Arch Linux

Crone

Member

Registered: 2012-03-21

Posts: 71

Cpu Fan Speed. Pwmconfig doesn't help

Hello everyone.

After installing Arch linux, CPU fan has gone wild, but makes sense since we need to config everything . So i followed the Fancontrol guide from arch wiki. Here are the results:

atk0110-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
Vcore Voltage:      +1.21 V  (min =  +0.80 V, max =  +1.60 V)
+3.3V Voltage:      +3.31 V  (min =  +2.97 V, max =  +3.63 V)
+5V Voltage:        +5.00 V  (min =  +4.50 V, max =  +5.50 V)
+12V Voltage:      +12.11 V  (min = +10.20 V, max = +13.80 V)
CPU Fan Speed:     2163 RPM  (min =  600 RPM, max = 7200 RPM)
Chassis Fan Speed:    0 RPM  (min =  600 RPM, max = 7200 RPM)
Power Fan Speed:      0 RPM  (min =  600 RPM, max = 7200 RPM)
CPU Temperature:    +42.0 C  (high = +60.0 C, crit = +95.0 C)
MB Temperature:     +30.0 C  (high = +45.0 C, crit = +75.0 C)

k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +28.5 C  (high = +70.0 C)
                       (crit = +90.0 C, hyst = +85.0 C)

radeon-pci-0500
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +58.0 C  

And pwmconfig

# pwmconfig revision 5857 (2010-08-22)
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

So yeah...

When i ran sensors-detect it found the drivers "it87" and "k10temp".

Also I ran throught the CPU frequency arch wiki, and set all my cores to the ondemand governor. The moment I am typing this each core runs at 800MHz. However the fan is still wild.

I have and AMD Phenom 1055T x6 with AM3 socket. For the AM3, the sensors wiki suggested that if I had any troubles with sensors I should insert the parameter "1" to k10temp driver with the command

modprobe k10temp force=1

I run the sensors-detect again after that, then sensors (same output) and then pwmconfig (same output).

Then I added the following line to my grub config (menu.lst):

acpi_enforce_resources=lax

as suggested by the lm-sensors troubleshooter.

Rebooted my machine run all 3 utilities again, no success. I added the force=1 to k10temp while acpi_enforce_resources=lax was effective, run through the steps again still no success.
In my BIOS Cool and quite is enabled and all the fan-related parameters look fine.

Reading through the forums pwmconfig's error looks like a dead end. But I really want to fix this issue.

So can you guys suggest me something? Even a workaround? I saw in the Fancontrol wiki the following quote regarding pwmconfig: "Advanced users may want to skip this section and write /etc/fancontrol on their own, which also saves them from hearing all of the fans at full speed."
Can you help me do that for example? Or the fact that it can't even find pwm capable modules means that I can't do it manually either?

Last edited by Crone (2012-03-23 14:17:18)

Crone

Member

Registered: 2012-03-21

Posts: 71

Re: Cpu Fan Speed. Pwmconfig doesn't help

Common people

Crone

Member

Registered: 2012-03-21

Posts: 71

Re: Cpu Fan Speed. Pwmconfig doesn't help

Ok I just want to say that eventually it was not the CPU fan that was making so much noise but the gpu one (so I had to install the proprietary drivers). I am gonna put some hints though since people may have similar problems:

- If you are not sure which fan is making noise:

* If you have a windows distro installed, compare the cpu RPM in linux (with sensors) with the windows one (with aida/everst). (There are also some things that you may be able to do with BIOS but I am not an expert to these things so you have to goole it)
* If you don't then you need to open your computer and listen very carefully which fan is making the noise (GPU or CPU) cauz it can be tricky.

Now if you are positive that it is the CPU and you run through the problem described on the original post then i think the best solution is to buy a more silent cooler.
If you are positive that is the GPU fan:

*If you are using open source drivers there is a very good chance that by installing the proprietary ones will solve your problem. The reason for this is that the proprietary drivers have many more utilities in them that take cares of things such as the fan speed.
However, and read this carefully, intalling proprietary drivers can be a lot more trickier. For example the fglrx for ATI is not officialy suported by arch so there is some hell to it. Its managable though.

*If you are alrdy using proprietary drivers then try and go through the Arch wiki, and look what can you do with the control panel that they provide. Most likely there should be an option to manually manage the fan.