Insane power consumption on ASUS U30SD laptop and others

[Laurent Dinclaux]

The laptop runs very well, but, compared to when it runs windows, the fan is always at full speed, the laptop gets hot, and battery life is only the half.

grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state is not less than 17000mW (nvidia card off)
grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state is not less than 22000mW (nvidia card on)

Those values were collected doing a simple task: writing this bug report under chrome. No other app is running. A note: ASUS U31SD users on Ubuntu forums are reporting much lower value (at least 5000mW less), they also repported that 11.10 release, increased that consumption that used to be 8000mW on 10.04 (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11354101&postcount=17)

It is very annoying, in fact that issue made me use windows, a thing I haven't done for years ...

I can provide any log, dumps or anything so, just ask.

Using windows 7:

- Battery saving mode: 7400mW
- Entertainment mode: 9600mW
- Quite office mode: 10400mW
- Hight performance mode: 11500mW

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: acpi (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Oct 17 20:36:37 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111011)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=fr_FR:fr
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: acpi
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

sudo cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/*
cat: /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/*: No such file or directory

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 42
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz
stepping : 7
cpu MHz : 2300.000
cache size : 3072 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt xsave avx lahf_lm ida arat epb xsaveopt pln pts dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips : 4589.50
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 42
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz
stepping : 7
cpu MHz : 2300.000
cache size : 3072 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 2
initial apicid : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt xsave avx lahf_lm ida arat epb xsaveopt pln pts dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips : 4589.35
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 2
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 42
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz
stepping : 7
cpu MHz : 2301.000
cache size : 3072 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt xsave avx lahf_lm ida arat epb xsaveopt pln pts dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips : 4589.36
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 3
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 42
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz
stepping : 7
cpu MHz : 2300.000
cache size : 3072 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 3
initial apicid : 3
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 13
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cp...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Edwin (hebennink)]

I'm experiencing the very same problems with my Core i3 ASUS U30SD running Kubuntu 11.10 amd64.

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

I tried to explicitly set the ASPM flag (pcie_aspm=force) but it disn't change anything.

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

Turning the NVIDIA card off, putting the LCD backlight to minimum and and doing:

sudo -i
echo powersave > /sys/module/pcie_aspm/parameters/policy
exit

I can sometimes get 14.4W for battery discharge rate but the fan still runs fast and the laptop still get hot.

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

Tried the 3.1.0 linux kernel: exact same issue.

[tom (tasker)]

I have the same situation on two notebooks. That's really annonying, bacause I want to use Linux not Windows. But with Linux I have only 1.5h battery. If I use Windows7 I get up to 9-10h!! So, I use only Windows from now on.

Sony VAIO Z-Series VGN-Z11VN/B (updated Ubuntu 11.10 system)
ASUS 4830TG (clean 11.10 install from live CD)

Both have NVidia dedicated graphics cards + Intel gfx. The ASUS has NV optimus.

[Derrick (djpemberton)]

I have the same issue and can try to provide any information needed. I have a new Asus u46e with a ssd. The battery life is horrible (I am currently timing it to give you an accurate number) and the fan is constantly running. It doesn't do this in Windows. I need a fix badly so that I can continue using linux on this machine.

[Derrick (djpemberton)]

Oh, I am using a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit.

Intel Core i7-2620M CPU @ 2.70GHz
8GB RAM
just tell me what else you need.

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

Is it possible to have a statement from the devs please? It seems to concern a lot of different laptops models, and prevents us from using that great OS that is Ubuntu on those...

Just tell us. Is it a know issue? Is there anything we can provide (log etc) to help find the issue?

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

It could be related to sandybridge bad support. So enabling i915.i915_enable_rc6 in grub I can get 15000mW with 3.1 kernel and 16000mW with 3.2-rc1, which is still not acceptable ... But the fan seems quieter with that option set....

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

Installing 12.04 with bumble bee 3.0 solved it. Can anyone confirm ?