# Yet another hot laptop



## Defre (Jun 23, 2010)

Hi,

My laptop is always hot. The computer is an MSI GT729, powered by a Core 2 Quad @ 2Ghz an a Radeon 4850 graphics card.

I followed various advice I found on this forum.

Sysctl reports, the computer doing almost nothing:

```
dev.cpu.0.freq: 800
  dev.cpu.0.temperature: 52,0C
  dev.cpu.0.cx_lowest: C2
  dev.cpu.1.temperature: 52,0C
  dev.cpu.1.cx_lowest: C2
  dev.cpu.2.temperature: 52,0C
  dev.cpu.2.cx_lowest: C2
  dev.cpu.3.temperature: 51,0C
  dev.cpu.3.cx_lowest: C2
```

Powerd downclock sometimes to 200 Mhz. CPU frequency changes almost nothing to temperature (reported temperature looks correct), fan are running fast most of the time.
Which makes me think problem may come from GPUâ€¦

I tried these options in Xorg.conf:

```
Option     "DynamicPM" "true"           # [<bool>]
        Option     "ClockGating" "true"         # [<bool>]
```

FreeBSD manual also gives information about ACPI dumping & debugging; being not a specialist at all, I don't want to make mistakes. If needed, I can post the dump.
Here are loaded modules:

```
1   55 0xffffffff80100000 d4c4b8   kernel
 2    1 0xffffffff80e4d000 24e48    snd_hda.ko
 3    2 0xffffffff80e72000 75638    sound.ko
 4    1 0xffffffff80ee8000 1e08     coretemp.ko
 5    1 0xffffffff80eea000 6af8     acpi_video.ko
 6    1 0xffffffff80ef1000 fd80     ahci.ko
 7    1 0xffffffff80f01000 103a8    cpufreq.ko
 8    1 0xffffffff80f12000 5230     ichsmb.ko
 9    2 0xffffffff80f18000 2530     smbus.ko
10    1 0xffffffff80f1b000 38c8     ichwd.ko
11    1 0xffffffff80f1f000 57120    iwn5000fw.ko
12    1 0xffffffff80f77000 1dff0    if_iwn.ko
13    1 0xffffffff80f95000 80f8     sdhci.ko
14    1 0xffffffff80f9e000 ae08     mmc.ko
15    1 0xffffffff80fa9000 4090     mmcsd.ko
16    1 0xffffffff80fae000 5328     atapicam.ko
17    1 0xffffffff81022000 6485f    radeon.ko
18    1 0xffffffff81087000 11416    drm.ko
```

Thank you.


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## fronclynne (Jun 23, 2010)

52C doesn't sound insanely hot for a lap-top (at least in my experience).  The setpoints may be a bit high, though.   My groddy toshiba does this all day long if I'm not flogging it: 
	
	



```
Jun 20 07:47:08 thulcandra kernel: acpi_tz0: _AC1: temperature 42.0 >= setpoint 41.8
Jun 20 07:47:08 thulcandra kernel: acpi_tz0: switched from NONE to _AC1: 42.0C
Jun 20 07:59:46 thulcandra kernel: acpi_tz0: switched from _AC1 to NONE: 41.0C
```

You can look at [cmd=""]sysctl hw.acpi.thermal[/cmd], but not everything does anything on every lap-top.

Also, I'm pretty much out of my depth & in desperate need of coffee.  Good luck.


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## graudeejs (Jun 23, 2010)

My HP with Thurion 2X heats up to ~85 Celsius
I can't put it on my legs If I wear shorts. lol


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## kpedersen (Jun 23, 2010)

Hello,

I have recently replaced Windows Server 2003 with FreeBSD for my IBM Thinkpad T23 natd server, however it runs about 20 degrees hotter!

I have followed everything on http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=172 to try to cool it down but it is still really hot.

Is this a known problem with FreeBSD? How come it is hotter?, I have no GUI or any other services compared to Windows yet it still requires more power.

I don't know if I can justify wasting the extra power for this project just to run a cleaner OS.

Any info would be greatly appreciated


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## mav@ (Jun 24, 2010)

It would be nice if you shown what options you have configured now and what technologies your system supports.


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## Defre (Jun 25, 2010)

Of course, I will try to describe as precisely as possible my configuration.

