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I am running 18.04 LTS on a MSI Prestige 14 A10SC laptop. I have modified /etc/systemd/logind.conf to set HandleLidSwitch to ignore. I close the lid and put the laptop elsewhere at home. I then remotely ssh into the laptop and start doing heavy compilation job but it runs very very slowly because the CPU is capped at 400MHz.

(ms) jesse@msi14:~$ grep MHz /proc/cpuinfo
cpu MHz         : 400.218
cpu MHz         : 400.170
cpu MHz         : 400.204
cpu MHz         : 400.265
cpu MHz         : 400.018
cpu MHz         : 400.054
cpu MHz         : 399.942
cpu MHz         : 400.028
cpu MHz         : 400.293
cpu MHz         : 399.559
cpu MHz         : 400.043
cpu MHz         : 400.320

But if I leave the lid open, it now changes to 2000+ for each CPU, and the compilation now finished early.

How can I change the system to really ignore the lid event and treat the laptop really like a server?

Robby1212
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jkl555
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  • Does this answer your question? How can I tell Ubuntu to do nothing when I close my laptop lid? – David Mar 31 '20 at 14:19
  • I already set the HandleLidSwitch to ignore. It just seems the whole laptop is running at a very low power mode if the lid is closed. All remote job can't run at the cpu's full capacity. – jkl555 Mar 31 '20 at 14:25
  • Since an overheat could damage system components, I suspect MSI made a conscious choice to limit CPU speed when closed, so I suggest you contact MSI support and asking them if the cap's there to prevent overheating, and if not (perhaps instigated for battery conservation), how you might remove the cap. – K7AAY Apr 09 '20 at 21:14

1 Answers1

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It looks like MSI has done a really good job preventing us from getting the max performance when the LID is close.

After try:

  • Disabling thermald.
  • Disabling acpi (which should prevent LID button from working at all).
  • Disabling intel_pstates module and use acpi-cpufreq instead.
  • Installing Windows and confirm that behaves the same way.

I would say that the issue is not related to Linux, perhaps there is anything on the ucode or UEFI that causes this issue.

Since getting the maximum performance when the lid is close was something mandatory for me, I decided to perform a hardware hack to disable LID sensor for good. (Perhaps this could have been done via software, playing with the BIOS, but I consider this even more dangerous than desoldering)

MSI designed this product this way for a good reason, but I really don't care. It was already in my plans to add some additional external FANs to the vertical support that I am using, so probably I should be fine with the temperature.

Be aware that what I have done invalidates your warranty and that requires some knowledge of electronics. If you decide to do the same, I will not take any responsibility on any damage you could cause.

First I had to disassembly the laptop (really carefully because mobo PCB is very thing an can get broken really easy).

Till I mange to see the motherboard from the keyboard side

Then I removed the SOT packaged IC label as U42 (hall sensor) that is on the Top-Right corner and joined together the pads that are NOT connected to GND

Edit: An even easier hardmod that can be done to acknowledged the same result is to remove the magnet that is on the screen bottom left corner.

The magnet is located under the plastic that surrounds the LCD on that corner. The plastic is glued but with your finger nails (it is better not to use anything else) you should be able to remove it (you don't need to remove all just that corner), then you can take the magnet with a small needle.

Lord_Rafa
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