Score:2

Setup Kubuntu for passive cooling due to a failing fan

cn flag

The laptop in question is an HP laptop with AMD Ryzen 5500U. The fan is no longer working and I cannot take it for repairing before a week or two. So I still want the laptop to work without the fan until I send it for repair. How should I setup the system so that it keeps the temps within safe limits using only passive cooling? The laptop runs Kubuntu 21.10 and the fan rarely ramped up back when it worked.

A good starting point is disabling turbo and limiting CPU frequency, but how can I set it up to throttle heavily if it reaches high temps to prevent safety shutdown?

dlin avatar
in flag
Does this answer your question? [How can I keep the cpu temp low?](https://askubuntu.com/questions/124511/how-can-i-keep-the-cpu-temp-low)
TD15 avatar
cn flag
The answer is 9 years old, not even sure if the mentioned software would even work with an AMD CPU @dlin
in flag
A problem you may face with answers is that people will likely err on the side of over-cautiousness, choosing to not suggest something that may wind up baking your CPU. The system will shut itself off if it gets too hot but, every time this happens, you may have a bit of irreparable damage to the CPU or surrounding components. Even a processor throttled to 800MHz per core can reach temperatures exceeding 90°C, and throttling will result in stacking up processes, resulting in sustained periods of concurrent activity. Worse, this can actively void any warranty you may have on the machine
Joepie Es avatar
eg flag
Can you set a temperature 'limit' in your BIOS/UEFI? If yes I would set it as low as you can. I also suggest to take a look at this page [enter link description here][1]. It is about software in Ubuntu to check temperatures. <br> And try not to use the laptop too intensively or for long periods of time untill the fan is replaced. [1]: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-check-cpu-temperature-on-ubuntu-linux/
TD15 avatar
cn flag
My workload is usually not intensive. Having Kate open for coding, the occasional compile, maybe some videos, usually the fan merely ramps up.
heynnema avatar
ru flag
If the laptop is not under warranty, are you able to remove the bottom cover and blow out any dust in the fan and surrounding motherboard? Is `thermald` installed and running (I don't know if thermald works with AMD processors). `ps auxc | grep -i therm` and `dpkg -l thermald`.
Score:1
nl flag

A "modern" solution for you can be using Tlp:
$ sudo apt-get install tlp

Or maybe making some directly changes with Cpufrequtils:
$ sudo apt-get install cpufrequtils

These are tools for manage power consuption and CPU/GPU frequency manipulation. I suggest to you read all docs about that...
(tip: you can underclock for less temp, but also performance).

Ps: if you have some metrics for temps, i don't recommend you make using of schedutil governor (if you have compatibility, also). you don't wanna smell cpu like a popcorn...

TD15 avatar
cn flag
I think I will use tlp + powersave CPU governor. I hope to keep temps under 60 C
Matthias Lenmher avatar
nl flag
good luck!, don't forget to monitorize that temps under lower governor scale also.
TD15 avatar
cn flag
With powersave and tlp, the temps are at ~30 C at idle, under load of `apt upgrade` (135 packages updated, dkms module rebuilt for new kernel) the temperature reached nearly 55 C. I think it will be fine until repair.
Matthias Lenmher avatar
nl flag
Pls, don't forget to read the TLP [docs](https://linrunner.de/tlp/introduction.html#how-it-works) there's something more that can help =)
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