[ltp] Thermal problem on R50p

[Andre Timmermann]

Hallo List.

My R50p works very well with debian sid, but there ist one anoying
thing: sometimes the CPU is getting so hot, that the system is going
down automatically.

Description:
I use debian sid and a custom kernel (2.6.10 with acpi-patch and
bootsplash-patch). In addition I use the 3D-drivers from ATI.

As I bought this machine to replace my old desktop, it should be used
for normal work (office, wardriving, webresearch, mail...) and for some
entertainment (DVD, etc and, of course, some gaming - UT2004 and Doom3)

I know that Laptops in general are not made for games, espacialy if they
use heavy graphics - but it should work.

I make an ssh-connection to the notebook and use the following line to
show the temperature:

while true;=20
do echo -n `date "+%R:%S"`"  " ;
cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0/temperature;
sleep 1;
done =20

I am getting something like this when the laptop is idle:
10:46:53  temperature:             44 C
10:46:54  temperature:             44 C
10:46:55  temperature:             44 C
10:46:56  temperature:             44 C
10:46:57  temperature:             44 C
10:46:58  temperature:             44 C
10:46:59  temperature:             44 C
10:47:00  temperature:             44 C
10:47:01  temperature:             44 C
10:47:02  temperature:             44 C
10:47:03  temperature:             44 C

So the temperature is constantly at 44=B0C, which seemes to be OK.

After starting a heavy-graphics-app (xdesktopwaves) I get following
temperatures:

10:50:15  temperature:             44 C
10:50:16  temperature:             47 C
10:50:18  temperature:             53 C
10:50:20  temperature:             59 C
10:50:22  temperature:             65 C
10:50:24  temperature:             68 C
10:50:26  temperature:             69 C
10:50:28  temperature:             70 C
10:50:32  temperature:             71 C
10:50:36  temperature:             72 C
10:50:44  temperature:             74 C
10:50:52  temperature:             75 C
10:50:59  temperature:             76 C
10:51:05  temperature:             77 C
10:51:13  temperature:             78 C
10:51:23  temperature:             79 C
10:51:31  temperature:             80 C
10:51:43  temperature:             81 C
10:51:53  temperature:             82 C
10:52:06  temperature:             83 C
10:52:18  temperature:             84 C
10:52:36  temperature:             85 C
10:52:50  temperature:             86 C
10:53:20  temperature:             87 C
10:53:38  temperature:             88 C
10:54:06  temperature:             89 C
10:54:32  temperature:             90 C
10:55:02  temperature:             91 C

After 5 Minutes I can hear the fan and it seemes that the temperature is
quite stable at 91=B0C (the trip point for shutting down is at 94=B0C).

Then suddenly the temperature is going down:
10:57:01  temperature:             84 C
10:57:03  temperature:             77 C

And after a few seconds up again:
10:57:28  temperature:             90 C

Unfortunately there is no way to see the fan and it's speed via the
proc-interface. So I am not able to control this behaviour.

No I stopt the xwavedesktop and start doom3 to generate some more
heat ;)

During gameplay I am normaly at 91=B0C, but sometimes the temperature
falls to 70=B0C and rises again.
After half an hour gaming the system is going on 94=B0C and the system is
shutting down.

I have seen the possibility to change the trip-points via proc:
echo -n "94:70" > /trip_points, but this doesn not work. The trip-point
for passive cooling is at 92=B0C, which is to high (*imho)

Does anybody have an idea to improve the situation, apart from not
gaiming *g?

Greetz,
Andre

PS: the temperature of the harddisk is constantly between 30=B0C and 35=B0=
C,
as hddtemp reports.

PPS: I have also tried to shut down evry service while gaming. I started
the naked Xserver without any windowmanager so that the game can use
maximum resources - same result.