Linux Temperature – Dell XPS 15 Runs Hot on Linux

opensusetemperature

I'm worried about my Dell XPS notebook.

When I'm on Linux, its temperature is always higher than on Windows. I was facing some pretty ugly slowdowns earlier today and it shut itself down the first time today too (then I noticed it was really hot).

I'm on openSuse 12.1 currently, but on Ubuntu (10.10, 11) and Mint (Lisa, I think) I got worried about the notebook being too hot too.

I know there's the Optimus stuff, but I'm thinking this is not the answer I need, I'm on Linux most of the time because I'm working and browsing and I switch to Windows only when I'll play something so I'm not worried about running Minecraft or anything too graphical on Linux. I'm worried about it overheating, slowing down, shutting down and eventually breaking.

Let's go to the numbers.

sensors in openSuse 12.1 running gnome-shell (probably was higher when I had slow downs/shut down)

temp1: +84.0°C (crit = +100.0°C)
temp2: +84.0°C (crit = +100.0°C)

nouveau(GPU)

temp1: +73.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +110.0C

sensors in openSuse 12.1 with iceWM (lighter graphical interface)

temp1: +74.0°C (crit = +100.0°C)
temp2: +74.0°C (crit = +100.0°C)

nouveau

temp1: +68.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +110.0°C)

On Windows, the CPU stays between 40°C-50°C and GPU in the mid 50°C.

I'm guessing 84°C is too high.

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b5)
0    0:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev b5)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev b5)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0df5 (rev a1)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000
04:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 04)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)

So what to do? Is the GeForce card always running here (Linux) while on Windows it's on the Intel GPU?
If so, can I make it so it will only always on the Intel card? Can this help? Will I lose graphics acceleration (and gnome-shell) in this case?

I had uninstalled the Nouveau Nvidia driver in hopes that it would turn the Nvidia card off to see if I had a better luck. I don't know if this is related, but just now my notebook was idle, I was watching a movie, and then came back to my laptop to check on it on imdb. I had a terminal open and 2 or 3 tabs of chrome, on gnome-shell, and when I ran sensor CPU was at 98.0°C, and GPU at 92.0°C.

@Icarus I'd guess it's the second option, before when it was slowing down I was running top and the 'offending' processes were Chrome and Gnome-shell, but really it was probably that the CPU/GPU getting too hot and lagging; it doesn't make much sense because this is a potent notebook, I play Battlefield 3 on 64 person maps without any problems

I've switched the Nouveau driver to the proprietary Nvidia one, I've lost graphic acceleration (this has always happened when using Nvidia driver on this notebook) but 'sensors' now is constant on 74.0°C and I can at least feel comfortable enough to work here.

I'm intrigued because there's got to be more people on this new Dell XPS running Linux, but it's being way too hard to find any useful info on this.

Best Answer

This is what I do on my box. It is not a Dell XPS and I do not run openSUSE, so your mileage may vary. There are some steps that might be slightly different for openSUSE but you seem to know your way around. If you need any help just comment.

acpi_call is brought to us by Hybrid Graphics Linux. Visit here or follow this post for instructions to disable/ activate your discrete card . For me, I disabled the discrete card and only make use of the integrated card. This was the main culprit for the heat emissions.

Check your output of lspci -mvknn | grep -B8 i915. If it returns non-empty, you may add i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 to your boot parameters.

pcie_aspm=force can also be added if all PCIe hardware on the system supports Active State Power Management.

Please, use this options with care. This post explains what does each of these parameters do and their consequences.

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