too busy cpu

[Niels82 0]

Hey, I'm not sure if I should post this here but ..

 

Im using an AOpen laptop (1557) and linux fedora core 3..

My problem is that the CPU is 100% in use all the time, so the fan is going nonstop. I am not doing jack sh** while this is going on. Right now I only got firefox open to post this and it's at 100% and fan going off and on nonstop .. :\

 

its a 1,7 ghz with 1gb ram, ati radeon 9700 with 128 mb, although the bios i use is for ati with 64 mb .. the 128 version makes everything go completely black and I gotta use another screen to get back on, so ive got to use the 64 mb version from AOpen

 

I don't really know where to start or anything at all here - anyone know where i can start and so on ?

[Niels82 0]

I was messing around with some cpu speed stuff that I found (I wanted to do something similar to "speedswitch xp" which is for windows only). I set cpu to 600mhz or something, and wanted to run it at that level when not doing anything "major" like just having a browser up, gaim and perhaps the terminal and email at max.

 

My whole idea is to get this bastard to shut up so it doesnt make much sound .. ergo low cpu freq, less fan and so on

[danleff 0]

If the CPU usuage is at 100% all the time, this is a serious problem. The bios that you mention clearly states "BIOS for 1557/M10 64MB Video RAM only." If this is not your system, you should not be using this bios. many people make this mistake, trying to upgrade a bios with a version that is not made specifically (exactly) for their system and hardware.

 

This complaint seems common for the laptop, see the Aopen forum article here.

 

I suggest that you contact Aopen and share your problem with them. They will need to fix the issue. While it looks like others have done the same thing as you, your system's symptoms I would consider significant and need a solution. Again, I would contact Aopen and ask what you can do. I would also not attempt to re-flash the bios again, until you get some direction in this area from the company. It looks like others have attempted to re-flash again and had errors, hopefully not fatal ones!

[Niels82 0]

It has knocked off the 100% now and is running pretty "ok", but shoots up very fast if I try to do anything. It does calm down though so I don't think it's a major problem to use it.

 

I did find the correct BIOS, and so did others, but *everyone* that has tried to flash it get's a black screen and must go down to the 64 mb version to make it work at all. I have tried to flash the correct one several times later also in hopes that AOpen has fixed the problem, but every time the result is the same. I have read in several forums that others are having the same problem and waiting for them to "fix" it.

 

I didn't think my problem was directly related to BIOS though, but perhaps it is.

[Niels82 0]

so what's the best way to control (decrease) cpu and fan speed on notebooks in linux? there are ways to deal with this right? it saves battery and it'll be less noisy ..