On the kernel side:


```
$ uname -a
FreeBSD nifelheim.ygg-drasil.fr 8.1-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 8.1-PRERELEASE #9: Fri Jun 18 12:49:02 CEST 2010     [email]def@nifelheim.ygg-drasil.fr[/email]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/VESAKERN  amd64
```

The kernel and world are built from STABLE branch, fetched with Â«csupÂ».
VESAKERN config just adds:

```
options VESA
options SC_PIXEL_MODE
```

On the user side:
X11 from the ports with xf86-video-ati driver.
I updated both mesa and xf86-video-ati to GIT head version, performance are slightly better, problem remains. I am still running with GIT versions.
DRI works fine. The desktop runs xmonad wm, and I am using compositing with xcompmgr. Nothing else particular (standard UFS2 file system, etc.)

Configuration:

sysctl.conf:

```
hw.snd.default_unit=1
kern.module_path=/boot/kernel;/boot/modules;/usr/local/modules
vfs.usermount=1
kern.ipc.shm_use_phys=1
kern.ipc.shm_allow_removed=1
```

loader.conf:

```
ahci_load="YES"

snd_hda_load="YES"
cpufreq_load="YES"
coretemp_load="YES"

ichsmb_load="YES"
ichwd_load="YES"

acpi_video_load="YES"
iwn5000fw_load="YES"
if_iwn_load="YES"

sdhci_load="YES"
mmc_load="YES"
mmcsd_load="YES"

atapicam_load="YES"
hw.pci.do_power_nodriver=3

#hint.p4tcc.0.disabled=1
#hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled=1
#
#hint.pcm.0.buffersize=65536
#hint.pcm.1.buffersize=65536
#hw.snd.feeder_buffersize=65536
#hw.snd.latency=7

kern.ipc.semmni=256
kern.ipc.semmns=512
kern.ipc.semmnu=256
```
(shared memory related options are enabled for Qt raster driver).

From /etc/rc.conf:

```
powerd_flags="-a adaptive -b adaptive" #"-a hiadaptive -b adaptive -i 85 -r 60 -p 100"
performance_cx_lowest="C2"
economy_cx_lowest="C2"
```
.

Attached is the full output of sysctl, gzipped to fit allowed upload file size.

Thank you!


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## mav@ (Jun 28, 2010)

I see you you have commented these lines:

```
hint.p4tcc.0.disabled=1
hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled=1
```
I would suggest to restore them back.

I see you have default HZ. Reducing it increase C2/C3 effectiveness:

```
kern.hz=100
```

Make sure you have read http://wiki.freebsd.org/TuningPowerConsumption. Especially look on enabling C3 state and SATA power management (ahci(4)).


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## Defre (Jul 3, 2010)

Ok, I applied your tips and the one I found on the page, but temperature stayed the same. I opened the laptop and the CPU didn't looked being too hot.

However the GPU not far from the CPU was always too much hot, whether having Xorg running or not, or with tuning "radeon" driver options (tried blends of "DynamicPM", "ClockGating" and "ForceLowPowerMode").*beep*Maybe I am missing somethingâ€¦
No way to reduce heat nor increase battery life (according to some users running "officially supported" OS, autonomy can reach 2h30, though I never managed to exceed 1h30). Though battery life isn't really a problem, my previous laptop already died due to GPU overheating.


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## kpedersen (Jul 3, 2010)

Yes, I believe that is the part that is making my laptop hot.

My gfx card is a s3 savage, and seems to be the culprit for making the machine very hot in a certain place.

Perhaps it is cooler in Windows because of better power saving in the drivers? But it is even a bit cooler in Linux and I imagine the xorg drivers are semi similar.


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## davidgurvich (Jul 3, 2010)

Are you certain you are using the correct drivers for the s3 savage?  I had the same system and needed to make explicit changes to xorg.conf to use them.  The default xorg.conf did not use the s3 driver.  There should be a setting in BIOS on how much ram is used for the video.  If that is set to 1MB you might be able to increase that to 8MB.


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## kpedersen (Jul 3, 2010)

Well because I am using that laptop as a server, it does not even have xorg installed.

So it is not using the *savage* driver which could mean that there is no power management running on the card.

What might be interesting is if I run X11 with the savage driver, it might cool it down a bit than if I was just using the console (no X11) which would be counter-intuitive.

I will post the results 

If I did, *kldload savage*, perhaps that might help, even though X11 is not used?


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## wblock@ (Jul 3, 2010)

kpedersen said:
			
		

> What might be interesting is if I run X11 with the savage driver, it might cool it down a bit than if I was just using the console (no X11) which would be counter-intuitive.
> 
> I will post the results
> 
> If I did, *kldload savage*, perhaps that might help, even though X11 is not used?



Both are doubtful, but evidence trumps hunches.

As long as you're testing, try the console blank screen saver.  See splash(4).


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