[ltp] Kick up the Fan - R50e Fan problems

David A. Desrosiers linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Sat, 20 Aug 2005 22:23:32 -0400 (EDT)


> For now people with critical shutdown problems should go for the 
> userspace governor and a cpufreq daemon. There the max frequency is 
> lowered until the temperature sub-ceeds the passive trip point 
> again. That should work well.

 	...except on my T42p, apparently. I'm at 600Mhz most of the 
time and I can get the machine from a cold 48C bootup to >80C in about 
10 minutes, which results in a hard-lockup. Just play bzflag on it for 
8-10 minutes in full-screen mode, and it will rise over 40C in a very 
very short period of time.

 	I've been investigating some alternative cooling solutions to 
try to keep it down. I may create/repurpose a watercooler system for 
the GPU if I can't find a fan that will work in the tight confines of 
my laptop case.

> I will send a patch to be able to set the fan to full-speed 
> seperately (you gain some more time you can use the laptop on 
> highest frequency).

 	I wish the fan would run higher, actually. I've got it set to 
run from 40C to 75C, and it doesn't seem to make any difference. It 
just isn't moving enough of that hot air off of the GPU and CPU.

 	Incidentally, I use the conservative governor. In my tests, it 
gives me 40-60 minutes more battery life than the powersave or 
userspace governors.


David A. Desrosiers
desrod@gnu-designs.com
http://gnu-designs.com