I am using an HP Compaq 615 AMD dual-core laptop, and I just upgraded to Oneiric.
However, my CPU temperature has never been below 65 degrees C. When my laptop had Windows 7 Starter, the temperature would stay between 40-50 degrees C.
Obviously Ubuntu/Linux is using too much CPU power, even though the RAM usage is minimal. Is there any way to lighten the CPU load?
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You can start by removing any applications that you do not use through Ubuntu Software Center, and by stopping the automatic start-up of certain programs. You could switch to the Ubuntu classic environment, as well.
What is the CPU usage? Ubuntu is not generally going to use too many resources on a dual-core laptop especially compared to 7 Starter. This may just be a driver/fan control problem.
could be a cpu governor [performance]
echo conservative | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
would lower the cpu mhz and temp
Apart from checking if the laptop has enough space underneath it (for the air to flow). you could try to control the fan speed:
Here is a nice link for Fan Control: How to control fan speed?
Also if you have a powerful video card. I think in your case is an Ati Radeon HD, then you might need to control the intensity with it. Change yourself to Unity 2D just to test out. Test how the temperature is when inside a terminal. Install the proprietary drivers just in case.
Check if you have a process running 100% of the time. The easiest way to test this is just by running the PC from a LiveCD. if the temperature stays low then maybe something that was installed recently made the CPU stay in heavy usage.
I would definetly check and see if you need to install any proprietary driver, which is not Open-Source. If the driver isn't installed, there is no way for the OS to communicate with the GPU. But Since the CPU is, the systems utilizies the CPU to calculate real-time image rendering (What you actually see on the screen). This causes the CPU to be busy all the time, while still being in the need to calculate different algorithms.
To check whether the GPU (Graphics Card) Driver is installed, the easiest way is (if you are using Ubuntu with Gnome, not Unity) to check your bar (where notifications and the menu, window manager,etc. is located), if it indicates a light shadow beneath it. This means, that Compiz is activated, producing a nicer appearance of mostly everything. Since this means higher Processing Consumption, the System needs a stand-alone Processing Unit, like a GPU (Which basically is a so called Co-Processor), to enable enough Processing Power.
If it doesn't happen to be, follow the very first step I mentioned.
Hopefully helped out
