Athlon Powersaving HOWTO

2007-06-06

Revision History
Revision 1.2.32007-06-06dn
corrected the correction from 1.2.3 (thx to Rajeev V. Pillai)
Revision 1.2.22007-05-30dn
corrected a typo in the nforce disable command
Revision 1.2.12007-05-13dn
corrections to the new copyright statement, corrections to the disclaimer
Revision 1.22007-05-10dn
coolrun added, new URL for (brazilian) Portuguese Version, License Change (GNU FDL to GNU GPL), some minor accessibility related changes
Revision 1.1.122006-04-06dn
typos corrected

Abstract

How to enable the power-saving functionality of the Athlon/Duron/AthlonXP processor on some motherboards/chipsets. This is usefull for saving Power and lowering the Temperature of the CPU and the System. (It also will reduce noise if you use temperature controlled fans in your case/on your cpu heatsink).


Table of Contents

1. Introduction
1.1. Basics on the Athlon Power Saving Mode
1.2. Copyright and License
1.3. Disclaimer
1.4. Feedback/Questions/Support
1.5. New Versions of this Document
2. The Different Approaches
2.1. The Command-line Hack (recommended)
2.2. The coolrun shellscript (recommended)
2.3. The Athcool Program (recommended)
2.4. BIOS updates
2.5. Kernel Patches
2.6. The LVCool Solution
2.7. The FVCool Program
2.8. AMD 760MP Powersaving
3. What Else?
3.1. How to test whether it works
3.2. Known Bugs/Problems
3.3. Fix for sound skips and other problems
3.4. Another Fix for sound skips and other problems (on some Via-Chipsets)
3.5. ToDo
3.6. Translations