On Monday, 27 November 2023 23:14:14 GMT Laurence Perkins wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwa...@gmail.com> > > Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2023 8:36 AM > > To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org > > Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: Abnormal processor temperature. > > > > On 2023-11-21, Laurence Perkins <lperk...@openeye.net> wrote: > > > I have a system here running an Intel N97 processor, which is idling > > > at 70-80C on Gentoo with all cores 99% idle. This is 40 degrees > > > hotter than it runs on Ubuntu or Windows 10. > > > > > > Powertop confirms that the CPU is spending nearly all of its time in > > > idle mode. > > > > Are clock speeds being scaled down when idle? Or does the N97's "idle > > mode" preclude the need to scale down clock speed when not busy to avoid > > high temps? > That was part of my confusion, because even when I used cpupower to lock all > cores to 800MHz, it kept running hot. > > Michael's suggestion of adding the SPI modules to the kernel appears to have > fixed it. I'm not sure why the gentoo-kernel-bin that I tried didn't work > at that rate, but I'm going to have to activate the > "somebody-else's-problem" field on that one. > > LMP
I suggested enabling the SPI modules because they are used by the CPU to communicate with various sensors, adjust clock frequency between components and thereafter to receive signals a/synchronously to control temperatures. Theoretically, a fail-safe system would thermally throttle, or over-cool the CPU, when any of the critical SPI signals is lost. I can't say I understand why without some temperature sensor feedback the CPU decided to overclock itself. I would have thought these days oscillator crystals or equivalent capacitor circuitry would be internal to the CPU die, so the CPU frequency control would be self-contained. Either way, this seems to have been the problem.
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