GT 525M on Linux reports the temperature as 234C which causes the system to throttle

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

I have a Dell Inspiron 17R N7110 with an NVidia GeForce GT 525M.
I am using Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS.

Using nvidia-smi or “NVIDIA X Server Settings” I can see that the vga reports it’s temperature at 234C which causes the driver to tune down the Graphics Clock to 37 MHz which of course makes the system barely usable for any purpose.

I’ve tried the following driver versions:

  • 340.107 (installed using nvidia’s official “run” file)
  • 390.87 (installed using nvidia’s official “run” file, this is the version that nvidia’s website suggests to install)
  • 390.116 (installed using graphics-drivers ppa)

All three of these report the same 234C temperature (never more, never less), even in recovery mode from terminal (aka with no actual GUI running). Unfortunately later nvidia driver versions completely dropped support for this gpu and the system does not start with them.

Bios has no relevant settings or data unfortunately.

  • Is there a way to have the GPU report the actual temperature?
  • Is there a way to have the nvidia driver ignore the temperature readings and not throttle?
2

That’s a rare but known issue, the temperature sensor is broken which results in the observed issues. No way around it, sorry.