linux-kernel - cpufreq scaling strangely, system feels warm

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Date:	Sat, 3 Oct 2009 17:54:26 -0700
From:	Steven Noonan <steven@...inklabs.net>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: cpufreq scaling strangely, system feels warm

I have a system that's behaving as though it's under a moderate load,
but nothing's happening and the load average is zero. If I change my
cpufreq governor to 'conservative' or 'ondemand', the CPU immediately
scales up to the maximum clock frequency (as though something was
demanding that much power). The system is also very warm, which is
abnormal even when the machine is always clocked at its maximum
frequency.

Top shows that there are no processes which are hogging the CPU, and
/proc/interrupts doesn't reveal anything interesting (i.e. an
interrupt storm). The only way to get my system to stay cool is to
change the cpufreq governor to 'powersave' or 'userspace' (and then
clock it at the lowest, manually).

I've tried 2.6.31.1 and Linus' current git tree
(2.6.32-rc1-301-gf0a221e). My configs are attached.

My system is a MacBookPro2,2. I'm running an x86_64 kernel.

Any ideas of what could be going on? Am I missing something horribly obvious?

- Steven

Download attachment "config-2.6.31.1" of type "application/octet-stream" (69101 bytes)

Download attachment "config-2.6.32-rc2-00301-gf0a221e" of type "application/octet-stream" (70784 bytes)