Compaq CQ62-209WM No Fan Speed Control

cyberbill79 · 06-10-2011, 10:38 AM

Hello, Long time listener, first time caller.

I have a Compaq Presario CQ62-209WM [specs] and am using Linux Mint 10 - Julia (Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick).

The fan is a 3-wire, so voltage controlled, not PWM. lm-sensors3 (3.1.2 distributed with Julia) only recognizes a couple of temp sensors, and no fan outputs. However, it runs at a higher speed when first started or when in the BIOS, then drops RPMs when it gets into Linux. This causes it to overheat when at all taxed resulting in locking up or rebooting.

I have 'googled' the h*ll out of this with no luck.

Am looking for any and all help on this problem. Will provide any info needed.
Thank you,
-Bill

markush · 06-16-2011, 03:52 PM

Hello cyberbill79, welcome to LQ,

I'd recommend to check if the module "powernow_k8" is loaded.

Code:

lsmod | grep powernow

if it's not loaded you can load it with the modprobe command

Code:

sudo modprobe powernow_k8

this module is responsible for managing the CPU-frequency.

If the module is loaded, you may use the cpufreq-info command in order to check your CPU-frequency and cpufreq-set to configure the frequency.

If you have the necessary kernelmodules loaded (hopefully available for your kernel) you can configure the cpu-frequency-governor for "conservative" this will keep the frequency small and the fan will have less to do.

I have (with Slackware) configured the cpufrequency this way:

Code:

cpufreq-set --cpu 0 --governor conservative
cpufreq-set --cpu 1 --governor conservative

in my /etc/rc.d/rc.local file (this has to be done in a slightly other way in Mint, but the commands will also work on the commandline (as root or with sudo). Here my output of the cpufreq-info command

Code:

markus@samsung:/usr/local/vmwin/vm_win$ cpufreq-info 
cpufrequtils 008: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: powernow-k8
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 8.0 us.
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 2.10 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.10 GHz, 1.50 GHz, 800 MHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 2.10 GHz.
                  The governor "conservative" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 800 MHz.
analyzing CPU 1:
  driver: powernow-k8
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 1
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
  maximum transition latency: 8.0 us.
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 2.10 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.10 GHz, 1.50 GHz, 800 MHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 2.10 GHz.
                  The governor "conservative" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 800 MHz.

Markus