HP 431 is overheating, how can I fix it?

Question

I'm using ubuntu 11.10 (ubuntu's recommended Radeon VGA driver is error) on my HP 431 (CPU Intel core i5 2410M - 2G Ram - 320 HDD - Radeon HD6470 VGA). Everything is OK, except heat problems (it's not happen on Win7). Is my HP 431 (Win7 pre-setup) can't use ubuntu? Sorry my bad english.

Answer 1

I was facing a similar problem on my Hp 431-452TX (i5, 4gb, 6470m-1gb, win7 x64U, Ubuntu 11.10), but there was a variation, i am running Ubuntu 11.10 (upgraded from 10.4) x64 and Win 7 Ultimate x64 on seperate partitions, ubuntu was running cool, but Win7 was heating the CPU badly, I had core temp installed in windows which hibernated the system when the CPU was over th 85 degree Celisius mark. and the system was regularly shutting down even after using a Cooler Master cooling pad.

First I learnt that the machine was susceptible to dust, and litreally i blew out tons of dirt from the blocked vents, it worked right till a week and started again, blewing out was not an option, then,

I just learnt that the BIOS was updated to a newer version F.24 on Oct 7, 2011 (check here http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=th&prodNameId=5086746&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=5086745&swLang=13&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4061#93211), just updated it 20 minutes ago, and I think this has done the trick

I hope it works for you!... All the Best!

Answer 2

Problem can be caused by many factors. At first I suggest to check currently running processes and check if any of them is not consuming your whole CPU resources:

1. Open terminal window (press 'Super' key and type 'Terminal' in opened Unity dashboard.
2. Type command: top - this will display top processes which currently runs on your system.
3. Check the list. Look if any of processes is not consuming much more cpu resources than others. What is 'much more'? Check if there are any of them which uses more than 50% CPU while system is idle.

If you'll find some suspicious process, you can try kill it by typing kill -s KILL process_id in terminal window (process_id is listed in the 1st column at previous used 'top' command).