# Dell XPS m1330 shuts down because of too much heat

## Sephren

Hi,

I recently bought a new Dell XPS M1330 and when I boot up the install CD with X it takes about 10 minutes, then the laptop shuts down because of heat. I managed to install Gentoo the non-X way, but even then the laptop sometimes shuts down because of heat during compilations. Installing cpufreq and scaling down the cpu frequency solves the issue with compilations. However, even with the CPU clocked down, the laptop shuts down pretty fast because of heat.

There are no issues like this when I run Windows Vista.

Any idea what is wrong?

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## poly_poly-man

which video card do you have?

is it that flaming nvidia one?

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## Sephren

Possibly. If by flaming, you mean Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS.

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## Sephren

So if it is the video cards fault, is there any solution?

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## kernelOfTruth

 *Sephren wrote:*   

> So if it is the video cards fault, is there any solution?

 

call up Dell & let them replace the fan (if it doesn't work) or the whole board

now this sucks I don't hope I'll encounter this in the near future (I've the same model)

 *Quote:*   

> However, even with the CPU clocked down, the laptop shuts down pretty fast because of heat. 

 

what do you mean with "heat" ?

what does 

```
cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/temperature
```

 say ?

 *Quote:*   

> There are no issues like this when I run Windows Vista.
> 
> 

 

ah, ok, so try out newer livecds like parted magic 3.0 & report back if it still shuts down   :Razz: 

good luck   :Wink: 

edit:

get your hands on a liveDVD / liveCD with latest nvidia drivers as possible and try to compiled from there (e.g. SabayonLinux) --> the included nvidia-drivers in combination with PowerMizer clock down your graphics card & produce less heat, also consider getting yourself a laptop cooler or placing the laptop somewhere where it has enough room to dissipate heat

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## Sephren

 *kernelOfTruth wrote:*   

>  *Sephren wrote:*   So if it is the video cards fault, is there any solution? 
> 
> call up Dell & let them replace the fan (if it doesn't work) or the whole board
> 
> now this sucks I don't hope I'll encounter this in the near future (I've the same model)
> ...

 

As I guess you understood it works well in Windows, so I don't think it is a hardware issue. Also, I booted up the Kubuntu-CD and there were no issues there.

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
>  *Quote:*   However, even with the CPU clocked down, the laptop shuts down pretty fast because of heat.  
> 
> what do you mean with "heat" ?
> ...

 

Heat as in something becomes so warm that the failsafe thingy shuts the laptop down. It also becomes quite warm to the touch.

ACPI reports a rising temprature from around 50 to 105 once I start X. At 105 the laptop shuts down.

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
>  *Quote:*   There are no issues like this when I run Windows Vista.
> 
>  
> ...

 

Thought about at least trying another distro. *buntu seems to me as one of the distros where the most things  "just work", so I tried actually the Kubuntu CD as stated above. No such issues there

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> edit:
> 
> get your hands on a liveDVD / liveCD with latest nvidia drivers as possible and try to compiled from there (e.g. SabayonLinux) --> the included nvidia-drivers in combination with PowerMizer clock down your graphics card & produce less heat, also consider getting yourself a laptop cooler or placing the laptop somewhere where it has enough room to dissipate heat

 

I will try to upgrade the driver to one of the masked one. I managed to install Gentoo, just X that is failing. 

Anyways, since the laptop is behaving under Kubuntu, I wonder what they do to make it work so that I could maybe use the same things. I sort of doubt they use the latest nvidia-driver (they probably don't even use the closed source ones).

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## lonex

I've got the same model and don't have any heat problems whatsoever. Do you have the ACPI stuff enabled in your kernel? Especially the option about the fans?

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## Sephren

Yes. ACPI Fan module is enabled. But afaik, the fan module is just for userland control of the fan, not for the automatic fan control of the CPU (or video card fan, if that is the issue). 

I upgraded the nvidia driver and now X runs pretty well and I can compile stuff outside of X with the temperature not rising much above 70 degrees. Compiling stuff while in X however still makes the temperature reach critical levels pretty fast.

Tried mounting up gentoo from the Kubuntu liveCD and tried emerging something there, within X, and no issues. Temperature spiked to some 90 degrees then drops down to 70-75 and stays stable there.

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## jcat

I have an XPS 1530 (just a bigger screen, but same graphics card).

I have no overheating problems at all.  To me, this sounds like it could still be hardware _or_ software, but if it is hardware it's only manifesting itself when you run your Gentoo install for some reason.

The other distros you tried that worked, which nVidia driver where they using (open or closed driver, which version of closed driver)?

Monitor your GPU core temp as well as your CPU core temp, you can do that using the nVidia Settings tools (either with or without the GUI).

Are there any power management set-up differences with the distros that work: For example, CPU governor and Powermizer (GPU) settings may all help keep overall heat level inside the laptop down, and hence make the other distros seem more resilient under load.

When you start X under Gentoo, what is the system resource usage like, how idle is it?

Those are some things to considerer when comparing different distros.

Make detailed notes comparing the points above from the various OS's that you've tried, and make your conclusions or post back your results here for analysis.

Cheers,

jcat

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