Hardy runs hot!

**starcannon** · May 31st, 2008

R-click on your top or bottom panel
click on Add to panel
select and add CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-applets

Answer YES to the "run as root" question.

Now you should be able to left click on the cpu frequency scaling monitor and set the speed of your cpu. There are some presets in there as well, I just set mine to "Ondemand" that keep's the fan quite and the performance acceptable

GL

**Roundel** · June 3rd, 2008

Thanks Starcannon, this seems like a good solution in the short term. I tried it on my HP ZD7000 and I got the error message

"CPU frequency scaling unsupported: You will not be able to modify the frequency of your machine. Your machine may be misconfigured or not have hardware support for CPU frequency scaling."

Is there anything you know of that might resolve this problem? I checked the repositories but couldn't find anything. I think it might just be an issue with my laptop hardware that makes it impossible.

**starcannon** · June 3rd, 2008

@Roundel
UPDATE
What cpu is in that laptop?

I know on my old Dell Inspiron | 5100 I had to add the P4 module because I was getting that same error message, could be you have a cpu that requires an additional module.
I used the modconf tool

Code:

sudo apt-get install modconf

Then run it:

Code:

sudo modconf

The section that will contain what you need is likely in:

Code:

 Select kernel/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq modules

After looking your computer up on google it would appear that,
You need the P4 Clock Mod for that machine:

Code:

p4-clockmod

That should get it working for you.

GL you may have to google around a bit to find any other specific modules you need for your laptop.

**noland** · June 6th, 2008

i had the same problem in gutsy (now upgraded to hardy)... i had installed a program called "gkrellm" in which you can control a bunch of parameters... and i dunno why but, without that prog running, temp is super hot, i start that and it seems to take control of the fan and bring it back to 50 or less... does the job for me and its a lot more comfortable for the hand cuz high temp can be a pain.. and the fan is always running slowly but enough.

**Roundel** · June 12th, 2008

Thanks Starcannon! I used your suggestion, and its been working great for the last week. I wanted to give it some time to see if I ran into any problems before I posted. Seems very stable and fixes the problem. What a relief!

Do you know if there's a similar control I could add for my GPU (I'm pretty sure they're not integrated on a ZD7000)? Maybe Hardy already controls this, I don't know.

**sergiom99** · June 17th, 2008

@starcannon
how would it be for Kubuntu? I'm not sure I wanna install all the Gnome packages requiered for gnome-applets.
Thanks!

**Dawa** · June 30th, 2008

I'm having the same problems on my HP Pavilion dz6500z CTO. It has dual AMD turion 64s, but i'm running Hardy 32. Anyway, sorry to be critical, but this absolutely sucks. 7.10 had a couple of things I had to mess with after install, but nothing was potentially damaging my computer. Seriously, I could heat soup on this thing. Looks like I'm stranded in Vista until Ubuntu works like it used to.

**MacMan** · July 1st, 2008

I've always had CPU temperature problems with Kubuntu on my HP Pavillion dv6000: CPU scaling wouldn't work, the CPU was always running at the highest frequency, and the temperature would grow.

I've solved the issue with two fixes:
first, I've installed the latest laptop BIOS: this one turns the fan on earlier so the temperature doesn't go so high;
second, I've added these two boot options:

Code:

noapictimer irqpoll

After adding them, CPU scaling started working correctly, and the temperature is under control (usually around 44 °C). Using Win Vista the temperature is even lower (39 °C), but I'm happy anyway. The change also fixed Suspend to RAM, which wouldn't work before.

I hope this info can be useful for someone else.

Ciao.