New Laptop - DVD plugin, overheating and Automatic wireless detection

1. The laptop heats up just below my right hand (near the microphone) after some time of usage. Temp under the left hand seems ok. I will keep checking with the acpi command as mentioned above.

It's normal for the Serval to become warm just under the right palm wrest.

2. Wireless is not detected automatically as is common in Windows and Mac. Is there a way to detect wireless automatically instead of constantly asking someone for SSID?

There Network Monitor applet on the right of the screen that shows a drop down list of available networks. Click the network you want to connect to. See this article: http://knowledge76.com/index.php/Networking

3. DVD does not play. The built in movie player complains that plugin is not available. It proceeds to search for the plugin but cannot find the plugin. Please let me know where to get the DVD plugin.

See this article to enable DVD playback: http://knowledge76.com/index.php/Installing_Restricted_Formats

Hi Carl,

The laptop is becoming hot enought for me to feel a little uncomfortable especially when I intend to use it quite extensively. You have any suggestions? Do the figures below look normal? I have not been using any heavy processor intensive applications either.

akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ date
Thu Aug 20 12:02:15 EDT 2009
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ acpi -t
     Battery 0: Full, 100%
     Thermal 0: ok, 51.0 degrees C
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ date
Thu Aug 20 12:09:00 EDT 2009
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ acpi -t
     Battery 0: Full, 100%
     Thermal 0: ok, 59.0 degrees C
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ date
Thu Aug 20 12:11:54 EDT 2009
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ acpi -t
     Battery 0: Full, 100%
     Thermal 0: ok, 52.0 degrees C
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ date
Thu Aug 20 12:18:29 EDT 2009
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ acpi -t
     Battery 0: Full, 100%
     Thermal 0: ok, 58.0 degrees C
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ date
Thu Aug 20 12:20:41 EDT 2009
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ acpi -t
     Battery 0: Full, 100%
     Thermal 0: ok, 53.0 degrees C
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ date
Thu Aug 20 12:28:27 EDT 2009
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ acpi -t
     Battery 0: Full, 100%
     Thermal 0: ok, 53.0 degrees C
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ date
Thu Aug 20 12:32:48 EDT 2009
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$ acpi -t
     Battery 0: Full, 100%
     Thermal 0: ok, 58.0 degrees C
akumar@system76-pc:~/software/MPPViewer$

________________________________
From: Carl Richell <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2009 12:17:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Question #80531]: New Laptop - DVD plugin, overheating and Automatic wireless detection

Your question #80531 on System76 changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/80531

    Status: Open => Answered

Carl Richell proposed the following answer:
1. The laptop heats up just below my right hand (near the microphone)
after some time of usage. Temp under the left hand seems ok. I will keep
checking with the acpi command as mentioned above.

It's normal for the Serval to become warm just under the right palm
wrest.

2. Wireless is not detected automatically as is common in Windows and
Mac. Is there a way to detect wireless automatically instead of
constantly asking someone for SSID?

There Network Monitor applet on the right of the screen that shows a
drop down list of available networks. Click the network you want to
connect to. See this article:
http://knowledge76.com/index.php/Networking

3. DVD does not play. The built in movie player complains that plugin is
not available. It proceeds to search for the plugin but cannot find the
plugin. Please let me know where to get the DVD plugin.

See this article to enable DVD playback:
http://knowledge76.com/index.php/Installing_Restricted_Formats

--
If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
know that it is solved:
https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/80531/+confirm?answer_id=0

If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
following page to enter your feedback:
https://answers.launchpad.net/system76/+question/80531

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subscriber of the question.

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Hi Ashwini,

Yes, those temps are well within the normal range. Here's a ubuntuforums.org post with CPU temps: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=210173

You may want to go to System > Administration > nVidia X Server Settings and check the GPU temp (under Thermal Monitor). I don't have a Serval next to me but the Pangolin I have here has a Core Temp of 57C.