Compaq Evo N610 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

   I upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) on launch day. I quickly noticed that my laptop (Compaq Evo N610c) was running very hot. I mean never having children, melting flesh hot. I had a spare laptop cooler so I started using that for a little while. It would then start to slow the computer down drastically. Not content with leaving well enough alone, I found out the issue.



   I noticed that the heat was coming from where I figured the graphics card was. I turned off all the compiz desktop effects to see if it would help. It didn't. I tried using the ATI non-free drivers to see if it would help. It didn't. They long stopped supporting this video card (ATI Radeon Mobility M7 7500).


   After removing the non-free drivers, I figured I would take a stab at hacking the xorg.conf file, but found none. Apparently they have stopped using it for the most part and hope that X knows what its doing. In my case it didn't. After researching a while, I found that you can still make your own xorg.conf, and place it in /etc/X11/ like normal and it will use that. I found the following xorg.conf file on a forum that someone else had made (sorry for not giving proper props, I don't remember where I found it) for an ATI Radeon Mobility M7 7500.



I believe the only part that actually made a difference was the line


Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"


At any rate, to hopefully fix this for you too, if you have a ATI Radeon Mobility M7 7500, all you have to do is fire up a terminal and type:


gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf


if you are using Kubuntu, then you would use:


kdesudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf


I'm sure this would work with other distros, just change the command accordingly.


   Once your text editor pops up, simply copy and paste the xorg.conf from above, and reboot your computer. Then be all happy with a much more responsive and cool system. I now run all sorts of Compiz desktop effects with no slowdown and haven't noticed my laptop running any hotter than normal. Note, this fix is for a Compaq Evo N610, with ATI Radeon Mobility M7 7500 graphics card. This may or may not work on other older ATI's, but I really have no idea. If this helped you out, please comment and let me know.