# Fan control on Dell Studio 1555

## Q-collective

After I moved from the fglrx drivers to the radeon drivers I note that my fans are running like crazy. I also note that the temperature is way higher than before, despite the louder blowing. So, there is probably inefficient cooling going on. 

This is probably because I forgot some option in the kernel that regulates the GPU temperature. However, I'm at a loss as to how to fix it. Where do I start?

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## gabrielg

Maybe start here: http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Power_management

Search the wiki for ACPI and sensors as well. APM is supposed to be deprecated, but you'll see it out there, sometimes you have to use it. I managed to replace it completely with ACPI. Lots of things re power management really, so have a read.

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## Q-collective

 *gabrielg wrote:*   

> Maybe start here: http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Power_management
> 
> Search the wiki for ACPI and sensors as well. APM is supposed to be deprecated, but you'll see it out there, sometimes you have to use it. I managed to replace it completely with ACPI. Lots of things re power management really, so have a read.

 

The linked document is really just a springboard to other articles. I followed the Radeon and CPU ones and... nothing much happened.

I enabled the CPU frequency scaling and ticks as described here.

I also read this bit about the Radeon powermanagement, although it only proposes to let the graphics card less fast, which is a ridiculous workaround really.

Are there other solutions?

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## mbar

Unfortunately not. Use "mid" power profile.

echo "mid" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

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## Q-collective

 *mbar wrote:*   

> Unfortunately not. Use "mid" power profile.
> 
> echo "mid" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

 

So, I either downgrade X and keep at that forever, turn down the capabilities of the card, or I "live with it".

Yay, go go AMD/ATI   :Rolling Eyes: 

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## mbar

Do you use your laptop for gaming under Linux?

If not, then radeon driver is better choice than Catalyst.

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## Q-collective

 *mbar wrote:*   

> Do you use your laptop for gaming under Linux?
> 
> If not, then radeon driver is better choice than Catalyst.

 

Why is that when the radeon drivers turn my laptop in a jumbojet?

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## Q-collective

Ok, I went for the following "solution" after the noise was slowly but surely driving me nuts:

```
echo "low" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile
```

The temperature at least drops to below 65C, so the fan drops to acceptable noise levels.

However, if I remember correctly, I'll need to do that each time after a reboot. So, where do I set it to become permanent?

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## mbar

create executable script "radeon-powersave.start" in /etc/local.d

```
#!/bin/sh

echo mid > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

```

You can alternatively use auto if you can live with screen flickering.

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## Q-collective

 *mbar wrote:*   

> create executable script "radeon-powersave.start" in /etc/local.d
> 
> ```
> #!/bin/sh
> 
> ...

 

Ah yes, thanks  :Smile: 

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