Now I know what the problem is, the laptop gets hot and ubnutu 10.10 decides to slow down the cpu. This is all fine and dandy when you've got a nice speedy 4.2GHz CPU but when you are struggling along with a 1.6GHz like I am it sucks!!! I want to know how do I turn the CPU fan on? I know it works, and I know it's clean cause I've been in there lately and tested the fan, so my question is: Can Ubuntu 10.10 let me turn the CPU fan on manually, or can I set it so that at a certain temperature the fan turns on?

Here's what I tried so far: and the result

working with sony_laptop module: can't figure it out
spicctrl and sonypi: never worked in the first place
fancontrol: cannot load settings
google search to "ubuntu turn fan on": only get "my fan won't turn off" results.

= fancontrol: cannot load settings - you need to setup it probably
2nd you dont have a 4.2 Ghz CPU!!! for oblivious reason. (it's probably 2.1x2)
3rd 1.6Ghz is not bad.

4th i think your problem lies in something different than cpu.. also playing with fan controls in portable devices is BAD idea.

If you wish to adjust cpu speed policy and use gnome desktop enviroment just add cpufreq-applet to panel.

I don't want to mess with CPU Frequencies, But I've got the panel applet up already and it's not making things any better. The whole problem is that my laptop is just getting too hot. I get "CPU0: Temperature above threshold, cpu clock throttled" errors when I'm on tty1. I just want to be able to cool this laptop off, the fan doesn't even spin while I'm on Ubuntu. I realize that changing some settings can break things. I want to turn throttling off completely and get the computer to start using some sort of heat control. I don't want to shell out $50 for a laptop cooler when I didn't need it before. I'm still asking what can I do to fix this issue?


NOTE: VGN-FS640/w has a 1.6GHz Centrino that is NOT upgradeable. It's an older laptop and I'm almost wondering if I should switch to netbook Ubuntu.

okay
sensors - to get detected sensors info
sensors-detect - to find and configure sensors
(reboot)
pwmconfig to configure them

btw it's usefull to check (man fancontrol)

1 members found this post helpful.

chris@vaio:~$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +40.0°C (crit = +105.0°C)

chris@vaio:~$ sensors-detect
You need to be root to run this script.
chris@vaio:~$ sudo sensor-detect
sudo: sensor-detect: command not found
chris@vaio:~$ letmein
letmein: command not found
chris@vaio:~$ sudo sensors-detect
# sensors-detect revision 5818 (2010-01-18 17:22:07 +0100)
# System: Sony Corporation VGN-FS640_W (laptop)

This program will help you determine which kernel modules you need
to load to use lm_sensors most effectively. It is generally safe
and recommended to accept the default answers to all questions,
unless you know what you're doing.

Some south bridges, CPUs or memory controllers contain embedded sensors.
Do you want to scan for them? This is totally safe. (YES/no): yes
Silicon Integrated Systems SIS5595... No
VIA VT82C686 Integrated Sensors... No
VIA VT8231 Integrated Sensors... No
AMD K8 thermal sensors... No
AMD Family 10h thermal sensors... No
AMD Family 11h thermal sensors... No
Intel Core family thermal sensor... No
Intel Atom thermal sensor... No
Intel AMB FB-DIMM thermal sensor... No
VIA C7 thermal sensor... No
VIA Nano thermal sensor... No

Some Super I/O chips contain embedded sensors. We have to write to
standard I/O ports to probe them. This is usually safe.
Do you want to scan for Super I/O sensors? (YES/no):
Probing for Super-I/O at 0x2e/0x2f
Trying family `National Semiconductor'... No
Trying family `SMSC'... No
Trying family `VIA/Winbond/Nuvoton/Fintek'... No
Trying family `ITE'... No
Probing for Super-I/O at 0x4e/0x4f
Trying family `National Semiconductor'... No
Trying family `SMSC'... No
Trying family `VIA/Winbond/Nuvoton/Fintek'... No
Trying family `ITE'... No

Some hardware monitoring chips are accessible through the ISA I/O ports.
We have to write to arbitrary I/O ports to probe them. This is usually
safe though. Yes, you do have ISA I/O ports even if you do not have any
ISA slots! Do you want to scan the ISA I/O ports? (YES/no):
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM78' at 0x290... No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM79' at 0x290... No
Probing for `Winbond W83781D' at 0x290... No
Probing for `Winbond W83782D' at 0x290... No

Lastly, we can probe the I2C/SMBus adapters for connected hardware
monitoring devices. This is the most risky part, and while it works
reasonably well on most systems, it has been reported to cause trouble
on some systems.
Do you want to probe the I2C/SMBus adapters now? (YES/no):
Using driver `i2c-i801' for device 0000:00:1f.3: Intel 82801FB ICH6
Module i2c-i801 loaded successfully.
Module i2c-dev loaded successfully.

Next adapter: intel drm CRTDDC_A (i2c-0)
Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively):

Next adapter: intel drm LVDSDDC_C (i2c-1)
Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively):

Next adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at 18a0 (i2c-2)
Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively):
Client found at address 0x50
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'... No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'... No
Probing for `SPD EEPROM'... Yes
(confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip)
Probing for `EDID EEPROM'... No
Client found at address 0x52
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'... No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'... No
Probing for `SPD EEPROM'... Yes
(confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip)

Sorry, no sensors were detected.
This is relatively common on laptops, where thermal management is
handled by ACPI rather than the OS.
chris@vaio:~$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +40.0°C (crit = +105.0°C)

chris@vaio:~$

Ok that's what I got when I ran the requested scripts before the reboot. Next will be sensor data from after a reboot.

hmm not so good as i hoped try to disable fan control in bios. this could set cpu fan to max speed.

Ok, thanks for the tip, but the changeable BIOS settings on these things are infamously bad. It doesn't even have a HW Monitor, much less any ACPI or CPU/fan control settings. I'm just giving up on this whole thing, and leaving it alone. Thanks a lot though.

I had a Vaio once. Looked real good but worked real bad. Sony's have notoriously bad ACPI code. I was getting all kinds of issues with it. Mainly the fan would spin on high speed ALL the time. The laptop would not goto sleep mode. I sold the damn thing & bought a Dell. It looked shit, but had Ubuntu preinstalled.

Well it was a freebie and it works fine, it just gets hot and slow.