Arch Linux

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

fan never stops

I've searched all over the place but I don't seem to find a solution. The issue is very annoying... I have a HP dv5000 laptop, I just tried out ubuntu and the fan was crazy there aswell, more so then in arch. I run arch64. The problem is that the fan turns on for about 30 seconds, then off for 10 seconds and back again, the cycle never stops. This happends even when nearly nothing is running and cpu is at ~0%. Also I think it's strange that cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature always shows 0. If anyone have similar issues please let me know.

vogt

Member

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2006-11-25

Posts: 389

Re: fan never stops

are you scaling your cpu frequency down?

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CPU … cy_Scaling

In basically all laptops, the fan goes on when the cpu gets too hot, without any OS intervention. Cut the temperatures, and the fan should run less.

signor_rossi

Member

Registered: 2007-08-24

Posts: 257

Re: fan never stops

Probably adjusting the trip points that turn on or off the fan according to the reached temperatures of your laptop may help to alleviate your problem. There is a chance that a new bios from HP has already better chosen values, so you might look at the HP support page first and check if a new BIOS is available.
Are you using your laptop mostly on AC (probably yes, judging from the model )? My HP laptop has a BIOS option that lets the fan always spin at a minimum of 20% rpm on AC power, maybe you have that option too. At 20% rpm the fan is very silent and doesn't go on and off every few seconds.
What do you mean '/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature' stands for? What's the listing of 'ls /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/' for you?
I have no links on how to adjust the trip points manually atm, maybe I will google them up later for you.

Bye, signor_Rossi.

Last edited by signor_rossi (2008-06-17 08:48:09)

Davigetto

Member

From: In your mind

Registered: 2007-05-10

Posts: 266

Re: fan never stops

I have the same problem from 3 months ago and the problem is kernel. The new kernel make our pc's to reach higher temperatures, and fan makes lot of noise. I have looked in google (ubuntu trackers) and I found some people that have the same problem related with fans. Everyone says kernel problem. In kernel 2.6.18 fan works fine

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lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: fan never stops

signor_rossi: the bios that came with the laptop is very limited and I can not adjust the fan.

'ls /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/'

THRM

'ls /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/'

cooling_mode  polling_frequency  state  temperature  trip_points

'cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/trip_points'

critical (S5):           94 C
passive:                 90 C: tc1=2 tc2=5 tsp=50 devices=CPU0

Somehow I feel setting trip points will not help? since /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature is _always_ 0.

Davigetto: I think it is a kernel problem too. I read some bug report on people having similar problems and it came from a acpi bug in the kernel. It's not a hardware problem as I just switched from windows where the fan was working fine.

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: fan never stops

I found this: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-amd … coolnquiet
Now does anyone know if the default kernel is compiled with those options? or should I compile my own? Also does anyone know what cpudyn is and if it is avilable for arch?

vogt

Member

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2006-11-25

Posts: 389

Re: fan never stops

There are a bunch of userspace utilities that tell the driver controlling the cpu frequency when to change, cpudyn is just one of them.

so you aren't using this: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CPU … cy_Scaling (which is basically what that gentoo wiki page says). No need to recompile

with the cpu at its lowest frequency, the fan rarely ran on a similar laptop.

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: fan never stops

Nice, the cpu scaling seemed to have worked this time, I think I configured it wrong the last time. The fan is less agressive now anyway. Thanks.