Re: powerd and nvidia drivers not playing nicely together (Was: Re: Systems running hot?)

On 12/21/09, Doug Barton <dougb_at_freebsd.org> wrote:
> Doug Barton wrote:
>>
>> I did, but the problem got worse. With the following:
>> performance_cx_lowest="C2"      # Online CPU idle state
>> economy_cx_lowest="C2"          # Offline CPU idle state

I don't see any obvious problems in your listings.  But since others
have reported difficulties when using the nvidia driver with both
throttling and powerd(8), why don't you disable throttling, and see
what happens?:

 Leave the power_profile *_cx_lowest settings on C2 (you can dispense
with the *_cpu_freq settings), enable powerd in adaptive mode with

powerd_enable="YES"
powerd_flags="-a adaptive -b adaptive -n adaptive"

in /etc/rc.conf, and set:

hint.p4tcc.0.disabled=1
hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled=1
etc.

in /boot/device.hints or /boot/loader.conf.  Make sure that
dev.cpu.0.freq_levels, dev.est.0.freq_settings, etc. show a reasonable
range of frequencies, and that your cpus are using the lowest when
lightly loaded.  If they don't, or if there continue to be problems,
consider setting debug.cpufreq.lowest to remove problematic
frequencies, as in cpufreq(4).  And keep an eye on the reported
temperatures, because the computer may run hotter without throttling.
Can you run X without problems?

You may also want to try:

hint.ata.0.pm_level=1

I also think that ~75C is a bit high for a lightly loaded machine.
Earlier, you said that you noticed an increase in operating
temperatures, beginning several weeks ago.  Do you remember typical
values for the temperatures before the increase?  Did you increase the
machine's workload, or change BIOS settings?  What temperatures are
reported under Windows with power-saving when the machine is lightly
loaded?  You said that you blew out the ducts and grilles, but did you
look to see that there were no remaining obstructions afterward?  Have
you looked to see if the heat sink is firmly seated on the cpu, with
no air gap, but only an adequate amount of thermal interface material
between the two?

b.