Heyo

My laptop has a webcam and a mic built-in on top.

The laptop is XPS M1210
The distro is Kubuntu 2.6.20-16-generic

The problem I've had, ever since I bought the laptop and installed beloved Ubuntu, is that while the webcam is not supported, it overheats rapidly while the laptop is merely turned on. My best guess is that the laptop is providing power to the webcam in a way it can't handle, since it's connected as a USB device, or maybe hotplug is probing it continually or something.. Who knows. But I have no idea how to prevent it from heating up to extreme temperatures, but I don't want to change distros, either.

Does someone know how I could prevent the overheating? I'll provide more system information if you know what to ask for. I'm terrible with hardware management, so I don't know where to begin tackling this problem.

Thanks!

It's possible that finding a proper driver for it may allow Ubuntu to communicate with the device correctly. What's the make/model of your webcam?

The cam is Logitech QuickCam for Dell Notebooks
The mic is QuickCam for Dell Notebooks mic
I've had it running on Ubuntu in Ekiga. V4L and V4L2 are installed, etc.
The heating might even be the mic, which is located directly beside the camera.

What I was hoping to do was completely block the system from recognizing those USB ports and sending power to them, as long as Ubuntu is running and not Windows. The hardware doesn't heat up when Windows is running, and I unfortunately can't access it through the BIOS setup on startup.

Any idea how to block Ubuntu from dealing with those devices? Maybe a config file somewhere

I'm confused. Does it or doesn't it work under Ubuntu? I was under the initial impression that it didn't work, and if that is the case, why not simply unplug it?

It works in Ekiga... poorly.
But not in Kopete, or Camorama.
Perhaps it's a configuration issue, and it would otherwise work fine. By unsupported I vaguely meant that Logitech hasn't developed Linux drivers for the camera. Any supporting drivers would be third-party.

In any case, the issue stands. It begins to heat up from the moment Ubuntu is booted. I'd like to unplug it, but since this is a laptop, any unplugging will have to be software-based. Any idea how to do that? Prevent Ubuntu from acknowledging a USB device in any manner. I suppose this is the amateur's solution.

you could blacklist it I guess.. not sure how to do it with non BSD init scripts or ubuntu (yes BSD init scripts rock). Ubuntu tends to complicate things by making them simple!