> (added Andrew to CC as he also answered my original email. Don't know > if sensors at stimpy.netroedge.com allows non-subscribers) Yes it does :) Now I hope acpi-devel does too. > This reminds me: about a year ago my CPU fan burnt down. Then too, > shortly after booting the PC, it slowed down. Then by accident I > noticed in BIOS CPU temperature 98 deg C. With a new fan problem > disappeared. Wow, 98, no less. You're lucky it didn't catch on fire, you know. > So, can it be, that the BIOS automatically slows down (throttles) the > CPU at high temperature. Yes this is certainly what happens. Blinking power led usually means that some kinf of thermal or power management is in effect. > And after ~ 2.6.7 sensors program the sensor > interface with some (wrong) coefficient, and then it throttles the CPU > wrongly? There were some significant changes to the via686a driver in 2.6.6 and 2.6.7. 2.6.6: Limit initialization was removed from the driver. The same was done for most other drivers. The limits have to be set by either the BIOS or user-space, not kernel drivers. Also, chip initialization is now less agressive (previous version would possibly arbitrarily overwrite BIOS settings). 2.6.7: Conversion formulas were reworked for a better accuracy. Errors were previously introduced by incorrect rounding. I think that the changes in 2.6.6 are the ones affecting you. > Yes, some coefficients are definitely wrong. Here are a > couple of snapshots: > > via686a-isa-e200 > Adapter: ISA adapter > CPU core: +1.09 V (min = +2.00 V, max = +2.50 V) ALARM > +2.5V: +1.16 V (min = +3.10 V, max = +1.57 V) ALARM > I/O: +3.40 V (min = +4.13 V, max = +4.13 V) ALARM > +5V: +5.55 V (min = +6.44 V, max = +6.44 V) ALARM > +12V: +4.81 V (min = +15.60 V, max = +15.60 V) ALARM > CPU Fan: 5443 RPM (min = 0 RPM, div = 2) > P/S Fan: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM, div = 2) > SYS Temp: +45.4 C (high = +45 C, hyst = +40 C) ALARM > CPU Temp: +34.5 C (high = +60 C, hyst = +55 C) > SBr Temp: +28.4 C (high = +65 C, hyst = +60 C) Blame your BIOS! It did not properly configure voltage limits, among others. BTW, Vcore, +2.5V and +12V look awfully wrong anyway. I/O and +5V are acceptable but even +5V is a bit too high IMHO. Never heard of your motherboard model before, seems to be a rare one. Maybe Asus didn't put much support on it. Notice the ALARM in SYS Temp, which is probably causing the system to throttle. > via686a-isa-e200 > Adapter: ISA adapter > CPU core: +1.09 V (min = +2.00 V, max = +2.50 V) ALARM > +2.5V: +1.16 V (min = +3.10 V, max = +1.57 V) ALARM > I/O: +3.40 V (min = +4.13 V, max = +4.13 V) ALARM > +5V: +5.55 V (min = +6.44 V, max = +6.44 V) ALARM > +12V: +4.81 V (min = +15.60 V, max = +15.60 V) ALARM > CPU Fan: 5487 RPM (min = 0 RPM, div = 2) > P/S Fan: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM, div = 2) > SYS Temp: +45.2 C (high = +91 C, hyst = +40 C) ALARM > CPU Temp: +34.4 C (high = +60 C, hyst = +55 C) > SBr Temp: +28.4 C (high = +65 C, hyst = +60 C) > > Notice how SYS Temp high changed... Did it change *on its own*? Weird. Note that 91 = 45 << 1 + 1. I wonder if it could be some kind of read error. Will the value change > Can my guesses be correct and how can the situation be fixed? Pick the latest default configuration file for sensors here: http://www2.lm-sensors.nu/%7Elm78/cvs/lm_sensors2/etc/sensors.conf.eg Save as /etc/sensors.conf, edit the via686a-* section, especially the "set temp1_high" and set temp1_hyst" values. I'd suggest: set temp1_hyst 55 set temp1_over 60 Save the changes and run "sensors -s". Your system should hopefully be back to full speed right after that. So all you have to do is make sure that "sensors -s" is called after you load the via686a driver at boot time. You should take a look at the hardware monitoring options in your BIOS setup screen if it has any. Maybe you can configure the boot value of temp1_high directly there, and it may provide hints about voltages as well. -- Jean Delvare http://khali.linux-fr.org/
