[ltp] 2.6 kernel kills the CPU fan

[Helen Borrie]

Richard,

At 12:51 AM 8/09/2005 +0100, you wrote:


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

In some fashion, I think you are.  I've now noticed that the fan stops when 
running the BIOS program, too;  and starts up again when the system repeats 
the POST after exiting.

Have tried many ploys, e.g. removing the external keyboard (PS2 port) and 
mouse (USB port on a 4-port hub), disabling the Trackpoint in favour of the 
mouse alone directly connected to the on-board USB port, using the USB hub 
with external power, etc. etc., but it seems it's not hardware-related. 
That said, it does seem to get hot around the USB port when I have a card 
reader or a thumb drive connected to the hub.

And, yes, the machine is getting hot enough to put itself into suspend 
(which one can't get out of) and to not want to complete POST when rebooted 
after doing this.  I seem to get about 30 minutes "life" before this 
happens;  and need about 10 mins for cool-down.  The bottom of the case 
feels hand-hot when this occurs (i.e. about 60-65 Celcius) and I think I 
can sometimes smell hot fumes (the latter could be my el cheapo gel 
mousepad, though, it's pretty smelly, even at 5 Celcius).

The respective home dirs of the logged in users, i.e. root and one other, 
contained bunches of coredump files.  Unfortunately, I wouldn't have a clue 
about interpreting them.

I will take your advice and get hold of the Knoppix distro.  Actually, I 
may be able to test the Knoppix behaviour as I have the Ulitmate Boot CD here.

Thanks!
Helen