Noisy fan on Dell 17r 5721 running 12.04

[Dermot Doyle]

Hi Everyone,
This is driving me crazy. I bought a new Dell 17r a month ago and I am generally pretty happy with it, except that the fan runs full speed all the time and is depressingly noisy. I have searched the internet and followed countless forums for what appears to be a problem with no answer. I have downloaded things to help control the fan, but nothing works. An official Dell download that has something to do with the BIOS wouldn't open in ubuntu. I probably use a fraction of the computer's potential, just writing, listening to music, photos and surfing the web and the CPUs run at a fraction of their power so I am pretty sure it is not in danger of overheating if I could get the damn fan to slow down. Canonical says that the 5721 laptop is certified for ubuntu, but surely this is a serious problem. Any suggestions or do I send it back for a refund.
Thanks in advance,
Dermot

[mustafi05]

if you have a graphix card , you can download its driver from restricted extra . it solved the problem for me.

[Dermot Doyle]

Hi,
This is going to sound lame, but I know very little about computers. How do I know if I have a graphics card?

[mustafi05]

there is nothing that sounds lame. just open additional driver programe and it will show you the available drivers . if you find one you needed install it. i do not know either how to determine that a computer has a grphics card or not either graphically or from cli command . you may check your computer configurations from site . some other may help you to do it in ubuntu by any inbuilt method.

[mustafi05]

you can install hardware lister from ubuntu software centre that would list all your hardware. think it may help you.

[Dermot Doyle]

This is what I got from the terminal (I followed some advice from the net)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Device 6601

Any suggestions as to what this means and wat to try now?

[mustafi05]

open 'additional drivers' from dash and install avilable driver for ati device 6601. it may solve your problem.

[docJ]

An official Dell download that has something to do with the BIOS wouldn't open in ubuntu.

I know very little about Ubuntu (actually less than that), but I know Ubuntu (or any OS for that matter) cannot open the BIOS, because the BIOS loads before the OS.

As soon as you start (mere seconds after hitting your power button), look for a mention that says: Press Del (delete) to enter setup
Then its only a matter of finding where to find fan speed (and/or Quiet) related settings

Please thread carefully inside the BIOS, if you do change something, change only ONE thing then F10 to save and exit, if it does not fix it, go back and put it the way it was before before doing any other change

[Dermot Doyle]

mustafi05, I downloaded the driver and rebooted, but no change
docj, I'll give it a go
Thanks to both

[Dermot Doyle]

docj, I didn't see an opportunity to press 'del' so I got into the BIOS by pressing f12 repeatedly on start up. I didn't see anything in there concerning the fan speed or quiet related settings. Any other suggestions? I have also posted this question on Dell's forum and haven't had a single reply. Doesn't sound good.