Getting assistance with Linux underclocking? Anthony, do you seek help?
Getting assistance with Linux underclocking? Anthony, do you seek help?
Last week I discovered a laptop on eBay at a bargain price for experimentation. It was advertised as an 11" Dell P24T, though its full model ID remains unclear—I’d have liked to know it was an Inspiron 11" 3180. The machine runs an AMD A6-9220 processor and comes with a 32GB EMMC storage drive. My plans were to install some Linux distros, test thermal paste application, and explore flashing options. It cost only $65. After struggling with a poor Windows setup, I finally got Ubuntu Budgie running. However, I stumbled upon an issue I wasn’t aware of during purchase: Dell’s passive cooling design paired with a 28-watt APU causes the device to overheat significantly, especially on the left side near the keyboard. Now I’m searching for reliable Linux guides on throttling the APU to prevent overheating. It seems Linux is likely running at full capacity, while the UEFI BIOS offers limited control. A helpful tutorial or a package that lets me manage processor temperature would be invaluable.
Check the CPU info in /proc/cpuinfo for clock details. Look at the values listed there.
Consider trying Lubuntu or LXDE—they’re both very lightweight distributions. You’ll easily handle basic tasks like browsing, checking your email, and using apps such as LibreOffice. They also come with a software download package. If you have any questions, just let me know and I’ll do my best to assist. The main challenge now might be setting up a USB key for installing one of these distros.
Encountered a comparable issue with an older laptop where the battery was worn out from constant high usage. For handling this, consider using the cpupower tool—it could be pre-installed, or you can install it via apt and refer to the Debian wiki guide on CPU frequency scaling. The cpufrequtils utility might also be necessary, with details available on the same wiki page. Updated August 8, 2019 by BobVonBob
Processor idle status: Spoiler unit AMD A6-9220e RADEON R4, model 112. Performance metrics include 2 compute cores, 3 GFLOPS, and 1024 KB cache. Physical ID is 0 siblings, with 2 core identifiers. Clock speed stands at 1363.5 MHz. Memory usage is 0 MB for virtual size. Additional details cover microcode status, flags, power states, and performance characteristics.
The temperatures during idle are normal. Have you adjusted the throttle settings?
I'm unsure if this would apply to AMD CPUs, but I've been using TLP to lower my i5-3320M's speed. You can adjust the CPU clock limits whether you're on battery or connected to power. For more details: https://linrunner.de/en/tlp/tlp.html