Help with install on a Gateway Notebook that overheats

aghy · n00b Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Posts: 14

Hello,

First of all thanks for reading this.
I really like the idea of Gentoo!

So here is my issue. I am using a Gateway 450sx notebook. I boot from the LiveCd fine with "boot: gentoo acpi" and I go through all the motions in the install handbook untill the bootstrap. Whenever the machines heats up the fans DO NOT turn on and it eventual shuts it self off. The Fans dont turn on al all actually when Gentoo is running.

I called Gateway got a new BIOS they don't post publicly that they claimed will kick the fans on earlier. Well no luck after I installed it.

I looked in all the forums and really didn't get much help.

Also I noticed when the LiveCd boots it says after the autodectect APM BIOS SUPPORT disable or somthing very close.

Now I when I use w$ndows 2000 the fans kick on all the time just fine.

Why in Gentoo do the fans not turn on? Are they really controled by the OS? I figured that was a hardware issue when the chips got to a certain temp.

Anyway any help would be great. I really want to stick with Gentoo and not use a bloated Redhat or Mandrake.

pem725 · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 11:06 am Post subject:

Is there a way to specify in the BIOS that the fans ought to run all the time? This might be a temp work around for your overheating but a poor long-term solution. I find it strange that a OEM would have the OS do the work traditionally done by the BIOS but I put nothing past Gateway these days. Also, did you use any alternative switches on the LiveCD? For example, you might specify noapm or alternatively acpi - these are both power saving modes and your notebook might use one and not the other. Good luck.
_________________
Cheers,
Patrick

Do the community a favor and answer a few stranded messages. I'm off to answer one now...thanks to gentoo!

aghy · n00b Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Posts: 14

pem725 · Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 8:50 pm Post subject:

IIRC the kernel loads whatever comes first so the ACPI probably goes first and steps all over APM modules. If you are having problems by default then issue the noacpi command at the kernel prompt when booting. The menu comes up and allows you to select different kernels and different kernel options. Give APM a try rather than ACPI.
_________________
Cheers,
Patrick

Do the community a favor and answer a few stranded messages. I'm off to answer one now...thanks to gentoo!

snowmoon · n00b Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 64 Location: Albany,NY USA

I have worked on gateways with heating problems before. If you have the skills and the time you can open it up and scrape the defunct insulating foam( that's what the cpu compund they used turned into ) and replace it with some good themal compound + a small/thin peice of metal.

The laptop went from heating up and shutting down while booting Win98 to fully functional.

aghy · n00b Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Posts: 14

aghy · n00b Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Posts: 14