Overheating computer

[deef86]

My laptop just overheated and shut down.
This has never happened until I installed Linux.

Do I need a especific distribution of Linux for laptops?

I have a Toshiba Satellite

[eskaypey]

Hmm .. What distribution did you install? Maybe you have to many apps/processes running at the same time? Is the cpu fan spinning properly?
Maybe its the time you clean insides of your laptop?
Refere to this thread for some solutions --
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=141100

[jailbreaker]

I had the same problem with ubuntu. but it seems to run better since I cleaned it and put thermal paste on it now :) (runin now XP tho :()

[deef86]

I don't think so,
My computer is not very old, and this has never happened, since I installed Linux the fan has not been running normal, maybe it's just coincidence, but I am going to go back to windowns for now to see if the fan runs the same way, if it doesn't I am going to send this for them to ****ing fix it.

I don't think i am running too much stuff on it, I had aim on and gaim and that was it.

I hate toshiba, the only reason i have this stupid piece of crap is because they couldn't fix my other toshiba so they gave me a new one, am getting a laptop in another year, but I am seriously thinking about getting myself an elite desktop after I built my mom a computer which I love (am using it right now).

Any other ideas?

[Fryguy8]

Does the kernel you are using support all of the APM powersaving stuff?

[ooagentbender]

Your problem is definitely a power management one because either apm or acpi is not turning on the fan when the processor is getting warm. Also, if your feeling brave, pull that sucker apart and put some artic silver on your proc, I did with my powerbook and it has been consistently cooler because in general the big corporations use heat transfer pads which just suck.

hope that helps, go to tuxmobile.org and check out your manufacturer and model for guides, they will generaly help you get acpi and apm set up. If your model isn't listed look for ones that are similar.

enjoy!

[paj12]

Another possible problem might be if you haven't properly set up SpeedStep. If you have a Mobile Pentium 4 and don't set SpeedStep up, your CPU will run wide open all the time. This can generate of ton of heat as laptops don't have very good cooling.

This can usually be fixed by a simple "modprobe speedstep-xxx" for the correct module and then running something like pownernowd (http://freshmeat.net/projects/powernowd/)

Hope this helps. :)

[ooagentbender]

all computers are built so that even if they were compiling 24/7 they wouldn't shutdown. Worry about your fan before speedstep (though its important), because even with your processor clocked down it will still overheat. :cool:

[deef86]

Okie, I have a Celeron, and I think the power management thing is the problem, now can someone give me detailed instructions for stupid people on how to get that working?

I am going to check the website, but in the meanwhile if anyone knows how to do it off the back I'd love some help.

Thanks again you guys

[deef86]

Okie people, I checked my distribution (Mandriva) and the computer configuration crap and the acpi is enabled to turn on when it boots. My computer just shut down for no reason again, and I don't get why the hell it keeps doing that...... HELP

[deef86]

Apparently my ACPI configurations are not completely enabled, and it says something about me having to change it and rebuilt the kernel... can someone explai that to me in simple English? or direct me to a site that has instructions for noobs?