laptop overheating (Solved)

[RedRover]

I have installed 2.15CE and got it running pretty well, but my laptop runs hot. The fan works all the time, and frequently it just turns itself off!

I was running ubuntu 7.04 before this with only a little problem during hot weather, though it never turned itself off

the laptop is running an Athlon 1500MHz with 256M of RAM

the CPU load is typically 0.29 0.19 0.16 55 processes
Top shows that all except the root process are sleeping
root is using about 1.6% CPU and 6% memory.

the computer is not working hard but still it is overheating.

Anything I can do?

[Bruce B]

Yes and I'm very concerned - I lost an Athon 1800MHz because the CPU fan went out. Worse, even though AMD guaranteed the CPU, they didn't have a replacement. So they upgraded me to beyond the capacity of the mother board.

You didn't say nada about how hot its running. Depending on where you live the hot weather could just be starting.

Wanna start a discussion about underclocking?

If you are inclined, its time to put a new CPU fan in, because the fan is cheap if you can find it, and the computer has some years on it.

[dsj]

I have an AMD Mobile Sempron 2600+ processor in a Laptop. I used to get running temperatures of above 75 C.

I read the HOWTO on scaling the CPU Frequency in the forums & scaled down the frequency of the processor to half. Now it runs cool at 51-52 C. Do check your fan.

Read the HOWTO on cpu frequency scaling.

[Bruce B]

Link to the aforementioned HowTo

Howto get CPU frequency scaling to work in 2.xx

[RedRover]

Sincere thanks to all who responded.

Using Bruce B's suggestion I Installed HairyWill's code. Bewdifull! A bit scary though, when I noticed that the fan had turned itself off for the first time. cpu_cur_freq now seems to be about a third of max, rising to max as needed, no fan noise, no loss of performance. So simple! I'm off now to mine this forum for other great ideas.

[Bruce B]

I think dsj gets the credit, I just provided the link. Didn't want to make anyone jealous but my CPU usually runs at 32 C

Would you mind editing the first post subject line to say: (Solved)

And thanks for the feedback.

[dsj]

I am glad that your problem is solved