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Preventing ACPI from Damaging Your CPU

DISCUSSION Mathew Brown 3 participants 9 messages Oct 12, 2006 – Oct 13, 2006 ACPI

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Mathew Brown

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#0 lore raw

Hi,
I've been reading an alarming article on getting Gentoo to work on the HP Compaq nx6325
(http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Gentoo_on_HP_Compaq_nx6325) and the serious ACPI problems that were encountered. The author states after mentioning how to apply certain patches, "Without that, the CPU might overheat and get damaged during heavy load (such as compiling a Gentoo stage ...)!"

What would be the safest way to ensure that ACPI doesn't do this to your machine / laptop without disabling ACPI? Would recompiling the DSDT using the Intel compiler and re-inserting it be enough to ensure that ACPI doesn't cause your CPU to overheat or get damaged? Thanks for your help.

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  Mathew Brown
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#1 lore raw
Quoted 9 lines · Mathew Brown

Hi,
I've been reading an alarming article on getting Gentoo to work on the HP Compaq nx6325
(http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Gentoo_on_HP_Compaq_nx6325) and the serious ACPI problems that were encountered. The author states after mentioning how to apply certain patches, "Without that, the CPU might overheat and get damaged during heavy load (such as compiling a Gentoo stage ...)!"

Quoted 5 lines

What would be the safest way to ensure that ACPI doesn't do this to your machine / laptop without disabling ACPI? Would recompiling the DSDT using the Intel compiler and re-inserting it be enough to ensure that ACPI doesn't cause your CPU to overheat or get damaged? Thanks for your help.

Please see http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7122, especially
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7122#c27 and below.

Greetings,
Rafael

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You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
		R. Buckminster Fuller
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#2 lore raw

Thanks for your reply Rafael. However, I was looking for a generic solution. I don't have an nx6325 but was thinking of purchasing a laptop and was afraid that ACPI could damage / overheat by CPUs. I think the link you provided is specific to the nx6325 unless I'm mistaken. Is there any generic solution? Would recompiling the DSDT and re-inserting it guarantee that no overheat / damage happens regardless of the laptop / machine? Thanks.

Quoted 26 lines · Rafael J. Wysocki
Quoted 9 lines · Mathew Brown

Hi,
I've been reading an alarming article on getting Gentoo to work on the HP Compaq nx6325
(http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Gentoo_on_HP_Compaq_nx6325) and the serious ACPI problems that were encountered. The author states after mentioning how to apply certain patches, "Without that, the CPU might overheat and get damaged during heavy load (such as compiling a Gentoo stage ...)!"

Quoted 5 lines

What would be the safest way to ensure that ACPI doesn't do this to your machine / laptop without disabling ACPI? Would recompiling the DSDT using the Intel compiler and re-inserting it be enough to ensure that ACPI doesn't cause your CPU to overheat or get damaged? Thanks for your help.

Please see http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7122, especially
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7122#c27 and below.

Greetings,
Rafael

Signature · 2 lines
You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
		R. Buckminster Fuller
Signature · 5 lines
  Mathew Brown
  [email protected]

-- 
http://www.fastmail.fm - A fast, anti-spam email service.
#3 lore raw
Quoted 7 lines · Mathew Brown

Thanks for your reply Rafael. However, I was looking for a generic solution. I don't have an nx6325 but was thinking of purchasing a laptop and was afraid that ACPI could damage / overheat by CPUs. I think the link you provided is specific to the nx6325 unless I'm mistaken. Is there any generic solution? Would recompiling the DSDT and re-inserting it guarantee that no overheat / damage happens regardless of the laptop / machine?

No, it wouldn't, AFAICT.

Greetings,
Rafael

Quoted 32 lines
Quoted 26 lines · Rafael J. Wysocki
Quoted 9 lines · Mathew Brown

Hi,
I've been reading an alarming article on getting Gentoo to work on the HP Compaq nx6325
(http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Gentoo_on_HP_Compaq_nx6325) and the serious ACPI problems that were encountered. The author states after mentioning how to apply certain patches, "Without that, the CPU might overheat and get damaged during heavy load (such as compiling a Gentoo stage ...)!"

Quoted 5 lines

What would be the safest way to ensure that ACPI doesn't do this to your machine / laptop without disabling ACPI? Would recompiling the DSDT using the Intel compiler and re-inserting it be enough to ensure that ACPI doesn't cause your CPU to overheat or get damaged? Thanks for your help.

