Overheating on HP Pavilion DV6

[amjjawad]

Hi,

HP Pavilion DV6, Core i5 (first generation), 4GB RAM, 1GB ATI Graphics Card. This machine has only two Operating Systems, Windows 7 and Lubuntu 12.04 64bit.

Long story short, the overheating while using Lubuntu ONLY is something unbelievable, I can't even touch the machine. With Windows, there is heat but LESS. Sad but true.

Any idea/thoughts/suggestion to fix this?

[Mark Phelps]

You could try using Jupiter:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1854019

[amjjawad]

You could try using Jupiter:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1854019

Thanks for your reply, Mark.
Actually, Jupiter is already installed and it's totally helpless. I have noticed the overheating from day 1 when I installed Linux but I ignored it. Yesterday, the overheating and the heat was too much that I couldn't really ignore.

[agillator]

I assume this is an older machine and the overheating has started recently. If that is the case, the problem could easily be the heat sink. That has happened to me a couple of times. The solution is relatively simple. My first advice is to take it to a qualified technician and tell him it is overheating. They will check it out and probably put new thermal grease between the heat sink and the cpu. However, if you are handy this is probably something you can do yourself if you are careful. I'm not going to give specific instructions because if you need specific instructions you shouldn't be doing it yourself as you void every warranty in the book and you can destroy your machine. BE ADVISED!! AND WHATEVER YOU DO BACKUP - BACKUP - BACKUP! Oh, yes, did I mention be sure to backup everything regardless of what you do? I will only mention that anyplace that sells computer parts (motherboards, cases, etc.) should have thermal grease you can purchase.

If it is a relatively new machine, say less than a year old, there is probably another problem. Have someone check it out.

[JayKay3OOO]

Does the machine have a lot of fan noise? If so then this will help.

Pull the back panel off and check the heat sink is not full of dust. I've found this with my laptop that the fan was blowing into a wall of thick dust and the heat was getting stuck in the casing rather than leaving the machine. Same with another machine.

You may need to pull the fan out to get to the heat sink. It looks a bit like a piece of metal with holes in leading the exit of the case. It's not that big.

You can get the dust out using a screwdriver, but make sure you don't let the dust flake over all the other components and don't bend the fins.

Check under the system load app to see if the machine is stuck @ 100% load. If it's not then for sure it's the heat sink.

[amjjawad]

This is a One Year + 9 Months Old Machine, running both Windows 7 and Lubuntu 12.04 which is the Lightweight version of Ubuntu and very low on resources, that is why logically, the overheating because of the system itself is something abnormal and not logical (I'm not saying it should never happen because there are some other factors that will affect on the heat).

I'm watching the System Monitor (gnome-system-monitor - I have installed it because Lubuntu comes with LXTask) and the CPU Load is quite NORMAL. With only System Monitor Opened and it's running on the Battery right now, the MAX CPU Load is 8% on one of the Cores while it is 0% on the other. The average is 3% as far as I can tell as shown on Desklet Conky.

The unusual part is: The Temp is between 58c - 60c while idle.
It goes high if I do: sudo apt-get update.
Any operation will make the Temp jumps above 60c.

No, the fan is NOT producing any noise or high sound. ONLY when I turn the machine ON, there is a high sound. Once I login to the Desktop, it's gone.

Before installing Linux, the machine had this overheating issue with Windows 7 when the External Graphics Card was ON. It has switchable Graphics Function so I can select to use the Built-in Graphics (Intel) or the External One (ATI). The sound of the fan was so high and the overheating was too much. Whenever it was working on the Intel Graphic Card (the built-in), the overheating was less but still high sometimes.

I have contacted HP and they advised to do a BIOS Update. That helped only for few days but then, I think the issue is back.

We don't use that machine much daily and if truth to be told, when I use that machine (it's not mine but it's at our home so I use it from time to time) and it happens that I'm using it MORE than the other person is using it, I don't login to Linux, I use Windows 7.
I decided to use Linux the other day and I was shocked when the heat went so high.

IMHO, as far as my experience with that machine, I think it has a Hardware issue that has nothing to do with the System itself.
I thin it needs a cooling fan that I need to buy. I did my best to find one that can help but I couldn't find one. The fan is located on the left top corner and the cooling fans/docks I found had one or two fans in the middle.

I'm using now a Lenovo G570 Laptop and it's Core i5 2nd generation with 4GB RAM and it has NO problem at all no matter how many hours it is on (I keep it on for days) and no matter how many applications I run.

I will try to clean the fan from dust but I don't think it's the issue and I must be very very careful.

[TenPlus1]

It seems that having both Intel and Ati graphics running at the same time will cause things to heat up considerably inside your laptop, so you will have to check out the following link and turn off one or the other... I'd recommend disabling Ati gfx and using Intel...

http://usernamepending.wordpress.com...rete-graphics/

[amjjawad]

It seems that having both Intel and Ati graphics running at the same time will cause things to heat up considerably inside your laptop, so you will have to check out the following link and turn off one or the other... I'd recommend disabling Ati gfx and using Intel...

http://usernamepending.wordpress.com...rete-graphics/

Before checking that link, I'd like to add something.

I rebooted that HP Laptop and entered to BIOS Setup. Then I was doing something else on the other machine (which has different problem :S) and left the HP Screen on the BIOS Setup. If I remember correctly, the whole time while the laptop was on BIOS, the fan sound was high and the heat was high. When I exit the BIOS and logged in, Temp was 72c or something like that. Then, after 1min, it went down and now it's 64c.

At BIOS Stage, I don't think the machine will run on both Graphic Cards at the same time. I just don't know what is going on :/

[amjjawad]

It's been 4 days now so any other suggestion/solution?

[amjjawad]

I was doing a memory test, rebooted, logged in to Lubuntu and you can see yourself how HIGH the temperature is O_o