Time to vacuum your notebook (e.g. for Kubuntu Linux)
1 Oct 2008 22:06:17 UTC
Topic 193961
(moderation:
Hi all!
I noticed recently that my one year old notebook wasn't running at full CPU speed all the time even tho I had selected the "performance" CPU frequency selection option. Using the KDE System monitoring tool, it was easy to see that the reason was that whenever CPU temperature rose to 85°C , CPU clock rate was reduced from 2 GHz to 1.6 GHz for some time until it was switched back (the CPU cools down a few degrees immediately after the throttling down). I then vacuumed out the "exhaust" end of the notebook and after that temperatures stayed below 85°C all the time.
To check whether it's time to vacuum, you can use a graphical monitoring tool (e.g. KSysGuard) or on the command line, try this (for Kubuntu, bash shell, your distribution may vary):
Quote:
while true; do cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq ; cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq ; cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/temperature; sleep 2; done ;
(Stop output with Ctrl-C).
Example Output:
2001000
2001000
2001000
2001000
temperature: 82 C
temperature: 82 C
The first lines contain the maximum clock frequency supported by the CPU (one per core, here 2 cores), followed by the maximum allowed clock frequency at the moment, followed by temperatures (again, one per core).
Usually the clock frequency figures are all the same.
Before the cleaning, I sometimes got this:
2001000
2001000
1600000
1600000
temperature: 85 C
temperature: 85 C
which indicates that the CPU frequency at the moment is limited to 1.6Ghz although the CPU can do 2GHz theoretically.
CU
Bikeman
Time to vacuum your notebook (e.g. for Kubuntu Linux)
)
I must say I do not monitor to the same level as Bikeman, and it is quite clever to see when the dust bunnies need to be removed.
I have desktops to do the crunching and clean then every 2 months, using a compressor I bought for the purpose (all outside when it does not rain).
9 bar air certainly kicks out the dust.
Shih-Tzu are clever, cuddly, playful and rule!! Jack Russell are feisty!
RE: 9 bar air certainly
)
And, I would imagine, anything else that's not properly mounted! Pictures RAM flying away in the 'breeze' ;)
Rod
Bah, I know, I know... I
)
Bah, I know, I know...
I have one lappie that I know keeps going into thermal throttling. Now you're going to go and make me get off my duff and do something about it.
I'm not quite sure whether mega-maid should go with suck or blow though. :\
RE: Bah, I know, I
)
Thank you for pressing the self-destruct button...
RE: RE: Bah, I know, I
)
You've got to stop it. Is there any way to stop it?
/ducks for corrupting Bikeman's thread with Spaceballs humor. :-D
RE: RE: RE: Bah, I
)
Oh shugar. There goes the thread... ;-)
I use those allegedly safe
)
I use those allegedly safe cans of compressed something, via an attached nozzle, to pfoof into the private orifices of the laptops I own ( x3 ). They each sit atop a notebook cooler ( Zalmann ) which blows via USB power, and also has a slight tilt which makes keying easier.
Now I also have another 'handbag' size one ( ASUS 'Eee' ) which has an Intel 'Atom' in it, which I don't think you could do any serious prolonged work on - too fiddly with the keys for me and the screen is too small for older eyes ( about 10 inches across the diagonal ). But it may prove real handy as a travelling hard-drive and internet access for wandering about ( ie. has wireless ) [ I'm spending a fortnight in Vietnam after Christmas! ]. Be good for storing photos from the digital camera and thus to clear it's memory for more. Anyhows it doesn't seem to get too hot, I actually sit it 'sideways' like an upsidedown 'V' when not actively used and it seems to naturally convect well. It is of course crunching the good crunch. :-)
Cheers, Mike.
NB Though I'm not sure why it has contacted ( or attempted to ) the server 8891 times in ~ six weeks. It's internet connectivity should be better than ~ 84 % too. Looks like there may be a cabling quality problem at home which could explain that.
( edit ) Also I have a portable-drill-type-looking gadget which actually has a compressor which runs off of the rechargeable battery up the handle. Bought it to pump up the ride-on mower tyres, but gives about 10 minutes of decent blowing. I use the 'basketball' inflation nozzle/attachment on it which has a quite narrow jet to direct against the often hard to pfoof heat sink fins.
( edit ) Was it Bart Simpson who said "I don't believe it. That both sucks and blows at the same time" ? ..... :-)
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
With ten cats in the house, I
)
With ten cats in the house, I don't worry about blowing out dust bunnies. I just need to blow out the cat hair.
Greatest engineering advance
)
Greatest engineering advance in my SUN WS. The front panel is looking like the radiator of my late friend Bruno's Lancia Aprilia (he died in the Himalayas) and the airflow is optimal even in summer with no AC. Now the fan on the backpanel is quieter, since we are in Fall.
Tullio
I recently inspected one of
)
I recently inspected one of my IBM xSeries (1 U server) after one year of 24/7 ops and there was hardly any dust at all. I guess the notebooks are more at risk because of the dimensions of air ducts and the cooling is anyway sized to be only just sufficient so you have a comfortable noise level (noise level of my IBM servers is clearly beyond comfortable :-) ).
CU
Bikeman