Comment 164 for bug 22336

I have a trippy observation which may be a Clue. At least for some people's problem. I don't know how to use this Clue, but I toss it out there in case it makes an "aha" for anyone.

I have been having a related problem on my Presario 2100. I recently wiped WinXP and replaced with Feisty. For about a week everything was awesome and I was really loving it. Then mysteriously this problem just started happening - I couldn't do anything remotely computationally intensive (like open firefox) without the computer shutting down and getting these cpu scaling and critical temperature complaints from the kernel. So at first I thought I had the Ubuntu analog of a virus - it must be something I downloaded. Tried removing a bunch of stuff and nope problem still there. So I decided to re-install Feisty. And interestingly *it would not work from the Live CD either* - where before it was *perfect* for hours at a time. The reinstall always causes one fo thhese critical temperature failres and never completes.

So here's the trippy observation. Fact one, when I was doing all this fiddling with Ubuntu, I was unplugging and plugging the laptop a lot as I was moving it from where I normally keep it to next to the router because I need an internet connection to install ndiswrapper to make my wireless card work - so my battery was always draining a bit. Fact two, I have a crappy battery, and just for fun I configured Gnome to always show the battery monitor. All the times I was using Ubuntu I always saw the icon in the shape of a battery and I always assumed that this was just how it looked. Then one day - just before my problems started - I notice it in the shape of a power cord and it says I am running on AC power. This is odd thinks I, because I was not used to seeing this, but since my battery is crap it makes sense that it would be charging practically forever if you let it drain even a little bit.

So after doing a lot of reading, two and two come together of a seemingly improbable possibility and I try unplugging the power, starting Ubuntu, letting it drain a litte, and starting my install. Suddenly, miraculum est, I have the persistent battery icon and my install is going without a hitch. Hmmm.

As odd as it seems, could the problem be related in some cases and in some possibly indirect way to something that should be a total one-off - the battery charging? As long as my battery is not fully charged I seem to be rolling in puppies over here, but they turn to rottweilers when the battery gets a full charge.

BTW - I am sure I should clean out my fan and I will take this as a wake-up call to do so. But my fan/temperature to my qualitative perception seems no different than on WinXP when Ubuntu is actually working for me. It was working fine under Windows (well, not "fine", but not doing anything like this). Something else is going on here.