Toshiba Satellite fan issue

[DarkLoad]

I recently installed Ubuntu 10.10 via WUBI on my Toshiba Satellite L505D-S9565, and I've had few issues except one: the laptop's fan does not run for any reason. I've talked back and forth with a few others and read some posts on similar issues.

Here's what I do know:

1.) I looked at /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/trip_points . The only option for * there is THZN. This is the output:

critical (S5): 105 C
passive (forced):<not set>

2.) Trying to get ideas from another post I ran pwmconfig. This was the result:

# pwmconfig revision 5770 (2009-09-16)
This program will search your sensors for pulse width modulation (pwm)
controls, and test each one to see if it controls a fan on
your motherboard. Note that many motherboards do not have pwm
circuitry installed, even if your sensor chip supports pwm.

We will attempt to briefly stop each fan using the pwm controls.
The program will attempt to restore each fan to full speed
after testing. However, it is ** very important ** that you
physically verify that the fans have been to full speed
after the program has completed.

/usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed

3.) $ sensors returns:
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +39.0°C (crit = +105.0°C)

k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1: +47.5°C (high = +70.0°C)

As you can see there's not any data for my fan. (The temperature sensors seem to work fine, at least, which is a relief.)

However, /proc/acpi/fan/FAN1 is valid. There is one file in FAN1, state. sudo cat /proc/acpi/FAN1/state returned:
status: off

I think the problem may be that whatever bit of software that's in charge of cooling has no idea how to control my fan at all, even though it does recognize that the fan exists. I tried to carry out one of the posts regarding how to change trip-points but the package it mentioned does not seem to exist any more, so I'm pretty much stymied at this point.

This wouldn't be a major problem except that I have to have a large fan meant for cooling humans pointed at my laptop at all times. So currently it is a desktop that I can put into my lap if I don't mind being chilly. If I boot into Windows Vista, which currently only works in Safe Mode anyway , the fan does turn on, although it would be doing a lot better job of it if I could get the thrice-cursed thing to boot normally.

And despite the above infodump I'm really not sure what I'm doing beyond those few things, so if I ask a really dopey question...well, this IS the beginner forum.

Any help is appreciated.

[robsoles]

Welcome to UF.

http://ubuntu-ky.ubuntuforums.org/sh....php?t=1586606 may be worth a look to you, just say how much it doesn't help and I'll try harder


Checkout xsensors in the Ubuntu Software Centre - just an easier to read GUI wrapper for sensors if I didn't sleep through the bits I read.

[DarkLoad]

xsensors is nice, and thanks for pointing that out, but readability was not my concern. I expected from a post I read for there to be something returned from running sensors (or xsensors) regarding my fan, and there isn't. I know it's there, and on some level so does the software, but not enough to do anything.

That link to that thread seems to be highly dell-specific and doesn't refer to anything I can actually understand or use. It links to a bug report, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/451337 that seems to almost apply to my situation, except I'm nearly certain given the above information that it wouldn't run the fan even if I started warm, as that seems to be an issue with the temperature sensors.

[robsoles]

Sorry, should have looked at the results I got for my initial search and added 'toshiba' to it

How about dino99's advice from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1473317 ?

[DarkLoad]

Oh, excellent. I'll try that and get back to you on whether or not it worked and what did the trick.

[DarkLoad]

Um. Well, I think it's working? I changed the setting in /etc/default/grub from

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi.power_nocheck=0"

as suggested in the post you linked to previously.
The problem is it's running very quietly, so I'm not sure if there was an actual change or if I'm just imagining it, and none of the other things have changed - no trip points, and it's still not able to tell my fan is there if I'm looking at xsensors. It may still overheat in the future, but it's a laptop, so that's a given anyway - but I'm not sure if the fan's going to contribute much.

Might it be possible (if costly) to take it in and get a fan installed that Linux will be able to work with properly?

edit: I forgot to mention: /proc/acpi/fan/FAN1/state is still "off". I tried using the echo commands provided later in that same thread with dino99's suggestions, but they didn't seem to do anything.

[robsoles]

Um. Well, I think it's working? I changed the setting in /etc/default/grub from

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi.power_nocheck=0"

as suggested in the post you linked to previously.
The problem is it's running very quietly, so I'm not sure if there was an actual change or if I'm just imagining it, and none of the other things have changed - no trip points, and it's still not able to tell my fan is there if I'm looking at xsensors. It may still overheat in the future, but it's a laptop, so that's a given anyway - but I'm not sure if the fan's going to contribute much.

Might it be possible (if costly) to take it in and get a fan installed that Linux will be able to work with properly?

In reverse order:
It belongs to the Motherboard so I don't think there is a tenable solution where you can have something replaced on it to make it more compatible with Linux.

Right click a panel and choose 'add to panel', look for 'hardware sensors monitor' and add it up to three times: right click the first one and set it to monitor CPU temp, right click second one and set it to monitor GPU temp and right click last one and set it to GPU temp. Now you *should* have the three main temperatures to worry about in a computer on fairly well continuous display while you are computing - if suspicious then don't leave it running unattended more than you have to.

Very glad to hear the fan is moving, there is at least one way to override it and make it go faster, that I at least barely know of, but lets wait till you can confirm the way the system will run the fan now doesn't keep the CPU at a reasonable temperature.

[DarkLoad]

Right click a panel and choose 'add to panel', look for 'hardware sensors monitor' and add it up to three times: right click the first one and set it to monitor CPU temp, right click second one and set it to monitor GPU temp and right click last one and set it to GPU temp. Now you *should* have the three main temperatures to worry about in a computer on fairly well continuous display while you are computing - if suspicious then don't leave it running unattended more than you have to.

I don't see that option anywhere (hardware sensors monitor). Do I need to install something else for that?

Very glad to hear the fan is moving, there is at least one way to override it and make it go faster, that I at least barely know of, but lets wait till you can confirm the way the system will run the fan now doesn't keep the CPU at a reasonable temperature.

Unfortunately I realized later that if I actually put the darn thing under any amount of stress (to test it I started Minecraft and tried to play a bit) it doesn't increase speed at all. It got up to 80 C before I gave up on it. It is entirely too slow and doesn't really cool anything at all.

[robsoles]

Sorry

sudo apt-get install sensors-applet

should get it into your 'add to panel' dialog.

Does this help you with fan speed: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1456796

[DarkLoad]

Excellent, the sensors are now shown in my panel.

But I have no idea how to implement any of what they are talking about in that post. pwmconfig, as stated before, can't find anything, and I've been on my BIOS screen enough times to know that it's not going to have an option for fan control. It's pretty basic. When I look through /etc/ I don't see a fancontrol. Is this something else I'd have to install? I think we're very near something that would help me but I don't know what that would be.

EDIT: Huh, this is interesting. I already have fancontrol installed but there's no config file in /etc/fancontrol. When I try to run it, it tells me "Error: Can't read configuration file."