Laptop too hot

I have no experience with WinXP, but my Toshiba Tecra8100 is also much hotter under Ubuntu than its previous Win98 OS. Although this apparently does not interfere with performance, it's uncomfortable for the user; I have therefore installed the toshset utilities and keep the the fan on permanently as a workaround.

I forgot to say I almost always use my laptop plugged-in; I have not yet tested it running on batteries under Ubuntu.

Please make sure to upgrade to 2.6.15-25 kernel.

Done upgrading, the issue persists.

I have opened the lid yesterday and discovered that a RAM module is really where this heat comes from. I have 2 of them in my laptop, a 256 MB Samsung and a 512 MB Kingston. While Samsung is relatively cool, Kingston module is really hot — the chips on the module are even hard to touch. I double checked that the copper plates on the RAM compartment are well pressed against the module to ensure adequate cooling, but the problem persists.

There were no problems or this sort in WinXP. I just wonder if this extreme heating would damage my laptop...

I rebooted to rum MemTest today, all the tests passed just fine. The strange thing is: while running memtest, that RAM module was not hot! I mean, not hotter than running WinXP.

I have a similar problem with a BenQ Joybook 8000 (CPU is a Pentium 4 M).
I can't run cpu intensive tasks (and I used to with Breezy Badger without any problem)
because the CPU temperature gets hotter and hotter until 95 Celsius degrees, when
the laptop hangs and I have to hard boot it.
The only "workaround" I've found is to run powersave -l to scale down the CPU frequency
from 2.6 GHz to 1.2 GHz, but as you may imagine this is not optimal, because I need
as much CPU speed as possible.
As I said, everything was fine with Breezy Badger, but with Dapper Drake I can't
really work :(
Any clues?

Thanks,

Francesco

Without more info on what processes were running this is hard to troubleshoot. If background indexing was taking place, this would cause the cpu and the RAM to heat up. With newer kernels available, problem may go away.

I have recently tested this issue on several laptops, including various models of Fujitsu-Siemens, Lenovo, Acer and Dell. It looks like the cause of heating the RAM modules are background indexing processes such as Beagle or (especially) Tracker. Some RAM modules are more likely to get higher temperature than the others (Kingstons have higher values all the way), but given a working and not too dusted cooling system RAM modules never overheat to the temperatures that could cause damage (at least I couldn't damage any of the 17 tested laptops, the longest test running on a Lenovo 3000 for 2 weeks of uninterrupted indexing).

Here's my conclusion: Ubuntu DOES heat up the memory modules more than Windows (that is, in some running modes), but Ubuntu DOES NOT appear to overheat them. To my opinion, this bug can be declared invalid, though I have to admit my makeshift test was neither professional nor complete.

I'm experiencing the same issue on Ubuntu 8.04. The laptop gets unbearably hot. If I boot into XP, the temperature is normal.

I'm turning off all power management for now.

No indexing services are being run. cron/anacron/at are also turned off.

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this linux-source-2.6.15 kernel bug to the new "linux" package. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Also, if you would be interested in testing the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release, it is available at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . Please let us know your results. Thanks!

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

Unfortunately this bug report is being closed because we received no response to the last inquiry for information. However, the Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Beta release was most recently announced - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/beta . If you are able to confirm this is still an issue with this most recent release please feel free to reopen this report. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks.