XPS + Linux = lappy overheat ?

I've got Kubuntu on my XPS 1710, and while it's moderately warmer than when running windows, it's not as warm as my Sager 3790 was running windows. That said your machine has different specs than mine, and since I've never felt a need to get manual control of the fans, I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help there.

I think you might be on the right track as far as your spontaneous shutdowns. You might check with the guys over at Ubuntu forums and see if any of them have an answer for you on getting the fan controller working. Hope you get it straightened out.

There are some programs like stress that will allow you to put your computer under a certain amount of stress. It might not be a bad idea to put your computer under a heavy CPU and Graphical(3D) stress test and watch your temperature to see if it shuts down at the same place.

Luckily for you, if it is shutting down properly, it is probably preventing heat from doing damage. If it is just turning off however, then that is a hardware safety feature designed to prevent heat damage, I personally have found those to not work quite so well on laptops.

In general Linux will tend to run a bit warmer than Windows. I am not sure on the exact reason for this, I suspect it has a lot to do with choices for battery management in ACPI, but am not certain that is the whole story to be honest. There is no reason on a WELL DESIGNED laptop, for you to be overheating though. However that being said I used to have a HP laptop that was designed like absolute crap. In fact in windows it was likely throttled to prevent overheating, because the cooling system in it was cruddy to say the least(They didn't even put thermal paste between the CPU and heatpipes). That often hardware activated the thermal cutoff, and in order to run it I had to purchase a laptop cooling pad to palce under it. It later developed several problems i can attribute to heat damage rather easily, and I replaced it with a PowerBook that runs much better

So well designed, shouldn't be a problem. However well designed can be a BIG assumption of manufacturers these days.

Seablade

My XPS2 performed perfectly under Kubuntu so I doubt you have a hardware issue.

I have the i9300 and it does run hotter in Kubuntu then it ever did in XP. I also can not get i8k to run so I feel your pain. I have yet to have anything shut down on me though. I would clean your heatsinks because I know that If I do not clean mine at least every other month they become completely clogged with dust.

Useless reply, I know, but this is one of the things that still really upsets me on Linux.

Use either coolbits entry in your xorg (better interface) or nvclock (quicker access) to downclock your GPU. The 3d clocks are what generate extra heat on your desktop.

Also, there are some guides around here to installing gkrellm with i8k

gkrellm doesn't work for me I have installed it many many times. It reads everything fine but the fans.

Not to try to take over this thread, but what problems were you having?

Everything worked 100% for me using the XPS2. Just went into the gkrellm options and configured the i8k plugin and it was good to go. Obviously, the plugin needs to be extended to show different temperatures and allow you to control fan speed based upon components other than the processor but nobody's working on that now.

I did the same thing but it just scrolls an error message that the last word/words are cut off of, so I have no idea what it is.

Damn that is a bit toasty. I am assuming you at least have AC to somewhat cool down the house/Room. When you go to youtube do both fans at least kick on the high setting? If they do and your vents are clear of dust it could just be to hot of an environment for your laptop. I mean I can't run my laptop when I go out to the desert for more then 15~25 minutes period.

I think I would try ZZ's advice and set a lower 3D clockspeed to help bring temps down a bit. Then, if that seems to solve your lockups you could probably just setup a simple profile to run your GPU at a slightly lower speed on bootup - which should be transparent to you.

Another thing you could try would be getting the system near a cold air source - ie air conditioner, freezer, etc... Just allow cold air to be sent into the vents to help lower the temps and see if the shutdown still occurs. Doing this will basically allow you to rule out (or in) the temperature being the issue.