Fan is always running and temperature is warmer than normal.

[sanjie]

I installed Ubuntu 11.10 on my HP DV6T and the fan is always running which consumes a lot of power.

When I type "sensors" on cmd it's shows this line:
temp1: +55.0°C (crit = +99.0°C)

I see that it says that the 99 is the critical, but I don't think that 55 degrees is normal with just normal browsing. My laptop is not like this on Windows 7. Any advice for this?

[ALLurGroceries]

What are ur temps idling on windows? What graphics drivers are you using?

55C doesn't seem that high. Fan always running is a diff story though. Need more info from you to help...

[sanjie]

Idle in windows is below is about 40+ degrees. My graphics is Radeon 6770.

The fan is really always running on Ubuntu 11.10 but it's not like this on Windows. Is this really an issue on 11.10?

[ALLurGroceries]

What graphics drivers are you using?

[niharjhatn]

Are you running opensource drivers? Unfortunately power management with open source drivers are crap. Propriety drivers offer better power management (so fan doesn't run like crazy) and better 3d performance, but I have found 2d performance to be pretty poor.

Unfortunately ATI have a horrible reputation with linux, so the best you can do is install the prop. drivers to circumvent this, or get an nvidia card, it makes a big difference

You can also force a low power mode in the opensource drivers, but this makes 2d performance choppy, so i'd recommend installing propriety drivers first.

[sanjie]

I checked back in Windows and the idle mode is about 42 degrees. I'm using the stock graphic drivers.

When I first installed Ubuntu, it was running around 66 degrees. I edited my /etc/rc.local to turn off the ATI and it goes down around 55 degrees but the fan is still running all the time.

[niharjhatn]

Originally Posted by sanjie

I checked back in Windows and the idle mode is about 42 degrees. I'm using the stock graphic drivers.

When I first installed Ubuntu, it was running around 66 degrees. I edited my /etc/rc.local to turn off the ATI and it goes down around 55 degrees but the fan is still running all the time.

What does "stock" mean - stock as in open source i.e. you haven't installed any extra drivers?

If so, in ubuntu, hit the super key, search for "Additional Drivers", hit the icon, and let it load... then install the current version (i.e. NOT the version with post-release updates, have had a problem with them).

Try that and see if it helps!!

[ral]

I remember before after installing Ubuntu, I had both cores running at near 100%. I changed a setting in the bios to correct it, but I do not remember what I changed. Is you CPU constantly running at or near 100%?

[SemiExpert]

Originally Posted by sanjie

I installed Ubuntu 11.10 on my HP DV6T and the fan is always running which consumes a lot of power.

When I type "sensors" on cmd it's shows this line:
temp1: +55.0°C (crit = +99.0°C)

I see that it says that the 99 is the critical, but I don't think that 55 degrees is normal with just normal browsing. My laptop is not like this on Windows 7. Any advice for this?

I'd say that 55.0°C isn't all that bad, depending on HP's power management. I have a notebook that actually is cooler while streaming HD than it is during websurfing or when idle. Why? The manufacturer has a power management scheme that keeps the fan off most of the time when the CPU is idle or lightly utilized.

Linux doesn't always play very nicely with a dedicated GPUs or switchable graphics, and power management with the latest generation CPUs might not be ideal. I'd say your 55.0°C isn't unreasonable, as long as HDD temps aren't overly high.

Personally, I wouldn't expect all that much from the DV6 as far as cooling. Your i5 will probably be fine, but there are throttling issues with quad-core i7s.

[Sxooter]

If you've got a 2nd gen core i CPU, it WILL RUN HOT for now. There was a nasty power usage regression in the 2.6.3x series kernels along the way, and since you can't get the earlier kernels to work well with modern sandybridge HW, you're stuck, for now, with the power usage regression.

This should be addressed in the next ubuntu release, 12.04 which I'm going to test on my spare SandyBridge laptop to see how it works to lower power usage on the CPU.