails I guess I will send my laptop to IBM service centre and change the heatsink and the fan as well..

----------

## depontius

I didn't see you say it was a Thinkpad.  I have a Thinkpad R50 at work, and have never had overheat problems, except the one time I was traveling and was using the previous (T20) one on the hotel bed.  It seems to require a hard surface underneath, or at least not a strong insulator.

Anyway, even with the newest kernels I haven't had overheat problems, but when I saw the stuff I posted about, I added a line to /etc/conf.d/local.start, along with my powertop stuff.  Come to think about it, I may have seen that on the powertop mailing list.  Next time I have the Thinkpad up, I can check the line I added, and post it, certainly by Monday.

----------

## whitesouls

 :Laughing:  my bad.. I'm using Thinkpad R51 1830-KA3.. And rite now I'm going crazy cause now the temperature is at 52C and I'm compiling gcc-4.3.1

```
root@sysresccd /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0 % cat *

<setting not supported>

<polling disabled>

state:                   ok

temperature:             52 C

critical (S5):           98 C

passive:                 94 C: tc1=5 tc2=4 tsp=600 devices= CPU 
```

Anybody knows why my laptop acting wierd?

----------

## Kasumi_Ninja

The easy way is to get a notebook stand with a big fan in it. The Recom RC-CD-PRO-SL is a good one.

Picture

http://www.recom.nl/images/rc-cd-pro-sl_p.jpg

----------

## whitesouls

 *Aniruddha wrote:*   

> The easy way is to get a notebook stand with a big fan in it. The Recom RC-CD-PRO-SL is a good one.
> 
> Picture
> 
> http://www.recom.nl/images/rc-cd-pro-sl_p.jpg

 

But i just bought this 2 weeks ago

```
http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?act=detail&id=2581
```

----------

## pappy_mcfae

I have noticed that the kernels seem to pick up different temps. For instance, on this computer, when it's running with the 2.2.66-gentoo-r10 or 2.6.22.19, the temperature is in the 80-100 degrees (F). Using the 2.6.25 or 2.6.25-gentoo-r4 results in readings twenty to thirty degrees higher. I just assume that the truth lies somewhere in the middle, and go on. I have the side off the machine and I blow out the fan/heat sink weekly, so I KNOW that CPU isn't going to overheat.

The same goes for my new laptop. I keep it clean. I never put it on a soft surface. I don't block the heat sink output holes on the back. As long as I do that, then the machine is going to run like it's supposed to. The third machine doesn't support sensors, but it still works, so I guess it's still ok. Oh, I keep up the same maintenance on that one, too.

Blessed be!

Pappy

----------

## depontius

OK, just fired up the R50 at work.  Here are the appropriate lines from "/etc/conf.d/local.start":

```
# Reactivate fan polling (when did it stop?)

echo 10 > /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0/polling_frequency
```

Give it a try.  Don't even know if they're necessary, but when I picked them up, I got them impression that they can't hurt.

Incidentally, how are you measuring temperature?  Last I knew, all Thinkpads were blacklisted in lm_sensors because things were brickage-prone.

----------

## whitesouls

```
root@sysresccd /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0 % ls

cooling_mode  polling_frequency  state  temperature  trip_points

root@sysresccd /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0 % cat polling_frequency 

<polling disabled>

root@sysresccd /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0 % echo 10 > polling_frequency 

root@sysresccd /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0 % cat *

<setting not supported>

polling frequency:       10 seconds

state:                   ok

temperature:             51 C

critical (S5):           98 C

passive:                 94 C: tc1=5 tc2=4 tsp=600 devices= CPU 

root@sysresccd /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0 % 

```

I'm not sure how the heck it came down to 51C and I've been compiling my toolchain (currently at gcc) continously where this laptop stays idle at 40C-42C and the top temperature now is 51C-52C... Wierd rite??   :Sad: 

EDIT:-> never used lm_sensors though...

----------

## depontius

So it looks like I should be glad I stuck that statement into my local.start?

How were you measuring temperature before?

----------

## whitesouls

 *depontius wrote:*   

> So it looks like I should be glad I stuck that statement into my local.start?
> 
> How were you measuring temperature before?

 

I measure my temperature by

```
root@sysresccd /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0 % cat *

<setting not supported>

polling frequency:       10 seconds

state:                   ok

temperature:             50 C

critical (S5):           98 C

passive:                 94 C: tc1=5 tc2=4 tsp=600 devices= CPU 

```

But it was like this even before i insert that 10 into polling frequency...

----------

## whitesouls

guys and girls..

after installing my laptop with gentoo, am still getting this

```
SkullCrusherX ~ # acpitool -e

  Kernel version : 2.6.26-rc8-zen120080321   -    ACPI version : 20080321

  -----------------------------------------------------------

  Battery #1     : slot empty

  AC adapter     : on-line

  Fan            : enabled

  Fan Speed      : 3479 RPM

  CPU type               : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.60GHz 

  Min/Max frequency      : 600/1600 MHz

  Current frequency      : 1600 MHz

  Frequency governor     : userspace 

  Freq. scaling driver   : acpi-cpufreq 

  Cache size             : 2048 KB

  Bogomips               : 3191.11 

  Processor ID           : 0

  Bus mastering control  : yes

  Power management       : yes

  Throttling control     : yes

  Limit interface        : yes

  Active C-state         : C0

  C-states (incl. C0)    : 3

  Usage of state C1      : 0 (0.0 %)

  Usage of state C2      : 2216820 (100.0 %)

  T-state count          : 8

  Active T-state         : T0

  Thermal zone 1 : ok, 68 C

  Trip points : 

  ------------- 

  critical (S5):           98 C

  passive:                 94 C: tc1=5 tc2=4 tsp=600 devices= CPU 

  wakeup devices : <not available>

```

I would really appreciate some help   :Sad:   Thanks

----------

## Jeffrey0

Previous topic on this issue: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-684812-highlight-.html

----------

## whitesouls

Thanks..Hope I will get a fix over there..

----------

