Processor fan speed

libcha · 07-02-2010, 03:16 AM

Hello,
on my desktop (not laptop) with motherboard MSI951GLM-V
i have the following problem:
my processor fan is "mad". It's default speed is like 5200rpm and it sounds like an airplane.

yes, this problem is more hardware specific, but i wanna try to solve it by linux (i only run linux distributions on this machine).

i tried first, to setup it from bios. it went not awesome, but quite well, when i set up some limit temperatures and tolerances ad the fan started to go very slow defaultly, only when the temperature went up, it cooled on 100% for few minutes. also when starting and poweroffing the pc it made the terrible noise.

but after waking from s3, it goes the mad speed again and full-time. it's really annoying.

the ideal result would be, if the fan went around 2000rpm continously, but the state of - very slow and sometimes full speed - is acceptable.

do you have any ideas how to manage it ?
thanks much.

fruttenboel · 07-02-2010, 04:55 AM

With Slackware linux I do not have this problem.
But with GUI Linux running many flas and other animations I do.

redgoblin · 07-02-2010, 06:08 AM

You didn't say what distribution of Linux you're using.

I use lm-sensors to detect temperature and control fans. It's packaged for most distributions.

Once installed us

Code:

sensors-detect

to find out what sensors on your motherboard (if any) are supported and what modules you need to load. Once set up the command;

Code:

sensors

will report temperatures. You can then use

Code:

pwmconfig

to configure fan rotation speeds.

That's just an overview so check the documentation for full instructions. obviously this will only effect the fans once booted. Not while booting up or shutting down.

libcha · 07-03-2010, 06:30 AM

i have this problems with all distributions, eg debian-based dreamlinux, ubutnu-dased wattos, slackware-based zenwalk....

sensors-detect, sensors, pwmconfig - doesnt work for me, didnt detected my hardware well, seems like its made rather for laptops...

ubuntu controlls the fan well itself, but after suspend and resume the fan is mad again...

any other ways ?
maybe it would be solvable by editing resume scripts to do some special stuff to init some tools controlling the fan... i really dont know how it works under the hood.

catkin · 07-03-2010, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by libcha

maybe it would be solvable by editing resume scripts to do some special stuff to init some tools controlling the fan... i really dont know how it works under the hood.

If your system is using the fancontrol script from the lmsensors package then check to see if there is a fancontrol process running before and after suspend-resume. ps -ef | grep fancontrol | grep -v grep

fancontrol is cautious because malfunction could toast the system; if in doubt it returns fans to full speed.

After resume, if there's no fancontrol process then you can modify the resume scripts to start a new one (copy the command from whichever boot script starts fancontrol).

libcha · 07-03-2010, 12:27 PM

I kinda dived into this problematics and its maybe too compicated for me...
First, i finally made lm-sensors show the correct temeprature.
Second, i cant get pwm running, pwmconfig says There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed
Third, it seems like fancontrol only manages the other tools how to regulate the speed automatically, but i would be happy if i could even manually control the fan speed...

libcha · 07-04-2010, 10:45 AM

Nobody replies

I would say, it is a bug in bios, that causes that bios fan settings are out after S3.
The point is, how to deal with it, how to set the fan speed forcely by linux.

catkin · 07-04-2010, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by libcha

Nobody replies

I would say, it is a bug in bios, that causes that bios fan settings are out after S3.
The point is, how to deal with it, how to set the fan speed forcely by linux.

Probably nobody has replied because:

you haven't given specific information that allows anyone to help
you have whined -- which is technically useless and wastes our reding time.
you have not thanked or responded directly when people have tried to help.
you have not bothered to study or ask ("i really dont know how it works under the hood") -- so why should we bother to ask questions to get the information necessary to work towards a solution?

How do you expect us to help when the distro is "all distributions" and "sensors-detect, sensors, pwmconfig - doesnt work for me" (we should guess what you actually tried and guess what "doesnt work for me" means in detail?).

If you want help it would be a good idea to investigate the problem on one distro, tell us what you tried, what happened, how it differed from what you expected/wanted to happen. Copy and paste from a terminal session is a great way to communicate here.

libcha · 07-05-2010, 05:01 AM

Oh, thank you.

