Fan constantly on with Fedora 15 64 bit

[madalex]

Using Fedora 15 64 bit, my laptop fan is constantly running. Previously when my laptop was using Windows 7 and then Ubuntu it hardly ever came on.

Doing a Google search there seems to be a number of threads relating to the fan constantly running, and these cover a number of Fedora versions.

My laptop is a Del 1557, and its video card is:
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4500/5100 Series]

Is my problem to do with using the Open Source video drivers that come with Fedora, and would using the proprietary ATI Drivers solve this problem ?

[Doug G]

Add me to the fan always runs list on a Toshiba Satellite AMD dual core using Fedora 15 64bit. Earlier versions didn't do this as I recall, I think this laptop started out on Fedora 13 or 14. I dual boot to Windows Vista and the fan is rarely on.

My guess is the processor is running too hot in F15.

[TK492]

Hi,

I'm running F16 and I have this problem as well, but it isn't a Fedora problem. It has also affected me with the newer Ubuntu's and Linux Mint Debian Edition. Based on what I've found, it is the ATI graphics driver that is the culprit. The problem is, from my understanding, that proprietary ATI drivers would fix the problem, however they do not work with the latest release. On the other hand, the open-source drivers work with the downside of the fan always running. On my end, the fan is not only constantly spinning, but the computer runs hot as well (and bad battery life). What about you guys?

However I have yet to find a fix

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, this is simply my understanding of the problem.

Cheers,
TK492

[nonamedotc]

Take a look at this thread and from there this post on another thread. These might provide a solution to this problem.

Cheers.

[TK492]

After some looking around and finally getting around to trying a few things, I'm back to report a possible fix.

Here is how I proceeded:

1- Open the terminal and type this:

su
echo profile > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

More info HERE about the options.

Wait a little while and see if the fan spins down. In the process, your internal temperatures should drop as well. To make sure, type sensors in the terminal to make sure. If sensors is not installed, install it as follows:

sudo yum install lm_sensors

2- If you see improvement, we'll follow by making the command executed at boot as to not have to type it every time. In the /etc/rc.d directory, create a file called rc.local and place inside the following code:

#!/bin/sh

echo profile > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

exit 0

Next, make it executable by running:

sudo chmod a+x /etc/rc.d/rc.local

And that should be it! I hope that this will be able to help you guys as well. On my end my GPU runs on average 10°C cooler than it used to and the fan isn't raping my ears.

DISCLAIMER: None of the above work is my own, I simply gathered information from various places and put it all in one place as to create an easy to follow instruction set for others.

Sources:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=276804#2
http://ask.fedoraproject.org/questio...-etcrcdrclocal

[marko]

Just installing lm_sensors is not enough, you need to run sensors-detect too (only once but it should be re-run any time lm_sensors package is updated or the kernel gets updated)