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LQ.org has often provided me with valuable information and advise but lately I got stuck with a problem and it's time to start a thread myself. So here we go
I've got a DELL Studio 1557 laptop and I'd like to controll my system fan manually.
'sensors' output does not list a fan (sensors-detect didn't help)
'pwmconfig' says "There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed"
/proc/acpi/ does not contain a fan item/folder
acpi fan support has been compiled into the kernel
dell laptop support has been compiled into the kernel
dellfand crashes my system
I'm running Linux Mint Debian Edition with a custom built kernel (2.6.37 64-bit).
When I run the unmodified Mint kernel I DO have a /proc/acpi/fan folder but sensors/pwmconfig produces the same output.
Maybe someone who has/had familiar issues can provide some advise.
That's possible - what I noticed however: when I boot up the fan would blow at almost max speed during the BIOS-part and would reduce speed as soon as the OS kernel is loaded. So i figure the kernel/acpi subsystem HAS controll over fan speed.
In fact, the fan works and adjusts it's speed automatically.
I just noticed that it often wouldn't switch to minimum speed alltough the cores are all quite cool (50 C +- 2) and CPU utilization is minimal.
Yes it does. I'm going to research more about this later on once I get home from work. Hopefully I (or we) can pinpoint this and get manual control over the fan. Out for now...
Did you guys find out anything further? Would be nice to increase the fan speed, I have heat trouble even after installing copper shims on the GPU.
If I remember correctly the Dell Diag Utility can change the fan speed (at least between off/auto/full). So it is possible by software. Do you know how we could trace what the tool is doing?
On a side note: How would the fan react if we disconnect the PWM line (or pull it high/low). Thinking about installing a small switch on the side!
The dell 32 bit diagnostics is actually a linux based tool, theres a way to even get to a shell from it. So logically it is possible to control the fan speed from linux, just a matter of finding out how
Are you sure? It's talking about loading HIMEM and copies from DISK1, DISK2, DISK3 to RAMDRIVE. Also it loads some MDM (driver?) files after switching to GUI. That sounds a lot like plain DOS environment. I think I saw FreeDOS somewhere. I will try to take a look at whats inside of the boot image later. Anyhow, the calls it does should be portable.
For now I booted with "thermal.off=1" which seems to help fan control, but I need to compare that. I saw a FreeBSD thread talking about wrong values in the ACPI tables: Critical is at 85C vs. throttle at 95C, which does not make sense. At least on 3.0 kernel (and as far back I remember) I observe the same wrong values. Switching off the thermal module should let the BIOS take care of cooling, right?
So far the only thing that keeps this Laptop from overheating is to switch the radeon driver to the "low" power profile. When running anything that does not do that (e.g. Windows Setup or even the Dell Diag Util itself) the laptops overheats buts stays on and only gets real slow. When restarting it then refuses to boot up, beeping.
EDIT: Did anyone else notice that all power values are off by a factor of 10? Like battery capacity, power consumption. Windows has the same problems. So maybe the ACPI tables really are crap?
Last edited by Crazyachmed; 02-26-2012 at 03:32 AM.
I also shimed the graphics processor and RAM hoping it would reduce temperature and consequently fan speed.
However, it doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference.
You *could* regulate the fan manually by installing a potentiometer, I guess.
Then again, overriding the internal PWM regulation means you alone are now in control of the fan speed: if you accidentally set it too low you risk damaging your hardware (or at least an automatic shutdown).
About the Dell utility: sounds promising, I'll look into it! Hope it's available on their website since I deleted the OEM partition.
Just a thought... You could always head over to bios-mods.com and see if they have any unlocked BIOS's for your model? I'm able to control my fan via my hacked BIOS on my new laptop....
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