Distro: Lubuntu 10.04

Code:

# sensors-detect
# sensors-detect revision 5818 (2010-01-18 17:22:07 +0100)
# Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-7131

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): y
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): y
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'...               Yes
Found `Winbond W83627THF/THG Super IO Sensors'              Success!
    (address 0x290, driver `w83627hf')

Some systems (mainly servers) implement IPMI, a set of common interfaces
through which system health data may be retrieved, amongst other things.
We first try to get the information from SMBIOS. If we don't find it
there, we have to read from arbitrary I/O ports to probe for such
interfaces. This is normally safe. Do you want to scan for IPMI
interfaces? (YES/no): y
Probing for `IPMI BMC KCS' at 0xca0...                      No
Probing for `IPMI BMC SMIC' at 0xca8...                     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): y
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): y
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: nouveau-0000:01:00.0-0 (i2c-0)
Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y
Client found at address 0x50
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'...                     No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'...                     No
Probing for `SPD EEPROM'...                                 No
Probing for `EDID EEPROM'...                                Yes
    (confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip)

Next adapter: nouveau-0000:01:00.0-1 (i2c-1)
Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y

Next adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at 0500 (i2c-2)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): y
Client found at address 0x2f
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM78'...                No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM79'...                No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM80'...                No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADT7470'...                     No
Probing for `Winbond W83781D'...                            No
Probing for `Winbond W83782D'...                            No
Probing for `Winbond W83791D'...                            No
Probing for `Winbond W83792D'...                            No
Probing for `Winbond W83793R/G'...                          No
Probing for `Nuvoton W83795G/ADG'...                        No
Probing for `Winbond W83627HF'...                           No
Probing for `Winbond W83627EHF'...                          No
Probing for `Winbond W83627DHG/W83667HG/W83677HG'...        No
Probing for `Asus AS99127F (rev.1)'...                      No
Probing for `Asus AS99127F (rev.2)'...                      No
Probing for `Asus ASB100 Bach'...                           No
Probing for `Winbond W83L786NR/NG/R/G'...                   No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM9240'...                     No
Probing for `Dallas Semiconductor DS1780'...                No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM81'...                No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1029'...                     No
Probing for `ITE IT8712F'...                                No
Probing for `Fintek custom power control IC'...             No
Probing for `Winbond W83791SD'...                           No
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)

Now follows a summary of the probes I have just done.
Just press ENTER to continue:  

Driver `w83627hf':
  * ISA bus, address 0x290
    Chip `Winbond W83627THF/THG Super IO Sensors' (confidence: 9)

To load everything that is needed, add this to /etc/modules:
#----cut here----
# Chip drivers
w83627hf
#----cut here----
If you have some drivers built into your kernel, the list above will
contain too many modules. Skip the appropriate ones!

Do you want to add these lines automatically to /etc/modules? (yes/NO)y
Successful!

Monitoring programs won't work until the needed modules are
loaded. You may want to run '/etc/init.d/module-init-tools start'
to load them.

Unloading i2c-dev... OK
Unloading i2c-i801... OK

Code:

# service module-init-tools start
module-init-tools stop/waiting

Code:

# sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:       +42.5°C  (crit = +100.0°C)

Code:

# pwmconfig 
# pwmconfig revision 5770 (2009-09-16)
This program will search your sensors for pulse width modulation (pwm)
controls, and test each one to see if it controls a fan on
your motherboard. Note that many motherboards do not have pwm
circuitry installed, even if your sensor chip supports pwm.

We will attempt to briefly stop each fan using the pwm controls.
The program will attempt to restore each fan to full speed
after testing. However, it is ** very important ** that you
physically verify that the fans have been to full speed
after the program has completed.

/usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed

Code:

# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 0e)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 05)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 05)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 05)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 05)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d5)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 05)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)
01:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

Code:

# acpi -V
No support for device type: power_supply
No support for device type: power_supply
Thermal 0: ok, 41.5 degrees C
Thermal 0: trip point 0 switches to mode critical at temperature 100.0 degrees C
Thermal 0: trip point 1 switches to mode passive at temperature 100.0 degrees C
Thermal 0: trip point 2 switches to mode active at temperature 100.0 degrees C
Cooling 0: Processor 0 of 0
Cooling 1: Processor 0 of 0
Cooling 2: Fan 1 of 1

My thoughts:
this stuff is distribution-independent
pwm maybe doesnt support my hardware
fancontrol is not influencing the fan speed directly (is pwm ?) (does fancontrol use pwm ?)

My targets:
any utility that is able to set desired fan speed
or
link to some article or piece of information, how the named utilities work, how are they connected and what are all ways how to controll fan speed. looking for general principles rather than howtos
[google found only similar forum threads and man pages]