tx2500 laptop overheating HELP!

[papapenguin]

my HP tx2500 laptop is virtually unusable without sitting on a room fan...I let Muon 'update' all of my drivers automatically, is there an incompatibility issue with the drivers and 14.04?

donald@donald-HP-Pavilion-tx2500-Notebook-PC:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (int gfx)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0 USB OHCI1 Controller
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0 USB OHCI1 Controller
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 3a)
00:14.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 IDE Controller
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor HyperTransport Configuration (rev 40)
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 11h Processor Link Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS780M [Mobility Radeon HD 3200]
08:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02)

...after nearly going blind reading code, I found this:

[    1.794341] Key type encrypted registered
[    1.794350] AppArmor: AppArmor sha1 policy hashing enabled
[    1.794354] IMA: No TPM chip found, activating TPM-bypass!
[    1.794806] regulator-dummy: disabling
[    1.794906]   Magic number: 11:904:145
[    1.794991] acpi device:16: hash matches
[    1.795086] rtc_cmos 00:04: setting system clock to 2015-08-08 21:08:04 UTC (1439068084)
[    1.795240] acpi-cpufreq: overriding BIOS provided _PSD data
[    1.795507] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found
[    1.795509] EDD information not available.
[    1.795584] PM: Hibernation image not present or could not be loaded.
[    1.797983] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1336K (ffffffff81d20000 - ffffffff81e6e000)
[    1.797989] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 12288k
[    1.804209] Freeing unused kernel memory: 788K (ffff88000173b000 - ffff880001800000)
[    1.807111] Freeing unused kernel memory: 680K (ffff880001b56000 - ffff880001c00000)
[    1.831243] systemd-udevd[103]: starting version 204
[    1.862656] ACPI: Video Device [VGA] (multi-head: yes  rom: no  post: no)
[    1.868458] acpi device:04: registered as cooling_device2
[    1.868543] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:01/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input6
[    1.877783] wmi: Mapper loaded
[    1.881600] r8168: module verification failed: signature and/or  required key missing - tainting kernel

any ideas?

[elijathegold]

Check to see if there is any firmware missing by running

dmesg | grep -i firmware

after a clean boot. If it shows any errors and you are unsure of where to go, post them here.

[papapenguin]

Check to see if there is any firmware missing by running

dmesg | grep -i firmware

after a clean boot. If it shows any errors and you are unsure of where to go, post them here.

unfortunately, that doesn't come up with anything at all

[vinnywright]

do you have some process running a muck ,,,,,,,,,, open a terminal and run

top

,,,,do you see a process using a high CPU%

VINNY

[elijathegold]

Are the laptops fans running?

[papapenguin]

do you have some process running a muck ,,,,,,,,,, open a terminal and run

top

,,,,do you see a process using a high CPU%

VINNY

I do see a high CPU%--up to 100% on both cores of CPU--when using Firefox...especially on Yahoo...at first I thought that any video spiked my CPU%, but when I use Google Chrome and Netflix, it doesn't spike nearly as much...

But it does heat up and makes video unusable (VLC and Dragonplayer) without sitting on a fan in any case...

[Snowhog]

It is possible that the fan air ducts (inflow/outflow) are plugged with dust; a common condition over time with laptops. If this is the cause, overheating is a certainty.

[papapenguin]

It is possible that the fan air ducts (inflow/outflow) are plugged with dust; a common condition over time with laptops. If this is the cause, overheating is a certainty.

I have cleaned those and there doesn't seem to be anything blocking the airflow in or out

[papapenguin]

Are the laptops fans running?

and yes, the fan is running...and it runs at variable speeds when there are higher CPU loads...it just doesn't cool the CPU enough which then nearly stops processes...and makes video absolutely unusable

[ronw]

Did it work before, and this started after the update?

If so, see if Driver Manager will offer you the option to go back to the previous version of the driver.

HP laptop + Radeon card. You have my sympathy.

[papapenguin]

Did it work before, and this started after the update?

If so, see if Driver Manager will offer you the option to go back to the previous version of the driver.

HP laptop + Radeon card. You have my sympathy.

yes...it seems this combination is a bugger...

and it did seem to work fine for a couple of years, but recently (perhaps the last 6 months) it's slowed and began using more resources (often up to 100%) and now it's so hot that the CPU just stops performing. But I did think it was a driver issue, perhaps an incompatibility with the newer driver, or newer kernel...but then I don't know exactly when this all began.

[elijathegold]

Can you take the back off and check for dust build up around components, give it a clean out if there is any in there.

[ronw]

but recently (perhaps the last 6 months) it's slowed and began using more resources (often up to 100%) and now it's so hot that the CPU just stops performing.

Then follow Vinny's suggestion to use top to see what's hogging the CPU, see if killing the process(es) reduces the temp from too hot to just hot (that's the best I could ever get). My problem wasn't dust, bad thermal paste, etc. Boot into Windows and it was fine. In other words, driver issues. The open source one wouldn't control the fan properly, the Radeon drivers were constantly freezing the graphical display.

Another easy-ish test is to boot from a Live CD/USB and see how that does.

[papapenguin]

Then follow Vinny's suggestion to use top to see what's hogging the CPU, see if killing the process(es) reduces the temp from too hot to just hot (that's the best I could ever get). My problem wasn't dust, bad thermal paste, etc. Boot into Windows and it was fine. In other words, driver issues. The open source one wouldn't control the fan properly, the Radeon drivers were constantly freezing the graphical display.

Another easy-ish test is to boot from a Live CD/USB and see how that does.

I have used Vinny's suggestion and it seems the Firefox hogs all the resources for some reason...and this is a new development...I've enabled Adblock Plus, in the hope that it would do something, but unfortunately it doesn't.

And I have an identical computer that runs windows, and that one doesn't have an issue with overheating, or video (even though I have less RAM on that computer) so I have thought it's a driver issue...

if so...what do I do about it?

[elijathegold]

Add noscript to it and only allow javascripts that are required for a site to function. It may help.

Or try Palemoon 4 Linux which is a rebuild of Firefox with lots of the fluff gone. I use it all the time and swear by it. You can use most of the same extensions.