Much lower battery life on Ubuntu and laptop heating up badly

Question

I have the following config laptop:

System model: HP Pavilion g6 Notebook PC
Processor: AMD A8-4500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics (Quadcore 1.9Ghz)
Memory: 6Gb RAM
Graphics:AMD Radeon HD 7640G+7600M Dual Graphics

I usually get a battery run time of 2.5 hours and more in windows, but when I run Ubuntu, it gives me less than 40 mins and it heats up very badly. Can someone please tell me what to do to get a better battery life and processing power. It would be helpful if some one could give me specific instructions.

Answer 1

I use Indicator-cpu , It helped me to some extent... I use the ondemand mode

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:artfwo/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-cpufreq

Answer 2

Try this, I tried this and was successful. I am using a Laptop with similar configurations.

• Download the latest driver using this link: http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/amd-catalyst-13.4-linux-x86.x86_64.zip
• Extract it, and open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T).
• cd to the directory in which the zip file is extracted.

• Run the following command:

  sudo sh amd-catalyst-13.4-linux-x86.x86_64.run
  

Afterwards a new window appears, select the top radio button; and click on bottom right button and continue it. After finishing the installation, click the bottom button.

• Goto Catalyst control center
• Goto Switchable graphics
• Select Power saving GPU.
• Click apply

Answer 3

I also had overheating issues with my HP g6 laptop. I have installed AMD Catalyst & Indicator-cpu.

I also installed TLP power management following

http://itsfoss.com/things-to-do-after-installing-ubuntu-13-10/

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw 
sudo tlp start

Dont know which one did the trick but now my laptop is very much cool

Answer 4

For Ubuntu 14.04+ there is also thermald -- see my answer here for details.