Arch Linux

Cippa Lippa

Member

From: Toronto, ON

Registered: 2007-04-12

Posts: 159

Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

I have been having this problem on and off for months and I am wondering if it is problem of this recent kernels

Dell's in theory need the installation of i8kutils and the i8kmon daemon to control automatically the fan speed according to the temperature.
Even without these programs the fans react to the temperature but in a far too conservative way leading to temperatures in the order to 70-80 degrees

After installing the i8k I have problems with the fans behaving totally erratically almost like the two mechanism for control of the fan would be struggling to get control on the speed of the fan. I mean, you should really hear it, it is really weird.

I am basically trying every combination in the i8kmon.conf file but nothing seems to prevent this problem.

Does anybody here in this immense pool of knowledge has any suggestions or tips??? (It is really annoying when you are trying to concentrate at the computer to have the fan doing this weird noises!)

Cippa Lippa

jarav

Member

Registered: 2008-09-04

Posts: 63

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

Why don't you try dellfand?
http://dellfand.dinglisch.net/

jarav

Member

Registered: 2008-09-04

Posts: 63

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

You can also install cpufrequtils so that the cpu runs at the lowest frequency when the system has no load. This will bring down the temperature.

Allan

Developer

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 9,939

Website

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

dellfand will probably do the same thing...  I looked into this a while back and it appears that in some Dell laptops the bios fan settings are not being disabled by these programs.  So the bios is saying slow down, well the software is saying go fast and you get issues.

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jarav

Member

Registered: 2008-09-04

Posts: 63

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

dellfand will probably do the same thing...  I looked into this a while back and it appears that in some Dell laptops the bios fan settings are not being disabled by these programs.  So the bios is saying slow down, well the software is saying go fast and you get issues.

Yes this is supposed to be the reason. But it might help to some extent if if you give a small sleep time of 0.2 or 0.1 in dellfand.

Cippa Lippa

Member

From: Toronto, ON

Registered: 2007-04-12

Posts: 159

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

Hei thanks about the messages. I didn't know about dellfand. I would try if only the system would still be broken.

somehow it has happened again the same thing that happened the last time (I hope - give me a couple of days to verify the system is stably ok)

I installed i8kutils and i8kmon, played a bit with the i8kmon.conf settings and then out of desperation removed i8kmon, removed i8kmon from the daemons in rc.conf but left i8k in the modules in rc.conf. Somehow now the fans do not behave like before... they still fan very conservatively (almost at full speed with temperatures of 50 degrees) but it is immeasurably better than the alternating madness I had before.

I'll keep you updated

P.S. regarding the bios it might be because I have refreshed the bios with the latest version just after I bought it. Looking at the version number it was quite an update...

Cippa

Cippa Lippa

Member

From: Toronto, ON

Registered: 2007-04-12

Posts: 159

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

by the way: I have cpufrequtils installed

Theoden

Member

Registered: 2005-03-03

Posts: 240

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

Interestingly - it only happened for me in Archlinux.

I tried debian - no such problem on my laptop.  I tried PCLinuxOS - no such problem on my laptop.  But with arch - the problem is real and consistent.

Solution: I dumped Archlinux - installed PCLinuxOS 'Gnome Edition' - problem gone - everything runs great - adios Archlinux.

--Theoden

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"If builders built buildings the way programmers write programs,
the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization."

Cippa Lippa

Member

From: Toronto, ON

Registered: 2007-04-12

Posts: 159

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

ok, it seems the problem is still there somehow... in the sense that if some process skyrockets and the temperature goes up the fan triggers too late (only with temperatures above 75 degrees or so...)

this sucks...

Cippa

thayer

Fellow

From: Vancouver, BC

Registered: 2007-05-20

Posts: 1,560

Website

Re: Does anybody have issues with fans bein erratic on Dell laptops?

I think this is entirely dependant on the particular model of your Dell.  I have an Inspiron 6400 and have no such problems.  I have used i8kmon for CPU temperature monitoring in the past (also without fail), but I have no such modules at the moment and it works just fine.  As soon as the temp starts to rise (around 40 C) the fan kicks into higher gear--and if that fails to bring down the temp it kicks into the highest gear.

I *did* experience trouble early on when I tried using one of the dell fan controllers--as mentioned above the fans would turn on/off erratically.

Last edited by thayer (2008-09-13 18:56:29)

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thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca