Running hot with Ubuntu 2601

Michael DeBusk

You should be able to run your CPU(s) at 100% all the time without overheating (if that is your problem). I have two Xeon 3.06 GHz hyperthreaded processors and I keep mine at as close to 100% as I can 24-7. They do not overheat:

CPU0 fan: 3125 RPM CPU1 fan: 2163 RPM System: +39C CPU0: +56.5C CPU1: +53.5C

07:00:47 up 22 days, 9:51, 3 users, load average: 4.11, 4.15, 4.09 125 processes: 120 sleeping, 4 running, 0 zombie, 1 stopped CPU states: cpu user nice system irq softirq iowait idle total 6.0% 382.4% 10.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% cpu00 4.3% 92.8% 2.1% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2% cpu01 1.9% 97.2% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% cpu02 0.0% 96.9% 3.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% cpu03 0.0% 95.3% 4.3% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% Mem: 8208852k av, 7989968k used, 218884k free, 0k shrd, 540616k buff 3822884k actv, 2980724k ind, 154636k inc Swap: 8193076k av, 0k used, 8193076k free 6297796k cached

PID PPID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT %CPU %MEM CTIME LC COMMAND 5784 5198 boinc 39 19 208M 208M 4848 R N 99.2 2.6 19623m 3 hadam3um4.07i686-pc 5785 5186 boinc 39 19 71140 68 plus 1M 4232 R N 98.6 0.8 29709m 2 hadcm3transum5.08i68 14625 5133 boinc 34 19 31828 31M 2560 S N 95.9 0.3 305:29 3 setiathome-5.12.i686-p 5786 5204 boinc 39 19 70856 68 plus 1M 4232 R N 94.8 0.8 12250m 0 hadcm3transum5.08i68 ...

My machine has 13 fans. Each processor has its own 60mm x 60mm x 38mm fan that is thermistor controlled so when the intake air is warmer, the fans run faster. About 6 months after I built this machine, the cpu fans started screaming because they were running at about 6000 rpm. Now they might do that in the summer (since my machine room is not air conditioned), but this was in the fall. I noticed the main air intake fan (120mm x 120mm x 25mm) had siezed up so the machine was too hot. That is when I replaced the fan and installed the lmsensors package to monitor this stuff.

My Xeon processors do have that throttling (because the processors cost me $600 each when they first came out) to save them from overheating. But you do not want that running just because you are loading the processor(s) to 100%. After all, you paid 100% for 100% processors, so should get 100%. If the fans on your processor has its speed controlled by a thermistor so its speed goes up with temperature increase, I would say this is almost certainly a cooling problem. Be sure your intake and exhaust fans are running properly. I would guess your CPU fan is OK because if it were not, it would not be running fast enough to "scream". If the machine is not brand new, you might turn it off and unplug it and vacuum the dust out of the heat sink on the processor (and any others). This is less necessary if your machine has an air filter on the intake air as mine does. OTOH, I find I must vacuum clean that air filter every month. A remote possibility is that there was not enough heat sink compound between your heat sink and the processor, or that the heat sink is not attached sufficiently tightly to the processor. But this would normally just wreck the processor and the fan(s) would never notice. Basically, if the processor and heat sink were attached and supplied by the vendor of your machine, the probability of this is vanishingly small.

I wish I could tell what the "screaming" sounds like. It could be something else.

You might wish to get the lmsensors package and install it if you do not have it already. It will measure voltages and fan speeds and temperatures if your chip set and mother board support it.

-- .~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642. V PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939. ^^-^^ 06:55:01 up 22 days, 9:45, 3 users, load average: 4.20, 4.19, 4.08