[ltp] 2.6 kernel kills the CPU fan

[Richard Neill]

Helen Borrie wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I'm trying to track down a solution on my TP390E to a problem that seems 
> rife:  that Linux causes the CPU fan to stop as soon as you begin to 
> boot the OS.  I see the problem described over and over and can't find a 
> definitive solution for it.  The fan itself whirrs away noiseless when 
> it does go, i.e. during the POST and right up to the moment you hit an 
> option in the bootloader menu.  Visually it looks clean, no sign of 
> dust, spiders, noodles, goldfish or dragons.
> 

This *might* be the correct behaviour. Most desktop machines run the fan 
full-tilt while in the BIOS(*), but then slow it down and only run it as 
needed when the OS has booted. It might be just that Win98 is so 
obsolete that it has no advanced control. Does your machine actually 
ever get hot? If you boot linux, and then run something demanding (eg 
'yes') for a few minutes, does the fan start? Otherwise, and easy way to 
test would be to boot Knoppix, which usually gives you a choice of 
kernel 2.4 and 2.6. Knoppix usually does the right thing.

Regards

Richard

(*)If I am correct, the BIOS uses the CPU at 100% even when idle.