Desktop Continuously Dims & Other Weird Stuff!

[DavidS]

Why is it that when I am in the middle of doing something that everything comes to a stand-still and the screen dims and I cannot continue with my work until the screen brightens again? I noticed that I just have to wait it out.

Another problem is I see the time and weather normally positioned to the right of the screen. Today when I booted up, the date , time and weather are all to the left of the remaining task bar icons, such as the blue tooth symbol, the lock and the speaker. Why does this happen?

My third question is why does my laptop get so much hotter with Linux running rather than windows vista? With windows, it runs pretty cool. I have noticed that the internal fan does not ever turn on and therefore I had to place a fan plate under my laptop to help cool it.

[richyrich]

To be able to help you, we'll need some more info . . . specifically your hardware.
Run lspci and free in a terminal, and post the results back here.

regards, Richy

[DavidS]

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) Thermal Subsystem (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5100
04:06.0 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
04:06.1 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
04:06.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
04:06.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)



$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2963972 1359136 1604836 0 119228 613768
-/+ buffers/cache: 626140 2337832
Swap: 3229024 0 3229024

[richyrich]

DavidS,
There is a well documented Intel bug in the kernel (Jaunty, Gloria, and all other distros that use this kernel)

There are a few solutions to try in this thread, read down, if the first solution doesn't help, check out optimize-me's link to the Ubuntu forum solution.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=30310

ps: you must be running a lot of apps . . to be using 1.35 gigs of ram??? ( check with the system monitor )
I've got 2 gigs total, with Firefox(x2), dolphin, kde, compiz, etc. and I'm only using 400 megs.

[DavidS]

DavidS,
There is a well documented Intel bug in the kernel (Jaunty, Gloria, and all other distros that use this kernel)

There are a few solutions to try in this thread, read down, if the first solution doesn't help, check out optimize-me's link to the Ubuntu forum solution.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=30310

ps: you must be running a lot of apps . . to be using 1.35 gigs of ram??? ( check with the system monitor )
I've got 2 gigs total, with Firefox(x2), dolphin, kde, compiz, etc. and I'm only using 400 megs.

I have a blog that I work on and I had Gimp, Firefox, Opera, wordpress, package manager and thunderbird all running and maybe another, I don't remember.
Otherwise, I have no idea why I was using that much. Right now I only have Firefox open and it says I am using 330 mb of mem.

[richyrich]

Makes more sense, the gimp & wordpress can use a lot.
330 sounds much better.

Hope the link above can help, good luck, Richy

[DavidS]

You know, one thing that I noticed is that my laptop contains 4 gigs of ram and in that list I sent you, it only acknowledges 3 gigs of ram. What's up with that?

[richyrich]

Hi DavidS,
That is the universal constraint of 32 bit operating systems. The only way to get past these constraints is to go with a 64 bit OS. (Mint 7 Gloria 64)
The extra ram is still used by the system/hardware, just not available for applications.

That said, there is a very complicated way to bypass this in 32 bit, but requires compiling Server kernels, & PAE or some such, but it is WAY above my experience level.

Most applications are 32 bit, and there are always some that don't play well or not at all in 64 bit. More and more are being compiled for 64 bit. Mint 64 is one of the best out there.

IMHO, Check to make sure your important Apps work well in 64 bit, (Live CD?), before you decide to change, as you may find stable Applications out weigh the benefit of gaining that extra ram.

regards, Richy

[DavidS]

Hey RichyRich! Thanks for the info!

I wanted to also mention one more problem that I am having which is fluky-ness and that is that when I am typing, the cursor seems to jump around often. My thumbs are near the trackpad but not on it or even that close. It seems to react while typing. Funny thing is, when I try to tap it to double click an icon I have to tap it hard to get it to work. WEIRD MAN! And then simple typing makes it go crazy.

Is there a way to set the trackpad sensitivity in MINT xfce?

[richyrich]

I've seen that mentioned here in the forums somewhere . . . can't recall offhand ! I'll try searching for it.

Edit: Oops, looks like we'll need to know what Brand of laptop you have ?

[DavidS]

Toshita

[DavidS]

This is funny, (not really), but my fan never kicks in either and I installed a widget that says:

No fan rotation sensors was found.
Is imsensors installed and working?

What are imsensors?

How do I get my fan to kick in?

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!