SSD is hot when running ubuntu 14.04(possible fan or intel gpu issue)

Question

I have reviewed a number of questions here about overheating but nothing seems to impact on my system. My laptop has a Intel i-3 chip, Nvidia Geforce chip (that appears to be running ok with Bumblebee) and a SSD and HDD. Ubuntu 14.04 is the only OS installed. I have tlpinstalled. I also have thermald installed with intel-pstate editin the grub file. In fairness this has improved the heat issue slightly by a couple of degrees.

I asked this question to find out what components might be overheating. This is what I have found out already.

My hddtemp command reports the following after about 30 minutes of light use (browsing etc.) and remains at this temperature. At start up they are about 38°C and 24°C respectively.

/dev/sda: KINGSTON SMS200S3120G: 56°C /dev/sdb: HGST HTS541010A9E680: 40°C

sensors gives me the following:

acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device

temp1:        +14.0°C  (crit = +120.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000

Adapter: ISA adapter

Physical id 0:  +48.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

Core 0:         +48.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

Core 1:         +44.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

nvidia-smi normally gives me a temp reading of about 40-45°C

So far I have been unable to find a way to give me reading from temperature of the Intel graphics chip. I think bumblebee is working OK as my lspci | grep VGA reads:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

This may be the issue as the heat comes from under the touchpad near where the mSata SSD is located but i think the gpu is located near it as well. This I don't think it is the SSD as I thought part of the advantage of the SSD was that they created little heat. The other thing I have noted is that fan never seems to come on in any heavy way which I was expecting but I think it is working in low mode. Fan does not show up in lm-sensors. I noted on one occasion that when I restarted and went into the BIOS that fan started to run a bit heavier.

When I run fwts fan I get the following failure:

FAILED [MEDIUM] NoFanCurState: Test 1, Fan present but has no cur_state present.

Also the following message when trying to change fan status.

Fan cooling_device3 current state did not change from value 0 while CPUs were busy.

I know some may not think this is that hot of a temperature but I would like to find out what temperature the Intel gpu chip is running at and if there is a way to ensure the fan can operate a bite more if needs be.

Answer 1

Here is my experience as an owner of a Clevo W560SH (it's almost the same as yours but with a slightly older and more power hungry dGPU).

The iGPU temperature should be the same as the CPU temperature.

I have a SATA SSD installed and it's temp is around the same as the one in your HDD (39ºC). That SSD temperature is somewhat high, but it is not unheard of. Googling for it turns up a lot of hits. Here is an example - check under "Temperature".

The cause is most likely bad airflow to the SSD. I have seen the inside of mine too, and in fact the SSD is located in a "corner".

The rest of the temperatures you display are also in the same range as mine.

So all in all, I think your system is in a healthy state.