# Critical temperature shutdown

## Wotan

Hi to all,

i've got Gentoo installed on my laptop since more than a year, and everything was working fine. Lately i made a world update and i switched to the 2.6.19 kernel. I dunno if it's related to it, but since then the pc shuts down after few minutes (even if just left on without any program running   :Confused:  ) with the message "Critical temperature reached 80°C , shutting down" (or something similar)

Since i wanted to try the 64bit Gentoo version, i made a clean install, thinking that it would have fixed the overheating problem, but it didn't   :Confused: 

It's even worse now... i cannot leave the laptop on form more than 5 minutes, after that it shuts down with the same message. The only way i can use it is outside the window   :Rolling Eyes: 

I thought it was a problem with the fans or a dirty heatsink, but Windows runs just fine even under big cpu load.

I tried looking around on the web, and i found many forum with ppls with the same problem, and it doesn't seem related to my pc or to Gentoo distribution, but no solutions were found   :Sad:  .

Some specs:

LAPTOP: Acer Aspire 1524WLMi

CPU: AMD64 3400+Mhz

I set up in kernel everything was needed about ACPI support (i think  :Embarassed:  )

I tried switching to the ondemand governor, but the cpu doesn't change frequency.

I've emerged cpufreqd and added it to the default runlevel, but i dunno if it's working... it doesn't seem to do anything  :Confused: 

Now... if you need any other info or the output of any command i will post them as soon as i can.

I really want to use my Gentoo again  :Crying or Very sad: 

Thanks in advance =)

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## Fukai

I have the same problem with my laptop (it shutdown after some seconds)

The problem is a fault acpi, I think (look I think because I don't know exactly what problem is) kernel try to control the fans

but it can't and the fan is stoped...

You can use you comp if you disable acpi (boot with 'acpi=off' boot option).

I think if you update you bios the problem is solved (I cant test it because my HP laptop need win to update bios) or correct a fault DSDT.

EDIT: this is a workaround if someone know a real solution plz post it.

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## widan

 *Wotan wrote:*   

> I set up in kernel everything was needed about ACPI support (i think  )

 

You need the processor, thermal zone and fan modules for thermal control. The problem is probably a broken DSDT (Acer is known for numerous ACPI problems) that possibly prevents the fan from turning on when it should.

 *Wotan wrote:*   

> I tried switching to the ondemand governor, but the cpu doesn't change frequency.

 

What does "dmesg | grep powernow" say ?

 *Fukai wrote:*   

> this is a workaround if someone know a real solution plz post it.

 

The true solution is to fix the DSDT, but it's model-specific. You can look for fixed DSDTs here, or try to fix your own by following this guide.

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## Fukai

 *widan wrote:*   

>  *Wotan wrote:*    *Fukai wrote:*   this is a workaround if someone know a real solution plz post it. 
> 
> The true solution is to fix the DSDT, but it's model-specific. You can look for fixed DSDTs here, or try to fix your own by following this guide. 

 

But this not always work, i fixed my DSDT (I only got one warning on my HP L2000, but fixed it), I think I need a bios update, but I need a fu**** win too do this...

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## Wotan

 *widan wrote:*   

> What does "dmesg | grep powernow" say ?

 

Sorry for the slow answer.. i'm quite busy with the university, so i can log on just every now and then.

Well, the output is

```
# dmesg | grep powernow

powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon(tm) 60 Processor 3400+ processors (version 2.00.00)

powernow-k8:     0 : fid 0xe (2200 MHz), vid 0x2

powernow-k8:     1 : fid 0xc (2000 Mhz), vid 0x6

powernow-k8:     2 : fid 0xa (1800 MHz), vid 0xa

powernow-k8:     3 : fid 0x0 (800 Mhz), vid 0x12

powernow-k8: ph2 null fid transition 0xe
```

So... uhm... it seems ok... but what does that last line mean?

Now i'm going to read the wiki about the DSDT.

Thanks for the answer  :Wink: 

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## widan

 *Wotan wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> powernow-k8: ph2 null fid transition 0xe
> ```
> ...

 

When the driver loads, it will transition the CPU to its maximum frequency. But in your case it is already at maximum (fid 0xe) and there is nothing to do. It's normal.

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## Wotan

Little update.

I read the wiki and i found out that my DSDT was "buggy".

So i followed the instructions, but since there wasn't a fixed DSDT for my laptop i did all by hand.

Everything went quite straightforward, so i removed warnings and errors, recompiled the kernel with the external DSDT option (everything keeping the laptop outside the window... brrrrr...   :Confused:  )

Now some outputs:

```
# dmesg | grep DSDT

ACPI: DSDT (v001  VIA   PTL_ACPI 0x06040000 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x0000000000000000

ACPI (tbget-0289): Table [DSDT] replaced by host OS [20060707]

```

That second line wasn't present before the DSDT fixing, so maybe it means it's loaded.

```
# acpitool -tfc

  Fan            : <not available>

  CPU type               : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3400+ 

  CPU speed              : 2200.000 MHz 

  Cache size             : 1024 KB

  Bogomips               : 4404.91 

  Processor ID           : 0

  Bus mastering control  : no

  Power management       : no

  Throttling control     : no

  Limit interface        : no

  Active C-state         : C1

  C-states (incl. C0)    : 3

  Thermal zone 1 : ok, 80 C

  Trip points : 

  ------------- 

  critical (S5):           97 C

  passive:                 90 C: tc1=2 tc2=5 tsp=300 devices=0xffff81001ff4e270 

  Thermal zone 2 : ok, 51 C

  Trip points : 

  ------------- 

  critical (S5):           80 C

  passive:                 75 C: tc1=2 tc2=5 tsp=300 devices=0xffff81001ff4e270 

```

the temperatures of thermal zone 1 and 2 keep rising... i'm afraid they won't stop until critical temp   :Confused: 

```
# sensors

k8temp-pci-00c3

Adapter: PCI adapter

Core0 Temp:

             +60Â°C

```

Uhm... i used this last command just 1 second after the acpitool one... i suppose that they use different sensors   :Confused: 

----------

## Wotan

It didn't work   :Crying or Very sad: 

I was looking at the output of:

```
# watch acpitool -tfc
```

When the temperatures reached

```
  Thermal zone 1 : ok, 91 C

 

  Thermal zone 2 : ok, 61 C 
```

The system showed again the message

```
critical temperature reached (80 C) shutting down
```

Btw, i looked just few seconds before that at the output of sensors command, and it read 68Â°C

Now... it seems that there is something wrong in all of this  :Rolling Eyes: 

None of the temperatures reached its critical limit... am i wrong?

Any opinion?  :Confused: 

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## widan

```
# acpitool -tfc

  Fan            : <not available>

...
```

Is the fan spinning up at all ? It looks like ACPI can't control it. Is there anything in the /proc/acpi/fan directory ?

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## Wotan

Yes, the fan is spinning, and if i try to execute some command to give some load to the CPU the fan spins faster, even if i think it could spin even faster...

I couldn't find any info about how to manage fan's speed for my laptop.

The /proc/acpi/fan directory is empty.

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## Wotan

Well... actually i'm not really sure about what happened.. but now it seems working  :Shocked: 

The only thing i changed was deactivating the "Device Drivers -> Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers -> ATA device support" thing in the kernel... but usually the laptop shutted down far more before finishing compiling   :Confused:   So i don't think that it was the problem.

However... i'm happy   :Very Happy: 

Big thanks to widan for the support   :Wink: 

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