Powerbook/iBook thermal issues?

[Viro]

I've been running Ubuntu Linux solely for a week now on my Powerbook, using it for everything from DVD playing, to writing code, emailing to running my neural network simulations.

One thing that I have come to realize is that the laptop runs much hotter than it did when I was running OS X. The left palm rest (above the hard drive) seems to get really hot. So does the CPU area. Is this normal for laptops running Linux? Or is there something that I need to set?

I've currently got the powernowd daemon running, and my CPU speed is set to half for most of the time until CPU usage goes above 90%. The hard drive also spins down. I hear it spinning up and down, so I know that isn't the problem.

So anyone able to shed any light on why my laptop is running hot? Does anyone else have a similar experience?

[port7]

Yep I get that too, it gets quite hot on the left of the trackpad.

I have an 800Mhz G3

[SunTzu]

I have a 15" G4 powerbook and I've been running ubuntu for for about 2 weeks and it did get real hot once for about an hour and has not done it since. Not sure if thats good or bad. I have done the update and upgrade: (#apt-get update) and (# apt-get upgrade) but I'm not sure if that was the solution to the problem.

[Viro]

Glad to see it's not just me, but it is slightly disconcerting to see my laptop going so hot. Hope it doesn't shorten the lifespan of my laptop.

Now I wonder how to go about fixing it? I don't remember stock Debian ever making my hard drive so hot.

[TekMate]

I have the opposite problem my PowerBook 867mhz runs cool under Linux but runs too hot to touch under Panther.

[Viro]

Have you configured the spindown time of the hard drive? Also, what about the CPU scaling? Is there anything else you did?

[newfontherock]

Hi Viro,

I have similar issues with my iBook G4 933. I'm a little scared to use my iBook with ubuntu because it does get so hot. And the fan (which never makes its presence known in OS X) is very noisy. So I think I'll have to wait for the next release before using ubuntu again.

[jerome bettis]

http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=PA248U


cool to the touch with a 7200 rpm hard drive

[adamw]

I have more difficulties with my laptop getting hot with Mac OS X, but mainly when playing DVDs and doing source code compiles. Of course this is easily fixeable on OS X by setting my processor to "reduced" if I get too worried about the fan spinning up and the overheating. Not sure how to do this yet on Ubuntu, but then again I haven't needed to. My laptop runs a lot cooler and I get roughly 60% more battery life when I run Ubuntu.

[Viro]

Originally Posted by adamw I have more difficulties with my laptop getting hot with Mac OS X, but mainly when playing DVDs and doing source code compiles. Of course this is easily fixeable on OS X by setting my processor to "reduced" if I get too worried about the fan spinning up and the overheating. Not sure how to do this yet on Ubuntu, but then again I haven't needed to. My laptop runs a lot cooler and I get roughly 60% more battery life when I run Ubuntu.

That's all well and good. But my laptop runs hotter and I'm very interested to know what settings you have hence the point of this thread .

For those who have cool (as in temperature wise ) laptops, please do a ps -A and post that listing so we can see what services you're running. Also, tell us if you did anything extra like spindown the hard drive, put on CPU throttling, etc. Model of the laptop will be helpful too.