Running very hot, high ACPI temps

Framework Laptop 13 DIY Edition
1

Is anyone else experiencing very hot temps with minimal/no load under Fedora 36 while plugged in?
I noticed that when I’m plugged in the fans are almost always spinning and the ACPI sensor is reporting pretty high temps: 57C when idle, sometimes briefly jumping to 100C when loading a web page !!!. CPU cores are looking a little better, varying between 44C to 49C when idle and 55-65C when doing any sort of work. I already tried re-pasting with Kryonaut thermal paste twice but it makes no difference… The only way I can get the ACPI sensor to drop below 50C (hovering around 47C) is by running on battery with TLP set to max out at 60% CPU performance “CPU_MAX_PERF_ON_BAT=60”

❯ uptime
 00:03:57 up 14 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.60, 0.63, 0.51

~
❯ sensors
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +56.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:        +44.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:        +49.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2:        +45.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3:        +46.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

BAT1-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0:          17.52 V
curr1:         0.00 A

iwlwifi_1-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +57.0°C

nvme-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite:    +49.9°C  (low  =  -5.2°C, high = +83.8°C)
                       (crit = +87.8°C)

acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1:        +55.8°C  (crit = +210.0°C)
2

Sounds like there’s some kind of process running hard, even at “idle”. What do top, htop, or powertop tell you about what’s actually running?

Try a different distro, like Endeavour (arch based) that is known to run efficiently?

3

Not sure about the program you are using here.
But it shows that two users are logged in. So maybe try to just log in a single user and see how the system behaves.
The “Load average: 0.60” means 60% load? Seems a lot to me for an idle system.
Which programs are you using to improve battery life?
E.g. TLP and auto-cpufreq are not playing nicely with each other.
Which Fedora performance profile are you using?

I just installed F36 on my 12th gen yesterday and my cpu is sitting at around 41°C while browsing / configuring the system, while having two external monitors connected and about 26°C ambient. No tlp, cpu-autofreq, powertop installed so far.

4

I am the only logged in user.
Not sure what an idle process “running hard at idle” means but here’s what top is showing.

   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
   9114 gmas      20   0 2894640 195060 104452 S   5.6   0.6   1:11.35 Isolated Web Co
   2518 gmas      20   0 2099548 207268 160252 S   4.6   0.6   0:52.31 kwin_wayland
   6872 gmas      20   0   44.5g 348536  94540 S   2.8   1.1   1:16.03 slack
   5569 gmas      20   0 1125.2g 295396 113152 S   2.2   0.9   0:42.99 brave
   3840 gmas      20   0 1145524  84960  48676 S   1.8   0.3   0:02.70 alacritty
    491 root     -51   0       0      0      0 S   1.0   0.0   0:05.06 irq/134-PIXA3854:00
   4159 gmas      20   0 4215444 653816 243016 S   0.6   2.0   2:10.24 firefox
   5072 gmas      20   0   32.9g 479940 211684 S   0.6   1.5   0:43.09 brave
   2644 gmas      20   0 5245884 350036 176280 S   0.4   1.1   0:16.35 plasmashell
   2719 gmas      20   0  456036  30352  26248 S   0.4   0.1   0:05.10 ksystemstats
   6748 gmas      20   0   36.6g 170952 122532 S   0.4   0.5   0:09.63 slack
   7779 gmas      20   0 2864052 184860 104596 S   0.4   0.6   0:07.66 Isolated Web Container

The load average of 0.60 means that 60% of one CPU core (out of 8) is being used, which can absolutely be considered idle. I only use TLP with intel_pstate, never used auto-cpufreq.

5

Comparison values from EndeavourOS + Plasma + X11:

I am loaded between 0.5 and 0.7 with web browsing (albeit nearly 3 digit numbers of tabs open facepalm), and sensors report CPU temps between 45 and 49C.

Are you on an 11th or 12th gen mainboard?

Although the CPU loading looks low, I wonder if the GPU is more in use due to Wayland issues? Try switching from Wayland to X11?

6

You can use powertop or powerstat to give you more information on what’s going on with your system at idle. I’d recommend using a LiveUSB distro (doesn’t really matter which, Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, etc) to see if you’re getting the same temps on other distros.

I don’t think your situation can be typical. In my testing, my 12th gen running Arch idles at about +3C over ambient.

Histogram (of 30 thermal zone x86_pkg_temp readings)

Range (°C) Count
29.000 - 29.199 1 ##
29.200 - 29.399 0 
29.400 - 29.599 0 
29.600 - 29.799 0 
29.800 - 29.999 13 ################################
30.000 - 30.199 0 
30.200 - 30.399 0 
30.400 - 30.599 0 
30.600 - 30.799 0 
30.800 - 30.999 16 ########################################
7

My CPU is a i7-1165G7 and I’m running Plasma on Wayland. Switching to X11 makes no difference