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Whenever my laptop is not running completely idle (like watching a video on youtube, vlc or low resource demanding) it gets too hot, running almost all the time at max cpu frequency (2.4GhZ 2 cores) to the point where intel executes the "kidle injection" and my computer starts lagging. I'm not sure whats causing it, because under W10 everything works fine.

I've tried disabling the kidle injection as seen in other similar questions from a couple of years ago, it does help a little bit, but then the pc starts underclocking the cpu which makes the videos stutter a bit.

Acer Travelmate P253-m; 2.4ghz 2 cores i3, intel hd graphics, ubuntu 16.10

EDIT: fans seem to work normally, can't get ubuntu to recognize them with sensors and fan control, laptop running at 70+ºC when it starts to slow down.

Thank you very much.

MarcosSR
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  • On my own system it runs 70 to 80 quite frequently on various kernel versions and yet CPU load will be under 20% all the time. Under the older 14.04 the temp would be 50. I thought about changing off of powersave to performance mode but never got around to doing that. I wouldn't use the kidle injection but look forward to answers on your question. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Nov 23 '16 at 01:45
  • I changed it to performance, very easy with TLP, but I have yet to find an actual difference in the usage of CPU, almost always at full frequency with both of them, so I'm back at powersave for now. – MarcosSR Nov 23 '16 at 10:14
  • I read there wasn't much difference between the two thanks for the confirmation. In my case I upgraded from 14.04 to 16.04 and had weird problems like no wallpaper on one screen, not suspending and thin fonts. I recently read clean install of 16.04 has less problems and I wonder if that has something to do with it. Hopefully someone answers your question soon. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Nov 23 '16 at 10:48
  • @MacroSR I've posted an answer and would very much like to hear how things work out for you. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Nov 24 '16 at 01:11

2 Answers2

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Edit December 2, 2016 - Kernel 4.4.0-51 Generic

I'm pleased to report the regular Ubuntu Kernel 4.4.0-51 (update a couple days ago) is performing better than any of the manually installed kernels to date. The temperature is running a few degrees cooler than the best mainline kernel installed so far. Conky screen below:

Conky 4.4.0-51

Old answer:

I have an Intel Ivy Bridge that suffers some minor consequences of the "big bugs" reported by Bay Trail / Cherry Trail and Skylake users in this bug report: (intel_idle.max_cstate=1 required on baytrail to prevent crashes).

As per comments posted earlier yesterday my temps were averaging 70 to 80 C. Spurred by new bug report comments yesterday I upgraded to Kernel 4.8.10 and the temp is running much lower 60 - 62 C as I type this with Internet TV running under flashplayer on second monitor.

To upgrade to Kernel 4.8.10 use:

cd /tmp
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.8.10/linux-headers-4.8.10-040810_4.8.10-040810.201611210531_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.8.10/linux-headers-4.8.10-040810-generic_4.8.10-040810.201611210531_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.8.10/linux-image-4.8.10-040810-generic_4.8.10-040810.201611210531_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo reboot

As far as you fan is concerned it is mostly controlled in ACPI based on pstate and thermald. As far as turbo speed or maximum frequency is concerned running at a slow CPU speed doesn't always mean less heat. For example after the upgrade to 4.8.10 I've noticed CPU speed is almost always in turbo boost <2.4 Ghz <= 3.4 Ghz but the temp is lower as Conky shows:

Conky Kernel 4.8.10

NOTE: Unlike Ubuntu regular kernel updates which are automatically removed, you have to manually remove manually installed kernels after you install newer ones (if and when you want to).

Community
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WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • I'm not really sure what the bug you linked about is about, I've been troubleshooting and I've noticed that what Windows actually does is underclock the CPU at higher temperatures instead than at 72ºC like Ubuntu does, I havent found an actual way to increase the threshold for ubuntu as of yet. – MarcosSR Nov 24 '16 at 22:49
  • @MarcosSR The point of the bug report is to highlight the many problems people have been having with idling. In the report I read how success was achieved with kernel version 4.8.10 and installed it myself. I found the system runs 10 to 15 degrees Celsius cooler. I felt this was what you were looking for. You can manually control the CPU frequency and other settings using cpufreq and similar utilities. I don't use them though so cannot post a suitable answer on them. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Nov 25 '16 at 01:07
  • Remember that custom kernels are off-topic here! :P – Fabby Nov 25 '16 at 10:16
  • @Fabby Custom would imply changing the code... In my mind I see four types: 1) Supported, 2) Mainline/Stable, 3) Release Candidate and then 4) Custom. In that case 4.8.10 would fall into type 2. Reading through old Q&A I can find lots of examples where only alternative with a new Ubuntu version was to upgrade kernel to type 2. I've only see questions that ask how do something under type 2 kernels get vote closed as off-topic. I've never seen answers involving type 2's get vote closed as off-topic. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Nov 25 '16 at 11:26
  • Opinions differ... ¯\(ツ)/¯ "Custom" means: non-standard to me (otherwise I would have upvoted) :P – Fabby Nov 29 '16 at 08:14
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    @Fabby Pleased to say Kernel 4.4.0-51 (stock Ubuntu update) is reporting better temperatures than mainline kernels manually installed. I've updated answer.... now if I can only remember all the other answers with similar problems requiring "custom" kernel :( – WinEunuuchs2Unix Dec 02 '16 at 23:45
  • edited and upvoted! ;) – Fabby Dec 05 '16 at 18:01
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So I finally got it resolved:

My computer was set to start throttling down at 72ºC, the problem is that this PC gets to that temperature very fast, even watching a simple video. What I did was remove the "kidle injection" module with:

sudo rmmod intel_powerclamp

Which you have to reapply every time you boot. I haven't figured out how to remove it completely yet. And also set on TLP or however you want (I had to use TLP because I had it already installed and it overrides all configs) the intel_pstate to performance, because if not, the CPU would just throttle down to the slowest CPU frequency.

I'm sorry my question was a little bit ambiguous, I wasn't really sure what was going on. Thank you for trying to help, hopefully the new kernel will arrive soon and I'll see if it also helps.

wjandrea
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MarcosSR
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    +1 for coming back to write an answer. If you find Intel Power Clamp makes your system sluggish look to this Q&A for fine tuning: http://askubuntu.com/questions/457252/intel-powerclamp-start-stop-forced-idle-injection – WinEunuuchs2Unix Nov 25 '16 at 11:30