[ltp] Z61p GPU Thermal Issue

[Brian D. Ropers-Huilman]

On 8/31/07, JP Renaud <jprenaud@emailplus.org> wrote:
> You did not say whether this laptop ever worked properly. Was it working fine
> before the Kubuntu install? Also, have you checked the machine in Windows?
> Just to make sure it is not a hardware problem with your video card...

If by "worked properly," you mean the graphics, the answer is yes, ...
sort of. I physically received the machine in January and immediately
wiped and reinstalled with Kubuntu, so I have _never_ run Windows on
the machine, so I can't answer that question.

As to my "yes, ... sort of," answer, the machine runs "just fine,"
meaning if I just sit there in my GUI (and I've run KDE and Fluxbox
nearly equally) and check mail in Alpine, browse with Firefox, do
documents in OpenOffice, and the like, it usually (85-95% of the time)
works just fine. There are occasional shutdowns, but in retrospect I
can usually attribute it to some "stressing" of the GPU.

>From my perspective, the system works just fine, it's just that the
GPU runs hot and is near it's critical thermal limits.

It could be how the vesa driver is interacting with the GPU. Or, it
could also be a real problem with the GPU. I'm not sure how heat is
vented from GPUs in laptops, but there could very well be a problem
(insufficient thermal grease between the GPU and heat-sink fins, for
example).

Once again, thanks for any ideas people have.

-- 
Brian D. Ropers-Huilman