# fan is not working properly

## Gremo

hi,

this summer is very hot here. My laptop has and intel centrino sonoma (1.6ghz, min speed 800mhz), that is quite cold on windows, where the fan often is on.

On gentoo, the fan is active very seldom (i can say NEVER) at his full speed. Imagine that you are compiling for hours, with governor powersave, and the temperature is about 86-90°C (186°-194° F) or more (ambient: 32°C, 89°F), is this normal?

i agree that probably fan is bios-controlled.

maybe the temperature from /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature is wrong?

now, for example, during a compilation with powersave governor (800mhz) is 62°C (143°F)

laptop is sony vaio fs115b

thanks for helping

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## guduri

That definitely does not sound normal. Do you have any module to control fan speeds? I have a dell laptop for which I use i8k. I can make it auto or manual using a gkrellm plugin. I usually leave it in auto and the fan comes on when the temp goes above 55C. Even on full load the max temp it reaches is about 75C and comes back down once the load is down.

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## Gremo

 *guduri wrote:*   

> That definitely does not sound normal. Do you have any module to control fan speeds? I have a dell laptop for which I use i8k. I can make it auto or manual using a gkrellm plugin. I usually leave it in auto and the fan comes on when the temp goes above 55C. Even on full load the max temp it reaches is about 75C and comes back down once the load is down.

 

do you mean if thermal and fan is enable in kernel?  yes, they are

(performance governor, no activity no compilation, only web browsing)

also this can help:

```

localhost THRM # cat trip_points

critical (S5):           105 C

passive:                 95 C: tc1=1 tc2=5 tsp=10 devices=0xc18d8800

localhost THRM # cat cooling_mode

<setting not supported>

cooling mode:   passive

localhost THRM # cat temperature

temperature:             71 C

cpufrequtils 001: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006

Report errors and bugs to linux@brodo.de, please.

analyzing CPU 0:

  driver: centrino

  CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0

  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.60 GHz

  available frequency steps: 1.60 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1.07 GHz, 800 MHz

  available cpufreq governors: ondemand, powersave, performance

  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 1.60 GHz.

                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use

                  within this range.

  current CPU frequency is 1.60 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).

```

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## Gremo

please help me i don't want to broke my laptop   :Sad:   :Sad:  but want to use linux

and sorry for my english

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## dmartinsca

Is there anything in /proc/acpi/fan/ ? If not then chances are the fan is BIOS controlled. Although windows may have some extra software from sony or a non-standard acpi way of controlling the fan.

Another thought -- Have you checked that you don't have a broken DSDT? If not have a look at these posts:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-122145-highlight-dsdt.html

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=759185#759185

I believe the intel asl compiler which you need to check your DSDT is now available in portage as sys-power/iasl

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## Gremo

 *dmartinsca wrote:*   

> Is there anything in /proc/acpi/fan/ ? If not then chances are the fan is BIOS controlled. Although windows may have some extra software from sony or a non-standard acpi way of controlling the fan.
> 
> Another thought -- Have you checked that you don't have a broken DSDT? If not have a look at these posts:
> 
> https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-122145-highlight-dsdt.html
> ...

 

/proc/acpi/fan is empty.

[edit]

with the latest version of iasl available on portage, my DSDT shows no errors.

previous version give me errors.

wtf?

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## yabbadabbadont

 *Quote:*   

> (ambient: 32°C, 89°F)

 

I apologize in advance if I misunderstood your post, but are you saying that you are trying to use a computer (any computer) when the surrounding air temperature is 89°F?  Is your laptop even warranted to work in those conditions?  Check the manual to see what the acceptable range of operating temperatures is.

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## mbar

and pls use "cpufreq-set -g conservative", also check kernel config for Dothan acpi tables in cpu governors. There's something called Vaio extras in ACPI config I think.

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## Gremo

 *yabbadabbadont wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   (ambient: 32°C, 89°F) 
> 
> I apologize in advance if I misunderstood your post, but are you saying that you are trying to use a computer (any computer) when the surrounding air temperature is 89°F?  Is your laptop even warranted to work in those conditions?  Check the manual to see what the acceptable range of operating temperatures is.

 

yes, 32C°,(see http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm )  this is italy this summer  :Smile: 

so, what is your ambient working T?

so i cannot use my laptop in africa, for example   :Question: Last edited by Gremo on Thu Jun 29, 2006 10:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## Gremo

 *mbar wrote:*   

> and pls use "cpufreq-set -g conservative", also check kernel config for Dothan acpi tables in cpu governors. There's something called Vaio extras in ACPI config I think.

 

why should i use conservative, i think powersave is safer for temperature (never above 800mhz)

```

localhost gremo # cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep TABLE

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_TABLE=y

CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO_TABLE=y

```

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## mbar

No, you're NOT using powersave until you set it as a governor. See that info of yours?

```
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 1.60 GHz.

                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use

                  within this range.

  current CPU frequency is 1.60 GHz (asserted by call to hardware). 
```

And you're missing some kernel options, like:

CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO_BUILTIN_SONOMA=y

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## Gremo

problem is still here  :Sad: 

 *mbar wrote:*   

> No, you're NOT using powersave until you set it as a governor. See that info of yours?
> 
> ```
> current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 1.60 GHz.
> 
> ...

 

yes, i can set powersave governor

 *mbar wrote:*   

> 
> 
> And you're missing some kernel options, like:
> 
> CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO_BUILTIN_SONOMA=y

 

i don't have this option, what kernel you are using?

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## mbar

2.6.17-no2 (no-sources)

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## Gremo

 *mbar wrote:*   

> 2.6.17-no2 (no-sources)

 

is that available and masked on portage (sys-kernel/mm-sources)?

is there a guide to better configure this kernel (i always used gentoo-sources)?

thanks, i'll try it, maybe i'll solve my problem

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## mbar

Here you go: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-475522-start-0-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-.html

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