HOWTO: Fancontrol

[libos]

Was going to reply you.

Yes, the fan speeds up. I guess once the script is unload, no software is taking control over the fan so all fans will go full speed.

[braddyo]

I get stuck at "Increasing fan_div" - here is my sensors output:

bradford@bradford-desktop:~$ sensors
it8718-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
in0: +1.25 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in1: +1.87 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in2: +3.31 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in3: +2.98 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in4: +0.88 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in5: +0.00 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V) ALARM
in6: +0.06 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in7: +3.01 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.08 V)
in8: +3.14 V
fan1: 2872 RPM (min = 10 RPM)
fan2: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
fan3: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
temp1: +34°C (low = +127°C, high = +127°C) sensor = thermistor
temp2: +27°C (low = +127°C, high = +60°C) sensor = diode
temp3: -2°C (low = +127°C, high = +127°C) sensor = thermistor
vid: +0.000 V

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +42°C (high = +100°C)

coretemp-isa-0001
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 1: +38°C (high = +100°C)

coretemp-isa-0002
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 2: +35°C (high = +100°C)

coretemp-isa-0003
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 3: +35°C (high = +100°C)

Notice that my fan1 is nearly 3000 rpm. In my case my cpi heatsink is facing sideways, and the fan blows air from the front, across the heatsink, and out the back. There is a 12cm fan on the back that runs much faster than my CPU fan - probably because it just sucks and the cpu fan doesn't have to work much. In my BIOS the case fan is always about 4-6x faster than the cpu fan. So I am not seeing my CPU fan speed. Following the instructions in the post to

look up your exact chipset. The names all look alike, so make sure the one you are editing is yours. Add the line fanX_div 4 near the start of your chipset config. Replace the X with the number of your CPU fan's, for me that was 2. You have to figure out for yourself which one it is, but it's probably 1, 2 or 3.

does NOT work, because I can't find a chip in the entire sensors.conf file that is named it8718. I found it871, it8712, and it8716, but NO it8718. I wonder if I need to create one myself, however I don't think that would be a good idea given my level of knowledge and the danger of permanently frying my computer.

If any of you have any advice please give it!

B

[libos]

Not sure this can help you. I found the section to configure your chipset (it8718). I got the clue from

http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/Devices

Search for "it8718". It's using the it87 driver. In the sensors.conf file, i found the section at line 1537.

Good luck.

[JohnLai]

I manage to configure the fancontrol properly, but now I want to disable the fancontrol completely. What step should I take? Delete the fancontrol script at /etc/init.d/fancontrol only?

[Evil Dax]

since Gutsy I'm unable to get it running at startup, while Feisty and Edgy worked smoothly... Any ideas?

[tweedledee]

JohnLai: In the event you haven't worked it out yet, you should delete /etc/init.d/fancontrol at a minimum, then execute

sudo update-rc.d fancontrol remove

to remove the links. You can also delete the /etc/fancontrol file if you don't intend to return to using fancontrol.

Evil Dax: delete your /etc/fancontrol and start over. When I upgraded to Gutsy, the names of the devices changed, so the old fancontrol settings did not work. Actually, you probably want to note your exisiting configuration, so you can set it up the same way again using the original process.

[LordKelvan]

Hi:

I followed this helpful guide, and I have now successfully gotten the temperatures and fan speeds for my computer, just like in Windows. I get the following output when I run 'sensors' from the terminal:

k8temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
Core0 Temp:
             +37°C

w83627thf-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
VCore:     +1.43 V  (min =  +0.70 V, max =  +1.87 V)              
+12V:     +12.52 V  (min =  +4.62 V, max =  +4.32 V)       ALARM  
+3.3V:     +3.23 V  (min =  +0.77 V, max =  +3.60 V)              
+5V:       +4.93 V  (min =  +1.89 V, max =  +0.88 V)       ALARM  
-12V:     -12.03 V  (min = -10.96 V, max =  -4.38 V)       ALARM  
V5SB:      +5.00 V  (min =  +1.59 V, max =  +2.66 V)       ALARM  
VBat:      +2.93 V  (min =  +2.53 V, max =  +4.05 V)              
fan1:        0 RPM  (min = 6026 RPM, div = 4)              ALARM  
CPU Fan:  2596 RPM  (min = 2636 RPM, div = 8)              ALARM  
fan3:     6081 RPM  (min = 112500 RPM, div = 2)              ALARM  
M/B Temp:    +35°C  (high =   +74°C, hyst =    +0°C)   sensor = thermistor           
CPU Temp:  +36.0°C  (high =   +80°C, hyst =   +75°C)   sensor = thermistor           
temp3:     +15.0°C  (high =   +80°C, hyst =   +75°C)   sensor = diode           
vid:      +0.000 V  (VRM Version 2.4)
alarms:   
beep_enable:
          Sound alarm enabled

My problem is that I cannot get pwmconfig to work properly. It seems that it is unable to stop any of my fans. The following is the output I get when running pwmconfig from the terminal:

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.

