# Overheating while installing from ports



## irkkaaja (Dec 9, 2009)

When I compile software from source (or, presumably, perform any computationally intensive task), gcc tends to overheat the CPU and force a shutdown. I'm sure it's not supposed to work this way, so what could be the problem?


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## Dru (Dec 9, 2009)

Your cpu is going to run high while compiling, and thats causing the heat...  May sound a bit obvious, but is the HSF combo clean, and breathing well? Sounds like a dusty pc to me, or else your cooling hardware isnt up to the task.


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## Beastie (Dec 9, 2009)

Or the heat sink is not fixed well, is moving and is not dissipating heat well enough.

Also make sure all fans are working properly (e.g. check their RPM before building and again during building), and none is reversed as they could be heating the case instead of cooling it. Air must flow in from the bottom front opening/fan and out from the top rear PSU fan.

Check that out, and if it's still causing trouble, keep that case open when building.


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## Anonymous (Dec 9, 2009)

If you are using a compaq laptop then good luck, I had the same problem and had to keep the thing raised because the only openings on the case are directly on the bottom.


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## Beastie (Dec 9, 2009)

mharvey87 said:
			
		

> the only openings on the case are directly on the bottom.


I call that good design. :e
You could try applying thermal grease and use those laptop cooling platforms.


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## toadlife (Dec 18, 2009)

I have a Compaq 6510b laptop and occasionally get overheated too.  An ugly kludge that should get you by without having shutdowns is to manually slow the processor down.

First, run the following to get the available CPU speeds:

```
#sysctl -a | grep "freq_levels"
```

This will spit out a list of CPU speeds your CPU can run at.

Here is what I get:

```
dev.cpu.0.freq_levels: 2000/35000 1750/30625 1600/25000 
1400/21875 1200/16000 1050/14000 900/12000 800/14000 
700/12250 600/10500 500/8750 400/7000 300/5250 200/3500 
100/1750
```

To get your CPU speed, run the following:

```
#sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq
```

To set your CPU to a new speed do the following:

```
#sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq=1400
```


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## mickey (Dec 18, 2009)

I too was having the overheating issue while compiling for extended periods of time with a ThinkPad T30. After disassembling it and looking at the heatsink, I suddenly knew how this could be 

Cleaning the whole heatsink/fan assembly lowered the temperature notably. This procedure has to be repeated regularly though, as the designers at IBM chose to suck in air from the bottom of the chassis, and all dust from the table with it x(

As an interim solution to keep the machine from shutting down due to high temperature, it also helped to override the _PSV value of the corresponding thermal zone with a lower value and/or to decrease the thermal polling interval. This way passive cooling kicks in sooner and the system will notice high temperature conditions sooner.


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