Re: Hot CPU!

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Mon, 31 May 2010 02:24:57 -0700, freeman wrote:

> Today my CPU seemingly jumped to 85' C and remained there without one
> change during three 15 min. sessions.

Did you check that values from BIOS or other sources?

(...)

> I guess I'll never know. How could a dust buildup cause a sudden change
> in the course of one session?  I didn't see anything that seemed to have
> been sucked in all at once.

Bad heatsink or old fan?
 
> The Debian part is, could sensor reporting by ACPI, I8K (for Dell) and
> libsensors be dead-ended at 85' C?

"lmsensors" reads the values provided by the BIOS but can they be wrong 
unless you load the right modules.

> I am thinking that physically removing and replacing the cooling unit
> maybe got me a lucky realignment of sensors or something.  85' C would
> just have been a default on failing.

As you changed "nothing" is quite strange, but I would just replace the 
whole heatsink with a newer one, put a new layer of thermal paste and 
check for any BIOS update.

> But the fan had to be in on the bad information too.  Does it's
> information come from the kernel.

It comes from BIOS. You better check the BIOS values to reassure.
 
> BTW, this is a Pentium M, 1.6 GHz., which is suppose to handle heat
> well.

IIRC, Pentium M saga was not very "wattage hungry", I mean, it had a very 
low TDP (<30W) :-?

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón