# [SOLVED] Update the system and stay cool at the same time.

## cibonato

Ladies and gentlemen, summer is here (in Uruguay) and my system is burning out every time I try to update the system. If there is some important compile job to do (like mplayer, xine or kde-libs) it's just a matter of time (15 or 20 minutes) until the system turn itself of. The last time it happens (some minutes ago) I was monitoring temperatures (using Gkrellm) and it was about 120º C. 

Sure, it might be some BIOS or motherboard feature (mine is MSI-MS7309 and there's something called Cool'n'Quiet). The CPU is an Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ and the total RAM is 1GB.

So, any suggestion (beside buying some air conditioning system, it is my home computer and I have air conditioning)?

Greetings.

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## pianosaurus

Step one: Set -j1 in make.conf to only use one core at a time. Many ebuilds only use 1 core anyway, so this may not make much of a difference, but try it out.

Step two: Clock your CPU down to minimum. Compiles will take longer, but the temperature should stabilise further down the scale. Check out Power management and ACPI options -> CPU Frequency scaling in the kernel.

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## pianosaurus

Also, if you have another computer running linux, check out DistCC. My laptop easily overheats (as all laptops do), but I successfully offload all the compiling to other computers using DistCC.

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## Monkeh

I'd suggest fixing your heatsink. Either your ambient temperature is something like 55C, or you have a badly mounted heatsink (or other issue such as dead fans, no fans, clogged with dust..).

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## pianosaurus

 *Monkeh wrote:*   

> I'd suggest fixing your heatsink. Either your ambient temperature is something like 55C, or you have a badly mounted heatsink (or other issue such as dead fans, no fans, clogged with dust..).

 

++. 120 ℃ is way too high anyway, even if your system is under maximum load.

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## Mad Merlin

 *Cuber wrote:*   

> Also, if you have another computer running linux, check out DistCC. My laptop easily overheats (as all laptops do), but I successfully offload all the compiling to other computers using DistCC.

 

Not all laptops overheat easily. Both of my ThinkPads (T40 and T60) have been furiously compiling Gentoo for 5 and 3 years, respectively, and neither has ever overheated.

Though, I will concede that the vast majority of laptops will overheat easily.

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## pianosaurus

 *Mad Merlin wrote:*   

> Both of my ThinkPads (T40 and T60) have been furiously compiling Gentoo for 5 and 3 years, respectively, and neither has ever overheated.

 

Ok, I'll have to remember that next time I'm buying a laptop.

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## d2_racing

In fact, my laptop T60P compile a lot, I'm using the ~amd64 arch and I update my box 4-5 times a week at least.

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## zyko

Unless your hardware is pretty much new, the first step is always to remove all the dust from your fans/heatsinks. Accumulated dust, cigarette smoke, animal hair, etc. can really cripple your cooling system.

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## d2_racing

In fact, it's not normal that your CPU is now a toaster, one day it will burn for good.

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## cibonato

Good news! I can't say my computer is a refrigerator, but it's something quite like that.   :Very Happy: 

The first thing I did was open the case up and clean the cooler. This computer has just 1 fan (processor) and probably I'll buy a new one, this way the computer will have 2 fans.

After cleaning it up, I started compiling again and everything went fine. During the whole process, the temperature was not higher than 110º C and this time I had to compile kdelibs, glibc and gcc (a lot of work).

So, I could say everything is fine again and I can keep compiling just like before.   :Very Happy: 

Greetings.

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## d2_racing

 *cibonato wrote:*   

> During the whole process, the temperature was not higher than 110º C and this time I had to compile kdelibs, glibc and gcc (a lot of work).

 

110, that too high IMOO.

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## doctork

 *cibonato wrote:*   

> Good news! I can't say my computer is a refrigerator, but it's something quite like that.  
> 
> After cleaning it up, I started compiling again and everything went fine. During the whole process, the temperature was not higher than 110º C and this time I had to compile kdelibs, glibc and gcc (a lot of work).
> 
> 

  Doesn't sound like very "good news" to me.  Sorry, but I don't believe a CPU would survive an extended period of running at 110C -- maybe your sensors are screwed up.  My AMD X2 4600+ tops out somewhere in the 60-70C range during extended emerges and it has only a single case fan and the vanilla cpu heatsink/fan.

--

doc

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## Hupf

Ok, first of all, temperature sensors always deviate by a constant offset. You could switch off the system for a couple of hours, then boot it and directly read out the temperature reading - this should be around (room temperature) + 5°C. So for example with a room temperature of 30°C, if on boot 70°C are displayed, then your offset is 35° and your 120° are really "just" 95°C (still way too hot).

As to how to get your system cooler. First, you should plan a steady, laminar air flow without turbulences. A proven concept is using 2 case fans, one for intake (e.g. front or bottom) and one for blowing the hot air back out on the opposite side (i.e. back). There is no point in randomly adding more fans if the air is not transported over all the heated components (which means all the way through the case usually). The fans on the CPU and GPU are meant to scatter the heat from the respective "hot spots" into the case, where the air flow from the case fans can take it out.

The heatsink on the CPU (meaning not the fan, but the aluminum/copper/zinc platter in contact with the CPU die) has to properly divert the heat from the die's surface, therefore the thermal resistance should be minimized. This is achieved by applying a *thin* (it should not come out at the sides when you mount the heatsink) amount of thermal grease over the whole surface to cover up any air cavities that are due to the unevenness of the die/heatsink surface - air is a very bad thermal conductor. So when you mount a new CPU heatsink, pay attention to having good contact between the two surfaces; OTOH, never bend your mainboard when the heatsink is fixed with screws. Also you should thoroughly clean both surfaces from old thermal compount, with e.g. ethanol and a Q-tip, before applying the new thermal grease or pad.

At last, a word on noise. You should always use the biggest fans that fit in the desired location in your case. Also when in doubt, two fans at low speeds make less noise than one fan at high speed (delivering the same airflow).

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## cibonato

I think it's now time to mark this topic as SOLVED.   :Cool: 

Thermal grease and everything cool again. It could compile OpenOffice and the temperature was always below 43 ~ 45" C. 

Greetings.

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