Why is my laptop running so hot with Ubuntu?

I have pretty decent laptop and should be more than enough for running Ubuntu for browsing and watching movies, but Ubuntu seems to be getting much hotter than it should, compared to Win 7. I'm on Ubuntu 12.10.

I have Asus N53SV. CPU: Intel® Core i7-2630QM RAM: 6GB DDR3 GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M

Here's picture of XSensor when I have only Firefox open, it should be around 40C so that's 20C more than usual.

Solution 1:

Since you have an Optimus-enabled laptop, you'll want to install Bumblebee.

Without Bumblebee, you are most likely using the integrated graphics chipset, while your dedicated graphics card is powered on, which will generate more heat and consume more power.

Moreover, the problem is generally worse when using the open source nVidia driver.

In a nutshell, Bumblebee disables that GPU and allows you to work in a low-power state. It also allows you to use your GPU whenever you need more graphics power.

Windows does this too, automatically, which is why you don't run into the same problem under Windows.

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Before installing Bumblebee, remove any graphics drivers you might have installed.

After that, installation of Bumblebee and the proprietary nVidia driver can be done with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia linux-headers-generic

After that, reboot, and your laptop will use the low-power integrated graphics chipset and leave your dedicated GPU powered off.

You can always start an application that requires your full GPU power by running it "with bumblebee":

optirun your-application

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Should you run into trouble after the installation, the following page might help you: https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Troubleshooting

Solution 2:

My laptop had the same problem after a reinstall. In my case it turned out that somehow the cpufrequtils package wasn't installed and my processor were running amok.

Also cleaning the fan from dust reduced its temp by another 10 degrees or so.