[SOLVED] Ventilator going wild

[bert]

I've got a problem that occurs too often, but not always and mostly while working in a browser (both Firefox and Chrome). The ventilator in my laptop starts spinning at top speed and manages to get the temperature down quickly, but sometimes it keeps on spinning and the computer will shut down. The jpeg here is taken just before such a shutdown and I don't think the temperatures are near what they should be to warrant a shutdown or such a fast spinning ventilator. This wasn't happening when I first installed Linux on the then new laptop in september of last year. To me it doesn't look like a hardware problem.

Screenshot_20180501_125053.jpeg

The laptop has an i5-7300HQ processor with 8GB of ram and mint KDE 18.3, and kernel 4.13.0-39, so should be good enough for most tasks, let alone browsers.

Hope anyone knows how I should solve this.

Regards, Bert

[Hoser Rob]

First you need to post more complete system info. Copy/paste ths to the temrinal and copy/paste the text output here:

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inxi -Fxz

[Faust]

I looked at your charts , and from the hardware perspective there is more info needed there also .

I can't see a timescale , and peak temperatures are vital to know .
and I would be looking for a temperature plot from the moment the fan started spinning fast .

[bert]

System info with inxi:

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System:    Host: bert-N85-N87HCHNHZ Kernel: 4.13.0-39-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.8.9 (Qt 5.6.1) Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: Notebook (portable) product: N85_N87HCHNHZ
           Mobo: Notebook model: N85_N87HCHNHZ Bios: American Megatrends v: 1.05.10 date: 05/18/2017
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i5-7300HQ (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 19968
           clock speeds: max: 3500 MHz 1: 1330 MHz 2: 1375 MHz 3: 1371 MHz 4: 1376 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Device 591b bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 630 (Kaby Lake GT2)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Device a171 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 Sound: ALSA v: k4.13.0-39-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 02:00.1
           IF: enp2s0f1 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Device 24fb driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 03:00.0
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 275.1GB (18.4% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Crucial_CT275MX3 size: 275.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 244G used: 40G (18%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0
           ID-2: /boot size: 473M used: 194M (44%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.47GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-1
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 59.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 210 Uptime: 55 min Memory: 1019.1/7863.2MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 

The little red and yellow temperature spike is where the fan comes in. The time from there in the chart to the end is about 1 minute and approximately the same time until the shut down

[Pjotr]

Try these two things:

1. Install the latest kernel of the 4.15 series:
Update Manager - panel: View - Linux kernels

After installing it, reboot.

2. Switch your video driver:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... l-graphics
(item 6, left column)

[bert]

Bedankt Pjotr
I've upgraded to the newest kernel and switched drivers. I'll get back later to say whether this worked.

[bert]

I'm still having the same problem. maybe a bit less, but it's not over. I'm not sure if this started when I went from 18.2 to 18.3, but I'm thinking about reinstalling the previous version and then with Cinnamon or Mate.

[lsemmens]

Captain Obvious here. Have you checked that your ventilation holes are not blocked? Even My lappie picks up a lot of dust and muck. A quick vacuum of the ventilation holes clears a lot of crap out.

[bert]

Captain Obvious here.

Thanks, obvious things are often overlooked. Just recently opened up the whole laptop and couldn't see amounts of dust.

As in the Pjotr's link, I also lowered swappiness and tamed the inode cache. It looks as though that is helping a bit.

[bert]

Screenshot_20180514_184333.png

Seems like I found it. I don't know if I installed Fancontrol because the ventilator was humming too much, or if it was already there, but after another shutdown yesterday I thought about using that program and it was already on the computer. It was complaining about the absence of a config file, so I decided to remove it from the computer instead of making a file. Today I did a 3d render and even though the temperature rose higher than before, the ventilator remained a lot quieter. Hope it stays that way.

[bert]

For anyone interested here's another update about my fan problems.

I was optimistic too soon. The problems returned, so as my last resort I completely reinstalled Linux, now with Cinnamon instead of KDE.
I had 18.2 on USB, so that's the version I installed. It of course needed some updates and during the process of installing them all, the ventilator started blowing again, followed by a shut down. Then the system was corrupted, so I rereinstalled 18.2 and installed the updates in small groups and upgraded to 18.3 and kernel 4.15. After that I changed some of the settings Pjotr talks about on the page he gave a link for.

That was Thursday in the morning, and until the next morning I seemed to have no problems. The ventilator kicks in, but remained very quiet most of the time, with a few louder periods to get the temperature down very quickly.

I tried to do some extra optimization as recommended on Pjotr's site; removal of Mono, Orca and support for ndiswrapper, speeding up the Intel wireless chipset and disabling Hibernation. The problem resurfaced. I've undone these changes but still the ventilator only seems to know off and going to completely on and sometimes shuts down the laptop.

BTW, when the ventilator is on full speed for some time, the led for AC/DC adapter/power starts blinking. When it stays that way the computer will start the shut down procedure and shows the screen with the standard choices. Not that I can choose, the touch pad isn't reacting anymore at that moment.

I made a USB stick with 18.3. After another shutdown I plugged it in, started the computer again, used F2 at startup to get it to start from the stick. At this moment the ventilator was again blowing and the computer started beeping after a while. That stopped after a while, I started up again without USB and now the fan again is doing its work at low level again, letting the reach the sensors temperatures of around 65 degC before starting to blow at higher levels. The computer seems to want to stay at these higher temperatures. The temperature dips at the right of the attached graph were done without much extra effort from the ventilator.

Schermafdruk van 2018-05-19 17-31-25.png

Sunday: now the fan is coming up intermittently not quite full speed, starting without that blinking light, but later on keeps running so that the blinking light is coming on, all with temperatures lower than the day before.

Schermafdruk van 2018-05-20 09-06-26.png

I'm thinking this is a software problem. I really hope there's some way to solve it, but I don't see it.

While typing this, the computer went back to behavior of blowing continuously at low level and allowing higher temperatures.

Schermafdruk van 2018-05-20 09-20-07.png

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With 'sensors -u' I get the following output:

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coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:
  temp1_input: 47.000
  temp1_max: 100.000
  temp1_crit: 100.000
  temp1_crit_alarm: 0.000
Core 0:
  temp2_input: 46.000
  temp2_max: 100.000
  temp2_crit: 100.000
  temp2_crit_alarm: 0.000
Core 1:
  temp3_input: 46.000
  temp3_max: 100.000
  temp3_crit: 100.000
  temp3_crit_alarm: 0.000
Core 2:
  temp4_input: 47.000
  temp4_max: 100.000
  temp4_crit: 100.000
  temp4_crit_alarm: 0.000
Core 3:
  temp5_input: 45.000
  temp5_max: 100.000
  temp5_crit: 100.000
  temp5_crit_alarm: 0.000

acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:
  temp1_input: 48.000
  temp1_crit: 120.000

iwlwifi-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:
  temp1_input: 42.000

pch_skylake-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:
  temp1_input: 54.500

Shouldn't there be critical temperatures for iwlwifi and pch_skylake?

[bert]

And in the end it appears to be the hardware. The supplier put in a new ventlator.