15.11.5. Fan
Please make sure what you are doing, when configuring the fan. Your laptop may overheat and die, in case you have done something wrong. Just in case you want to check the fan try to cause a heavy CPU load, for example by issueing md5sum /dev/urandom . Now top will show an increased CPU load and the fan should began to run eventually. Note: usually you need to have been connected to power, otherwise the CPU might reduce load by itself. Also watch for the CPU temperature acpi -bt or cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/* .
For some laptop series there are Linux utilities available to control the fan and other features.
Toshutils by Jonathan Buzzard for some Toshiba models.
tpctl IBM ThinkPad configuration tools for Linux by Thomas Hood.
i8k utils for DELL laptops.
15.11.5.1. Known Problems
With some laptops the fan is always on or at least very often. Here are some remedies.
15.11.5.1.1. Reduction of CPU Frequency
In some cases the fan is always on because the CPU is working with highest frequency. You may use either cpufreqd or cpudyn to cure this.
15.11.5.1.2. IRQ Problems with ParPort Module
Sometimes the parport causes the fan to be always on. You may edit the /etc/modules.conf to cure this:
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
options parport_pc io=378 irq=7
The IO address and the IRQ number depend on the hardware settings or the BIOS configuration. Often the IRQ does not need to be given. The problem and its solution was discussed in the SuSE Laptop Mailing List .
15.11.5.1.3. ACPI
Sometimes a setting in the /proc/acpi/ might also help.
15.11.5.1.4. Miscellaneous
Pressing the Fn+z key kombination tells the BIOS to recheck the sensors and stops the fan, for DELL laptops.
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