Arch Linux

Beefive

Member

Registered: 2010-07-30

Posts: 13

Fans not working

Hi. I just recently installed arch on my LG X110 netbook, and everything's working fine it seems, except for the fans aren't running at all.

I tried http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fan_Speed_Control but when I get to 'pwmconfig', I get the message:

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

Any idea what I missed?

jmad980

Member

From: Califonia

Registered: 2010-03-11

Posts: 54

Re: Fans not working

Is it overheating?
Many fans don't really have a way to control them from software, if the fans aren't working even when it's getting hot it could be a problem with the netbook. Or it could just be running cool enough not to need them for now, AFAIK most of the fans aren't controlled by the OS

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Someone call a doctor, my awesome configuration broke again! || To err is human -- to blame it on a computer is even more so.

Beefive

Member

Registered: 2010-07-30

Posts: 13

Re: Fans not working

With only XFCE running and no other applications the cpu runs at around at almost 80°C, so it's definitely hotter than it should be. I had WinXP running on this thing before, and the fans were working just fine, keeping the cpu at 40 or so.

jmad980

Member

From: Califonia

Registered: 2010-03-11

Posts: 54

Re: Fans not working

weird....
Cpufrequtils (look up on wiki) is worth looking at, if your CPU supports scaling that can lower the temps quite a fair bit (most automagical distros are using that or simular)
Don't see any reason for the fans to be stopped (other than hardware issues).  I guess you could have dust or something causing extra heat, but nothing I can do for you there.

edit: thought there was [wiki][/wiki] tags XD

Last edited by jmad980 (2010-07-31 00:13:39)

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Someone call a doctor, my awesome configuration broke again! || To err is human -- to blame it on a computer is even more so.

purilepolterguist

Member

From: Orlando

Registered: 2010-07-17

Posts: 6

Website

Re: Fans not working

I'm pretty sure the fan(s) on your machine are controlled by the bios. Have you upgraded your bios recently? Might be this needs to be done or if you did it, could be the cause of the problem. Have you checked your bios settings? Maybe there's something in there?

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: Fans not working

BIOS should switch the fan on full power when a high temp is reached

On some distros I've tried (older puppy linux) ACPI didn't operate fine fan speed control until I issued

echo 3 >  /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/CPUZ/polling_frequency