Linux Mint Forums

Funny name - Alienware Area 51m - have they sighted a UFO?
Can you tell us the hardware inside - it's so hard in general to find that on the net that I don't even try
(well it's Intel dual core and Nvidia 8800) but the chipset please
Some help is to add an applet to the panel to check CPU temperature
If in the main gnome edition right click the panel > Add to panel and you find a hardware monitor

Probably?
But this could explain why the fan does not spin up....
Can you check the reading after your workaround?

I wonder if running off of battery activates some mode which is otherwise turned off...?

Most certainly....
What about the -25 temperature if you do your work around?

There is a package called lmsensor which you can install. But they need configuring quite a bit
You could explore lmsensors and see if it's something for you

You need to have the correct modules loaded. Look at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cpufrequtils for more info about the available modules, I am guessing you need p4-clockmod or speedstep-centrino if you have a dated system, I think the powernow modules is for AMD. I might be mistaken, but it seems like you are using modules that does not support your chipsets...

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MataroSessionsW ... cpufreq%29
That might be better, I used the Arch wiki since I had it laying around anyway..

Is the temperature readings correct now as well?

Troublesome...
lmsensors needs a bit of tweaking to work properly
There's a long thread in the Ubuntu forums beginning in 2004 and running until today
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2780