PC starts to be noisy some time after Ubuntu is installed

I used to have this problem: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/174161/when-i-boot-linux-it-asks-for-password-pretends-to-proceed-but-then-returns-t. Before it arose, my PC was beeing noisy for a few weeks. I re-installed the OS and it became silent again.

Now the story repeats, it's being noisy and hot, even when no heavy programs are running. I'm afraid of this happening again, so -
what could be the reason for it, and how to deal with it?

Here is the result of running top:

top - 20:02:02 up  1:13,  2 users,  load average: 0,11, 0,38, 0,46
Tasks: 226 total,   1 running, 225 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  1,3 us,  0,6 sy,  0,0 ni, 97,3 id,  0,8 wa,  0,0 hi,  0,0 si,  0,0 st
KiB Mem:   6025844 total,  2343856 used,  3681988 free,    93344 buffers
KiB Swap:  6203388 total,        0 used,  6203388 free.  1114716 cached Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND     
 1470 root      20   0  431740  67740  46656 S   1,7  1,1   1:39.52 Xorg        
 9508 lakesare  20   0  652304  19252  12708 S   1,0  0,3   0:01.17 gnome-term+ 
 9987 lakesare  20   0 1563492 128416  65228 S   1,0  2,1   0:11.20 chrome      
 1862 lakesare  20   0 1576824 149736  36232 S   0,7  2,5   1:42.58 compiz      
10266 lakesare  20   0  819356  60524  23368 S   0,7  1,0   0:01.26 chrome      
10029 lakesare  20   0  598304 193144 142572 S   0,3  3,2   0:05.21 chrome      
10373 lakesare  20   0   30368   1728   1180 R   0,3  0,0   0:00.05 top

Here is the result of running sensors:

Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +63.0°C  

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +64.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:         +62.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:         +61.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

My graphic card (by lspci | grep VGA):

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 
4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

My PC model: HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC (F7S72EA#ACB).

lakesare

Posted 2014-12-25T17:13:48.447

Reputation: 111

What is causing the noise? The cpu fan? If so try running the computer without the case door on. See if that had any affect. If so then there might be some sort of ventilation issue – VenomFangs – 2014-12-25T21:54:52.673

@VenomFangs, opening the case often has the affect of raising temperatures as it disrupts the proper flow of air. – psusi – 2014-12-26T03:20:03.127

Is the cpu temperature high? Check with sensors. – psusi – 2014-12-26T03:21:37.340

@psusi, I ran sensors and added output to the question. – lakesare – 2014-12-26T06:27:09.983

Which graphics card? Did you install any proprietary driver? – davidbaumann – 2014-12-26T06:31:48.650

@davidbaumann, added graphics card information. No, I didn't install any proprietary driver. – lakesare – 2014-12-26T06:49:59.123

So there's no discrete graphics? I ask, because the lack of a proprietary graphics card might result in your problem. But yours is on the CPU. – davidbaumann – 2014-12-26T07:25:03.810

I would run htop in a window and watch it. My system gets busy when vlc crashes (window closes but runs at 100% CPU), or if thunderbird syncs. – davidbaumann – 2014-12-26T07:26:25.310

Well, doesn't seem to be just a hot cpu running the fan faster so its either shot bearings or the disk drive. You'll have to figure out which and replace it. – psusi – 2014-12-26T21:22:12.300

top doesn't show much action (I added output to the question) – lakesare – 2014-12-25T18:02:16.210

This top indeed does not show significant usage. The next thing I would try is to clean the CPU fan and ducts. I might also execute watch 'cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "MHz"' in 1 window and then start and stop a CPU intensive program like CPU Burn or FFMPeg in another to see if the CPU is throttling under load - which usually indicates a heat disipation issue. – davidgo – 2014-12-25T18:14:06.163

PC starts to be noisy some time after Ubuntu is installed

Answers