Thinkpad Running very Hot

[deanej]

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad W500 with Fedora 16 and it consistently runs very hot and gets terrible battery life in Linux; everything is fine in Windows. I think the problem is with my ATI Mobility FireGL v5700 graphics card; I have to run the ATI card rather than the Intel one because Windows 7 has weird display issues using the Intel card (as I refuse to install the Lenovo crapware on the system, and I also refuse to go into the BIOS every time I switch between Windows and Fedora). Is there a way to cool it down? I'm running the open source drivers right now because I've had bad luck with the proprietary drivers when I've tried out Ubuntu a couple years ago, have heard bad things about them, and am not even sure if this card is supported by them (I don't know squat about graphics cards).

This problem is having me consider switching back to Windows. I'm afraid I'll damage my hardware or something, and the battery life is atrocious; I might as well not have a battery. It's also annoying to type on a blazing hot laptop. I'm amazed it hasn't shut itself down yet.

[Agent20]

With the radeon open source drivers the power management uses the 'default' power profile for the graphics card, which many manufacturers set to to be the same as the high performance settings (so you get all the heat and the fan spins at high speed).

See here for an overview:
http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature#...gement_Options

Try out this command to see if it cools things down:

$ su -c 'echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile'

If you want to set the profile at every boot then you will need to create or modify /etc/rc.d/rc.local - here is the one that I use:

#!/bin/sh

# Set radeon power profile

echo profile > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

Also make the file executeable:

# chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.local

[deanej]

Thanks, I knew the first command (though with dynpm instead of low) and had no idea it could be done permanently.

[stevea]

Actually I believe you can enable optimus and then let Windows use either, but on LInux switch from/power-off the Radeon.

[3xOSC]

I am looking for a similar answer to this question,

I am using a thinkpad x201 with an Integrated Intel HD graphics in QM57. It gets extremely hot. Could anyone help me with this please?

[george_toolan]

What kind of CPU do you have?

Does it have another graphics chip?

Is your fan working?

What kind of CPU temperatures do you get?

Check with powertop to see if you CPU is scaling down when idle.

[3xOSC]

Originally Posted by george_toolan

What kind of CPU do you have?

Does it have another graphics chip?

Is your fan working?

What kind of CPU temperatures do you get?

Check with powertop to see if you CPU is scaling down when idle.

It only has an integrated HD graphics.

The temperatures reach up to 70+ celsius.

Could you please go into depth as to what powertop is?

Thanks : )