Weird laptop problem

Tex

I have an older Intel dual core2 5200/Intel 945gm Express chipset (Toshiba a105 s4324) laptop. Nothing fancy but this is driving me crazy.

I run ANY version of Win7 or Win 8 (and I have loaded fresh at LEAST a dozen times using all Microsoft stock drivers. Everything MS certified etc... Within a couple minutes of booting the exhaust air s hot. The bottom of the case is getting warm etc.. Within an hour or so it starts crapping out with a variety of BSOD's. The longer I try and stay up the faster the BSOD's come. I mean like every couple minutes. Shut it off a couple hours and it will be fine again for a bit and then repeat the cycle

I can dual boot and slip into linux and the thing cools down immediately and never crashes. I mean the case is cold and so is the exhaust air. I am NOT gaming or anything. Putzing around on the internet and I read books in pdf format for hours a day on either platform. Nothing I do should be heating this rig.

Its got to be some Microsoft driver issue because if it was a clogged cpu heatsink fan then Linux should overheat also. The cooling is instantaneous as soon as I boot into Linux from windows that exhaust air is no more then room temp. When Windows is bsod'ing every couple minutes all I have to do is run Linux for a while asnd it acts ok in windows again. WTF?

I have looked for driver upgrades etc... do you think "chipset drivers" or what? Obviously windows isnt handling the cpu's correctly or something. Maybe something about how it throttles the cpu's up or down for power saving or something?

I can run under linux for 10 hours in the warmest part of the day and the bottom of the case is cold and the exhaust air does not even feel warm. Windows is hot in a minute. I mean warm to the touch on the bottom of the case! The exhaust air is very toasty after just 60 seconds.

Nothing running hard in win7 task manager and no unusual processes. But it will act this way with a fresh new Windows 7 install. Does the same after all windows updates. No virus or spyware possible. Pure MS Windows. So WTF is going on and any ideas how to fix it? I mean Linux is ok (at least I dont have to turn it off) but I do stuff I would rather be in windows for often.

Tex

Thrax

Try manually setting a power profile to prefer max power savings on the CPU, and see what happens.

Tex

Didnt really see options to that effect. Or maybe I misunderstood them. Under cpu cooling I changed it from passive to active both on battery and plug in. Lets see if that helps. Weird that I can see immediate and I mean IMMEDIATE difference in the exhaust air temp when I hit linux so it has to be windows phucking up the power or cooling somehow or a bad driver maybe.

PirateNinja

I think it could be that Windows is constantly accessing your disk, and perhaps the disk itself is on the way out. That is the only thing I can think that differentiates Linux from Windows in this case. The hard drive generates a lot of heat (assuming not ssd). That would cause the system fan to light up potentially.

I'd suggest running some sort of hard drive testing software to make sure the drive is OK, and meanwhile back up what you need.

One thing you can try is to get the latest disk controller driver from Intel.

Signal

This sounds more like a setting for the GPU fan that got messed up. Have you installed any overclocking programs, fan monitors, or messed with any sort of power settings?

Nevermind, just reread your post and noticed you said it does it with a fresh install. Maybe install Speedfan on Windows to see if the fans are even running and monitor temps. Then if someone can suggest a comparable Linux alternative to do the same on that OS.

Tex

PirateNinja said:

I think it could be that Windows is constantly accessing your disk, and perhaps the disk itself is on the way out. That is the only thing I can think that differentiates Linux from Windows in this case. The hard drive generates a lot of heat (assuming not ssd). That would cause the system fan to light up potentially.

I'd suggest running some sort of hard drive testing software to make sure the drive is OK, and meanwhile back up what you need.

One thing you can try is to get the latest disk controller driver from Intel.

Nah I just swapped a 250 gb for the 130 gb a week ago. Still doing it. I cant believe I swapped in another bad drive thats going out. The odds would be very high. Same symptoms with both drives and a fresh installs of windows 7 and windows 8

shwaip

win7 ui may be 3d accelerated where linux may not be. this could cause additional heat/overheating if something's wrong with the cooling in there somewhere.

PirateNinja

You can try getting the latest BIOS and Toshiba utils for Win7:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/modelContent.jsp?ct=SB&os=&category=&moid=1484711&rpn=PSAA8U&modelFilter=A105-S4324&selCategory=2756709&selFamily=1073768663

I'm not sure what else to do really. As it heats up, is your cpu being used by some background program even though you aren't doing much?

Mt_Goat

shwaip said:

win7 ui may be 3d accelerated where linux may not be. this could cause additional heat/overheating if something's wrong with the cooling in there somewhere.

I am thinking along the same lines here. Linux just isn't taxing the system enough to matter while windows is running a much heavier payload and it heats up. You should clean the hsf and recheck.

Straight_Man

Yes, Windows is definitely doing something Linux is not. One other possible thing-- 7 does a HD swap file build and tune (size and defragging) after basic install and first boot following that. Given that you are doing new installs and getting this right away, that might be part of additional load, as Linux does its swap file build and tune at install time.

Tex

^^^ No I said it will START immediately so its not a virus/spyware etc. It does this consistently and continues never getting better or worse freaking ever. Sometimes it will go 3 to 5 hours. Sometimes it will do this within 10 minutes of powering up in the morning. I dont do anything different to make this happen. I have firefox open and read books in pdf format.

When its starts it will bsod after that every 2 to 15 minutes with a variety of error messages. I have run memtest overnight with no errors

I have went into the bios and even disabled one cpu and adjusted the cpu power options and nothing has helped so far.

I have run disk checking programs and programs from the hard disk manufacturers. Used different hard drives. Swapped memory. Tested memory.

Honestly I hate to scratch it down again as I have done this a bunch of times with no success and it takes me a while to get it all tweaked with all the programs I add but I may get another copy of Win 7 AIO and try that. I have used my disk on tons of computers and never had a problem before but its all I can think to try. I have done Win 7 home, Pro, and Ultimate multiple times. But heck it was doing this also in Win 8 and I was blaming it on it being such an early version of win 8 that I went to win 7 trying to get stable and win 7 has been worse then 8 so far.

I am usually very good at this stuff but this one has me baffled

Tex

GHoosdum

See if Aero is enabled on Windows 7, and if disabling it helps. Also, do you have Flash installed with Win7? My wife has a C2D machine that runs hot and blasts the fan when a website is running flash.

Also, it's good to see you back On Icrontic, Tex!

Tex

The windows update today from MS popped in one for Toshiba ACPI update. Seems to finally be doing a little better.

I will let ya know later today or in the morning if this fixed it. I have no idea if it was really overheating exactly but the exhaust air is now room temp and the bottom of the case is as cold as when I ran linux. Need more time before I know its fixed but its doing a LOT better