Help with laptop running hot (Lenovo ThinkPad T500)

[rizzim3]

Hi All,

Just looking for some feedback/solution to my laptop running hot and whether or not I should be concerned.

When using TCL the computer base is considerably hot to the touch, to the point I think the laptop will shut down from overheating. It's hot even on the top where one would rest their palms. When I run the laptop using Windows Vista Business the computer is much cooler and I have no concerns.

Why such a dramatic difference in heat generation? Does TCL not turn on the fans as frequently? Does TCL even manage that or is this the responsibility of the BIOS? If not the BIOS, is there a setting I must turn on in TCL to ensure the fans are running optimally? Unfortunately the fan is rather silent and it's hard to hear if they're on under TCL or Windows.

Thanks!

Details
OS: CorePlus 6.3 (32Bit) on a 4Gb USB drive

Computer
Model: Lenovo ThinkPad T500
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @2.26Ghz
RAM: 2Gb
Video: ATI Radeon HD3650

[gordon64]

rizzim3

I have a 64 bit tower but if you search in Apps for laptop you will get one result
laptop-mode-tools.tcz

read the info and install any additional optional dependencies as per

requires the acpid extension and optionally the cpufreqd and cpufrequtils extension

then setup as per info file

good luck

[curaga]

The BIOS is responsible for cooling. On some machines you can control the fans with lm-sensors tools.

That GPU can get somewhat hot, you need to have the radeon kernel driver (graphics- extension) loaded for it to be able to go to a low-power mode. That then means either Xorg or Xfbdev, Xvesa won't work with it.

[rizzim3]

curaga:
Apologies in advance for the newbie questions...
- How do I determine what X I'm running? Is there a command I can use from the terminal to find out?
- If I understand correctly, the graphics-3.16.6-tinycore.tcz extension will have the required ati radeon driver. Is there anything further I need to do besides loading this extension? Everything will be handled by this extension once it's been installed OnBoot?

gordon64:
I will review the extensions you recommended.

Thanks all!

[Juanito]

- How do I determine what X I'm running?

Code: [Select]

$ cat /etc/sysconfig/xserver
[or]
$ ps aux | grep X

If I understand correctly, the graphics-3.16.6-tinycore.tcz extension will have the required ati radeon driver.

As per graphics-3.16.6-tinycore.tcz.list:

Code: [Select]

/usr/local/lib/modules/3.16.6-tinycore/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/radeon.ko.gz

[rizzim3]

Juanito:

- As you suggested I tried,  ps aux | grep X and got back the following...
Xvesa -br -screen 1024x768x32.

- I assume that means I can not use graphics-3.16.6-tinycore.tcz as per curaga's feedback since I'm not running Xorg.

- If I install Xorg-7.7.tcz at OnBoot will this automatically run Xorg or is there a configuration file I need to edit to do that? 

- I noticed that Xvesa is in the OnBoot list and I assume that it should be replaced with Xorg-7.7. Is this correct?

I did load graphics-3.16.6-tinycore.tcz just to see what would happen under my current configuration (Xvesa). I ended up losing the top half of the monitor display. Had to drag windows to the lower half to see them.

Thanks for your help.

[Juanito]

If you're lucky, you can load Xorg-7.7 onboot and it will not require a configuration file - make sure you remove Xvesa from onboot.

[curaga]

Remove Xvesa from onboot.lst, add Xorg-7.7, xf86-video-ati, and firmware-radeon. Reboot.

[rizzim3]

curaga/Juanito:

i did as you suggested and things seem to be working. My laptop is running much cooler, on par to how it is when when running Windows Vista. I will continue to monitor to see if the laptop gets hotter. Thanks for all your help.

For others that may be having the same issue I'll summarize what I did given my laptop specs.

1) Download the following extensions as OnBoot
- Xorg-7.7.tcz
- firmware-radeon.tcz
- xf86-video-ati
- graphics-3.16.6-tinycore.tcz

2) Open onboot.lst file from your /tce directory
3) Edit the file to remove Xvesa.tcz
4) Double check the file to see if the extensions you downloaded (as shown in 1) are in the onboot.lst file
5) Reboot computer

Note:
I suggest double checking the onboot.lst file for the files downloaded. I didn't find the Xorg-7.7.tcz extension in the onboot.lst file even though I'm positive i downloaded it as OnBoot. Maybe I was in err but still a good idea to check.

If there's an issue with what I wrote please feel free to modify.

My computer specs:
Model: Lenovo ThinkPad T500
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @2.26Ghz
RAM: 2Gb
Video: ATI Radeon HD3650

[gordon64]

I didn't find the Xorg-7.7.tcz extension in the onboot.lst file even though I'm positive i downloaded it as OnBoot

firstly I am glad the gurus have replied so ignore my first post OK 

2) but if you are sure you chose onboot to download something and it did not appear in your onboot list, its possible one of the dependences was not fully downloaded ....maybe a temporary hitch in the repo?

3) The easiest way for me to check is open Apps search for  Xorg-7.7....click on the correct one....now click on the size TAB.....if any show a + against the dependency  you need to download them

good luck

[rizzim3]

gordon64:

I just checked and all is in order. I have all the dependencies. Perhaps I simply erred on my end when installing the Xorg extension. Thanks for the suggestion and help.

I've been running my laptop for a few hours now and things seem to be good, no overheating.