Hi HTH,

Thanks for answering my question!

Using the stock Slackware 12 kernel (2.6.21.5) I had to turn acpi=off to even get the kernel to boot, so my BIOS was no longer in control of my fans. That's why I needed to do it manually through pwmconfig. But with the latest kernel (2.6.23.1) my acpi works fine so the BIOS is once again in control of my fan speeds and everything is working properly.

I just wasn't sure how the two interacted with each other. Now I understand that my BIOS is in fact controlling my fans, but requires acpi to do so.

Appreciate the information,

Dig

Ok then, at least it works.

take the side panel off of your computer tower and clean the dust out of the fans - there should be at least two: one on the motherboard to cool the processor/whatever else on the motherboard, plus one on the power supply (you can get at this one without even having to take your computer apart.

the easiest way to clean these fans is with air - I use a bike pump and it works just fine.

make sure you ground yourself before touching anything on the inside, as there are all sorts of electrostatic sensitives in there. alternatively you could just grab onto a bare metal part of the tower and do your cleaning with one hand.

maybe thats not the answer you're looking for, but it certainly helped make my fans a lot quieter / slower / more efficient.