Overheating laptop, should I try a lighweight distro - which one?

Hello Penguins,

I’m looking for distro advice. For the last 4-5years I have rocked this laptop, MSI PS63 Modern RC. I have tried Debian, Garuda, Ubuntu, and now currently rocking Tumbleweed. Although I am statisfied with the current choice of distro, my laptop still overheats like crazy whenever its preasured even slightly, for example: doing updates, being on zoom for uni, or ofc low-end gaming.

I realise the laptop is old, but i really want it to last half a year longer before i start working for a company, which then will replace my need for having a personal laptop.

So, should I try a more lightweight distro or do you think the problem lies elsewhere? I’ve had the same issue across all other distros i’ve tried. I’ve looked at trying Alpine and MicroOS from openSUSE.

Appriciate any pointers!

Quazatron,
@Quazatron@lemmy.world avatar

In addition to the basic hardware care (checking for dust, reapplying thermal compound if necessary) you can run powertop to check what is keeping your CPU awake when it shouldn’t and take steps to purge unneeded services or resource-heavy applications.

LunchEnjoyer,
@LunchEnjoyer@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks wasnt aware of this resource, will get it :)

danielfgom,
@danielfgom@lemmy.world avatar

The issue isn’t with Linux directly so any distro you use will do the same.

It could be a hardware issue that the machine is not dissipating heat.

Or it could be that you need some kind of driver/controller software for fan. It sounds like the system isn’t properly controlling the fan. It leaves it low when it doesn’t defect usage but when it does, instead of increasing the fan a little bit at a time, it just goes full tilt to be safe. It probably cannot read the temperature sensors and so has no idea whether your need cooling or not.

I don’t know the answer but do some googling around system temperature reading on that model and see if there is a module you need to install.

s38b35M5,
@s38b35M5@lemmy.world avatar

How do you mean that its overheating? My GF says the same about her laptop, but its just cooling itself off. Does yours freeze or start slowing down a lot? Are you monitoring temps and see that they’re beyond your CPU acceptable range (usually 90C, IIRC)?

LunchEnjoyer,
@LunchEnjoyer@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, the system totally slows down quite a bit, everything from the browser to my IDE uses quite a bit of time to load.

LostXOR, (edited )

Can you hear your laptop's fan speed up when it's overheating? Linux on my old laptop couldn't control the fan speed so it was always overheating. When I figured out how to manually set it to maximum, it overheated much less.

Hexagon,

This could also be done to the RAM filling up and/or high I/O activity of the disk. I suggest to investigate these possibilies as well

s38b35M5,
@s38b35M5@lemmy.world avatar

If you are seeing temps out of spec for your CPU, its not unheard of for thermal paste to dry or even shift if the laptop has been through some chassis strain. Could be worth a careful examination.

Diplomjodler,

Depending on your skill level, it might be worth opening it and checking the internals. Cooling system works, airflow not obstructed, etc. Probably also worth checking the thermal compound of the processor. But that’s not something a beginner would be happy to try. Maybe take it to a repair cafe, if there’s one near you?

Gork,

Honestly the best thing you can do is to remove and reapply thermal paste to the CPU / GPU. Go for something with a high thermal conductivity. There are plenty of videos online on reapplying thermal paste and that will definitely cool off your laptop when done correctly as it increases heat transfer to your heat sinks and fans.

LunchEnjoyer,
@LunchEnjoyer@lemmy.world avatar

I’ll defo have to do this then, seems like the most probably cause of the system overheating. Thank you

floofloof,

Also get some compressed air and blow all the dust out of your laptop’s fans and vents.

Omega_Jimes,

This should be done to any laptop after 4 years. A tube of paste only costs like $5, and it will have a massive difference.

MyNameIsRichard,
@MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml avatar

Have you tried running themald?

LunchEnjoyer,
@LunchEnjoyer@lemmy.world avatar

No have not heard of this before, will try it asap

nossaquesapao,

Thermald is the way. I have a fanless pc that used to hit critical temperatures and restart quite often, but after using thermald and simple rules, it works fine now.

0x0,

Have you tried cleaning the vents/fans first?

LunchEnjoyer,
@LunchEnjoyer@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah do it each year, should have mentioned that :)

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