Not sure “configuration” is the best category for this, maybe “hardware” instead?
I followed the instructions to install the generic 86/64x OS on my old HP Envy 15 laptop. I believe it has more than the minimum requirements.
So far I’ve connected it to Hue, two Sonoff zigbee door sensors through the sonoff zigbee E dongle, and one tapo WiFi spotlight bulb.
It keeps overheating and shutting down. The fan goes constantly when it is on. The laptop had problems when it was running windows, hence it being replaced, but I (possibly wrongly) assumed it was caused by the software rather than the hardware and that essentially wiping it and replacing the OS would eliminate the problem.
HA os can’t be using that many resources, surely. So it must be problem with the device itself. Anyone know where I can start tinkering? Is it a dud? Is there something I can do to control the temperature better?
If the fan is constantly running and it’s still going into overheat protection I’d be looking at the hardware. Sounds like a pretty basic installation so I doubt it’s workload. That cpu is probably mostly idle.
Do you smoke? Have you opened up the laptop to check on the condition of the fans and heat sink?
If you smoke, vape or the laptop is in particularly dusty conditions (behind TV stand, like mine for instance) the small fins of the heat sink might be clogged up with muck. If the fins can’t whisk the heat away, the CPU will overheat. I’d take a look inside and give it a good clean (delicately!) with compressed air or a fine paint brush.
Totally… Heck I haven’t smoked for 20 years, I’m a royal pain about dust in my office and I’m constantly suprised at the junk sucked into my laptop. The dust bunnies love itn
Id bet cracking it open cleaning it out and possibly re-application of thermal compound to whatever heat solution is on this thing makes a whole lot of difference to this machines outlook
Almost positive this isn’t anything fixed in software
I have HA running on an old laptop and everytime I compiled ESPHome firmware it would crash. Simply blowing some compressed air (from an actual air compressor in my case) completely fixed the issue and it’s been running a bit cooler all the time now too.
Thanks all! I cracked it open (unfortunately literally, as one of the screws rounded and I couldn’t get it out). There was a ton of dust in there.
I cleaned it all out, put it all back together, and now I get this
Apparently. I thought I’d disabled it when I did the install. It hadn’t kicked in all the times I restarted it after overheating, so curious it did it this time.
I played around in the bios and disabled secure boot, also found an option called “fan always on” which I disabled.
It’s started up correctly this time, and the fan is running, just much quieter than previously, so hopefully that means it’s both more effective and actually able to adjust to the needs of the processor now rather than just being “always on”. So I’m optimistic I won’t have to buy anything to replace it yet.
Nice job! Glad you were able to lower temps so drastically.
For prevention, you might consider placing an external filter over the vents of the laptop to avoid dust getting in there in the first place. A foam filter ought to catch most of it and would cost next to nothing. Otherwise just monitor and clean as necessary. Good luck!