Please see http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7122, especially
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7122#c27 and below.

Greetings,
Rafael

Signature · 2 lines
You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
		R. Buckminster Fuller
Signature · 2 lines
  Mathew Brown
  [email protected]
Signature · 2 lines
You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
		R. Buckminster Fuller
#4 lore raw
In reply to Mathew Brown
Quoted 7 lines · Mathew Brown

I've been reading an alarming article on getting Gentoo to work on the HP Compaq nx6325
(http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Gentoo_on_HP_Compaq_nx6325) and the serious ACPI problems that were encountered. The author states after mentioning how to apply certain patches, "Without that, the CPU might overheat and get damaged during heavy load (such as compiling a Gentoo stage ...)!"

The author is wrong. Recent HP laptops all have hardcoded support in the fan control hardware, which will force the fan on if the temperature rises above 80 degrees.

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Matthew Garrett | [email protected]
author
#5 lore raw

Thanks Matthew. Just out of curiosity, how did you find out about this feature (forcing the fan at 80C)? Also, is this specific to HP or do other vendors also support this? Finally, is 80C safe for the CPU (Intel or AMD?)? I read that Opteron chips could be damaged if their temperature reaches 70C. Thanks for your help.

Quoted 15 lines · Matthew Garrett
Quoted 7 lines · Mathew Brown

I've been reading an alarming article on getting Gentoo to work on the HP Compaq nx6325
(http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Gentoo_on_HP_Compaq_nx6325) and the serious ACPI problems that were encountered. The author states after mentioning how to apply certain patches, "Without that, the CPU might overheat and get damaged during heavy load (such as compiling a Gentoo stage ...)!"

The author is wrong. Recent HP laptops all have hardcoded support in the fan control hardware, which will force the fan on if the temperature rises above 80 degrees.

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Matthew Garrett | [email protected]
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  Mathew Brown
  [email protected]

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#6 lore raw
Quoted 5 lines · Mathew Brown

Thanks Matthew. Just out of curiosity, how did you find out about this feature (forcing the fan at 80C)? Also, is this specific to HP or do other vendors also support this? Finally, is 80C safe for the CPU (Intel or AMD?)? I read that Opteron chips could be damaged if their temperature reaches 70C. Thanks for your help.

A certain amount of reverse engineering of HP hardware while I was trying to diagnose some fan problems before. The fan control chip that HP use is pretty standard, so I think there are docs around somewhere.

Signature · 1 line
Matthew Garrett | [email protected]
author
#7 lore raw

Thanks. But is 80C safe for a CPU? As I mentioned, 70C is considered dangerous for an Opteron chip. What type of temperatures can the Turions and the C2D support?

Quoted 13 lines · Matthew Garrett
Quoted 5 lines · Mathew Brown

Thanks Matthew. Just out of curiosity, how did you find out about this feature (forcing the fan at 80C)? Also, is this specific to HP or do other vendors also support this? Finally, is 80C safe for the CPU (Intel or AMD?)? I read that Opteron chips could be damaged if their temperature reaches 70C. Thanks for your help.

A certain amount of reverse engineering of HP hardware while I was trying to diagnose some fan problems before. The fan control chip that HP use is pretty standard, so I think there are docs around somewhere.

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Matthew Garrett | [email protected]
Signature · 5 lines
  Mathew Brown
  [email protected]

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#8 lore raw
Quoted 3 lines · Mathew Brown

Thanks. But is 80C safe for a CPU? As I mentioned, 70C is considered dangerous for an Opteron chip. What type of temperatures can the Turions and the C2D support?

I think HP would force the fan at lower temperatures if 80C were considered as dangerous ....

Greetings,
Rafael

Quoted 19 lines
Quoted 13 lines · Matthew Garrett
Quoted 5 lines · Mathew Brown

Thanks Matthew. Just out of curiosity, how did you find out about this feature (forcing the fan at 80C)? Also, is this specific to HP or do other vendors also support this? Finally, is 80C safe for the CPU (Intel or AMD?)? I read that Opteron chips could be damaged if their temperature reaches 70C. Thanks for your help.

A certain amount of reverse engineering of HP hardware while I was trying to diagnose some fan problems before. The fan control chip that HP use is pretty standard, so I think there are docs around somewhere.

Signature · 1 line
Matthew Garrett | [email protected]
Signature · 2 lines
  Mathew Brown
  [email protected]
Signature · 2 lines
You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
		R. Buckminster Fuller