Elyssa KDE CE converted my laptop to a hot plate.

[squashpup]

I switched from Gnome Elyssa to KDE Elyssa CE evening before last. Gnome Elyssa usually ran about 105-110F (38-41C) during inactivity, and up to 125F (52C) during periods of heavy CPU activity.

Now, with KDE, the system IDLES at about 125-130F (52-55C), and last night, while running VirtualBox, got up to 165F (74C)!

This is probably at the upper end of what my system is supposed to run (it's an AMD Turion X2 64 Mobile Technology). I don't know what the max temp spec is, but I know not many processors are supposed to run this hot, and even fewer are supposed to run hotter. If it is hitting this temp frequently during regular use, then my CPU will not last long.

I open ksysguard, and I find no processes consuming over 5% CPU. Xorg, which is usually a resource hog, is only drawing about 2-3% CPU. Firefox stays at 0%; even so, the temp doesn't drop when I close it out.

I installed and ran sysvconfig, disabling several of the services that I know I don't need, with no effect. Still runs way too hot.

I thought maybe it was a KDE problem, so I installed XFCE. Logged in, and opened Ksensors. It dropped the temp about five degrees, but it still ran way hotter than Gnome Elyssa did. And, if I'm not mistaken, Gnome should require more resources than XFCE, right? So, I don't think it's a problem with any of the desktop environments. Beyond that, I'm stumped.

What could be causing this? I just installed it day before yesterday. I can't install anything else that might run in the background, out of fear that the temp will hover at a constant 140F (60C) or higher.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?

[lakehousetech]

I'm interested to hear about this as well. I was considering changing desktop environments soon, so any warnings would be helpful.

[squashpup]

Here's the thing...before I zapped Gnome Elyssa, I installed KDE over top of it. The CPU temp ran the SAME in KDE as it did in Gnome when I did it this way (I just installed Kubuntu Desktop, IIRC). However, there were other problems; for example, it installed KDE versions of all the applications that Gnome installed by default (for example, Konqueror and Nautilus, and oftentimes, the system didn't know which to use).There were other glitches that arose that let me to try the KDE edition. But I definitely didn't have the overheating problems when I installed KDE over Gnome.

[papabearak]

squashpup, Kpowersave is probably set to performance mode, which keeps your CPU at full speed even when idle or under light load. Look in the notification area in the lower right corner of your screen for the Kpowersve icon. It looks like the plug end of a power cord. you may have to click the arrow at the left edge of the notification area to unhide the icon. Right-click the Kpowersave icon, and select Powersave from the menu. See if that improves the situation any. Ben

[squashpup]

Thanks for the help. Kpowersave is not letting me throttle my CPU for some reason. I know my CPU supports this...I have a relatively new computer (got it in July) and I think I've actually throttled the CPU under Xubuntu.

Now, when I select Powersave, all it does is dim the screen. Why wouldn't Mint allow me to scale my CPU?

[squashpup]

Much easier on resources. During periods of heavy activity, my CPU is topping out at about 140F, twenty degrees cooler. Idling at about 115F or so. Plus, the CPU throttling in XFCE works perfectly.

Too bad the KDE version is out of control with the processor usage. Would have liked to have used it.