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My eight month old Acer V3-571G is overheating: temperature fluctuates between 64 degC and 75 degC with only Firefox running and the exhausts are starting show some signs of melting. As soon as I launch Eclipse or Chrome, it reaches 80 degC. The main problem is that the high temperature threshold is set to 87 degC.

I installed sensors and added acpi_osi=Linux to the boot line in Grub. However, sensors-detect only detects the coretemp-isa-0000 chip, and pwmconfig does not find any PWM capable sensor modules.

Currently, I'm stuck with an overheating computer on which I cannot seem to control the fans.

I know that the fans work because they turn much faster under Windows, making the computer cooler (and more noisy).

I want to change the high temperature threshold from 87 degC to 65 or 70 degC.

Here's the output of sensors (with only Firefox running on top of KDE4 on OpenSuse):

# sensors
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +66.0°C  (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 0:         +66.0°C  (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1:         +65.0°C  (high = +87.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

pkg-temp-0-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +66.0°C  

nouveau-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +65.0°C  (high = +95.0°C, hyst =  +3.0°C)
                       (crit = +105.0°C, hyst =  +5.0°C)
                       (emerg = +135.0°C, hyst =  +5.0°C)

Creating /etc/sensors.d/foo with a temp entry seems to only change the reported temperature. I also tried setting the chip to an Intel PECI type (set temp1_type 6 (sensors -s is successful)) but that does not change the speed fans.

I also tried editing /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/temp1_max but the file is read-only even for root.

Any help or lead is appreciated! I prefer exhausting all possible resources before sending my computer back in because I need it for my day to day job, and I bought in another country than the one I'm currently in.

ChrisR
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    Are you sure these sensor limits are for fan speeds? I doubt that. It looks like the high and critical values for thermal protection of the system. I think there is another reason your fans aren't spinning fast enough like dust that you should examine before playing with these values. Dropping the high value down to 70C may just start processor throttling, giving you less power than you payed for. I'd check the fans, then thermal paste & heatsyncs before changing these values. – sbtkd85 May 13 '14 at 15:59
  • I vacuumed all the ventilation exhausts just a week ago. And this overheating issue has been a problem ever since I bought this computer (as new) but I didn't start worrying until yesterday seeing the melting spots. – ChrisR May 13 '14 at 16:01
  • Then I'd highly suggest either taking it back to get repaired/replaced, or if you feel comfortable voiding the warranty, opening it up and checking the heatsyncs. I'd imagine there is poor contact and/or missing thermal paste if this has happened since you bought it. It should not be running at 60C+ normally. – sbtkd85 May 13 '14 at 16:08
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    As mentioned in my post, I bought the computer in another country, so bringing it back would require that I take a plane, fly to the store, and get a refund or something. I'm not exactly inclined to paying a 400 euro trip for a 750 euro computer. – ChrisR May 13 '14 at 16:09
  • Isn't there a way to force all fans on all time at least? I also just saw that the `nouveau [...] fan management: disabled` by `dmesg | grep -I fan`. – ChrisR May 13 '14 at 16:10
  • It could just be a badly designed notebook... I had a such one that clearly had problems working in our aummer time. – Rui F Ribeiro Jun 18 '16 at 07:19

3 Answers3

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I concur with ChrisR - to me, it sounds like a classic dust problem. PC's are not just PC's - they are mini hoovers of every spec of dust in the room, and you've had it for 8 years! ;-)

8 yr old laptop - I'd pop the back off, expose the CPU fan and take a soft paint brush to it with a hoover in hand. clear the dust out. - if your less hardware savvy, dont worry, There's a youtube video on how to do it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcAMlm2_FvY ...must be there for a reason right?

View 1 : If the laptop is getting hot, AND the fan is spinning FAST - that means that the CPU isnt shifting the air efficiently - if it was a sensor problem and a high spinning fan, you'd have coolish air being pushed out...not hot, and certainly not signs of melting. : answer to this is clean the fan

View 2 : If the laptop is getting hot, AND the fan is spinning SLOW - then that would be the sensor problem, CPU paste and dust cleaning wont help this. : answer = BIOS values may help, some BIOS have "quiet, normal, cool(loud)" settings, but ultimately, I'd expect any OS sensor values would come from what BIOS is reporting back to it - therefore your target adjustments should focus on fan speed, not just CPU temperature.

my 10c. good luck if not already sorted

Mr_Kci
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You may want to consider two other hardware elements which can lead to overheating. The first is bad hardware, such as hard drive or RAM which might be working inefficiently or have damage such that the devices are working harder than they should. You might want to run some hardware scans against them to make sure they are not working very hard to compensate for a problem.

Also, CPU temp can have a huge impact on these sensors in my experience and you might actually be looking at a real heating problem with the CPU. Thermal compound was mentioned briefly in another part of this post and I strongly encourage you to see if the thermal paste needs replacement if other ideas fail.

One more diagnostic test which more speaks to the impact of sensors or the CPU is to try and run a battery of tests while your laptop is in the refrigerator for a while; lower ambient tempature might tell you more about how everything responds.

Luck to you.

Dana Marble
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I've got same Acer model (V3-571G) and faced the same problem.

I've just put my answer here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/343824/fans-acting-up-after-installation-on-acer-aspire-v3-571g/466513#466513

Its a workaround (BIOS upgrade with advanced options enabled; better control of FAn speed).

Rui F Ribeiro
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Rostislav Stribrny
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  • Answers that are largely links are discouraged on SE (even links to other SE sites). I suggest you either describe the steps needed to solve the problem *here* or place this link as a comment to the question. – drs May 15 '14 at 19:12
  • I tried your method. Apart from messing up the UEFI booting process for three days (until I could get my hands on Live CD and burn it correctly), this has not achieved much. How is this supposed to provide better control of fan speed? Pwmconfig still reports no controllable fans, and settings the thermal thresholds in the BIOS does not have any kind of affect in Linux. My temperature is currently around 75 degC! I look forward to an improved answer or at least a comment explaining how I should have better fan control now. Thanks. – ChrisR May 19 '14 at 14:34