Found the following devices:
   hwmon0/device is k8temp
   hwmon1/device is w83627thf

Found the following PWM controls:
   hwmon1/device/pwm1
   hwmon1/device/pwm2
   hwmon1/device/pwm3

Found the following fan sensors:
   hwmon1/device/fan1_input     current speed: 0 ... skipping!
   hwmon1/device/fan2_input     current speed: 2556 RPM
   hwmon1/device/fan3_input     current speed: 6136 RPM

Warning!!! This program will stop your fans, one at a time,
for approximately 5 seconds each!!!
This may cause your processor temperature to rise!!!
If you do not want to do this hit control-C now!!!
Hit return to continue: 

Testing pwm control hwmon1/device/pwm1 ...
  hwmon1/device/fan2_input ... speed was 2556 now 2596
    no correlation
  hwmon1/device/fan3_input ... speed was 6136 now 6136
    no correlation

No correlations were detected.
There is either no fan connected to the output of hwmon1/device/pwm1,
or the connected fan has no rpm-signal connected to one of
the tested fan sensors. (Note: not all motherboards have
the pwm outputs connected to the fan connectors,
check out the hardware database on http://www.almico.com/forumindex.php)

Did you see/hear a fan stopping during the above test (n)? n

Testing pwm control hwmon1/device/pwm2 ...
  hwmon1/device/fan2_input ... speed was 2556 now 2596
    no correlation
  hwmon1/device/fan3_input ... speed was 6136 now 6136
    no correlation

No correlations were detected.
There is either no fan connected to the output of hwmon1/device/pwm2,
or the connected fan has no rpm-signal connected to one of
the tested fan sensors. (Note: not all motherboards have
the pwm outputs connected to the fan connectors,
check out the hardware database on http://www.almico.com/forumindex.php)

Did you see/hear a fan stopping during the above test (n)? n

Testing pwm control hwmon1/device/pwm3 ...
  hwmon1/device/fan2_input ... speed was 2556 now 2556
    no correlation
  hwmon1/device/fan3_input ... speed was 6136 now 6136
    no correlation

No correlations were detected.
There is either no fan connected to the output of hwmon1/device/pwm3,
or the connected fan has no rpm-signal connected to one of
the tested fan sensors. (Note: not all motherboards have
the pwm outputs connected to the fan connectors,
check out the hardware database on http://www.almico.com/forumindex.php)

Did you see/hear a fan stopping during the above test (n)? n

Testing is complete.
Please verify that all fans have returned to their normal speed.

The fancontrol script can automatically respond to temperature changes
of your system by changing fanspeeds.
Do you want to set up its configuration file now (y)? n

I know that my motherboard is capable of controlling the fans, since I can control the fans in Windows using SpeedFan.

Can someone help me? The fan noise is driving me nuts!!

Thanks,
LK

[tweedledee]

I know that my motherboard is capable of controlling the fans, since I can control the fans in Windows using SpeedFan.

Can someone help me? The fan noise is driving me nuts!!

Thanks,
LK

I had this problem on one of my desktops (which has the 83637hf chip and uses the 83627hf driver), and just found the solution today. My BIOS was controlling the fan (but naturally did not have any configuration available). To override the BIOS control, load your chip module (w83627thf in your case) with the paramter "reset=1". To test this, first run

sudo modprobe -r w83627thf

to unload the module if you have already done a modprobe and/or put the module in your /etc/modules. Then run

sudo modprobe w83627thf reset=1

and try pwmconfig again. With luck, your fans will now be controllable. If that does not work, you can also try "reset=0" and "init=0" instead of "reset=1" (based on Google searches, sometimes those work for other people). Always unload the module between new modprobes, though, or it will just disregard the new load. You'll have to add whichever command worked after the chip name in /etc/modules to ensure proper loading during boot.

Just for completeness, I should note that on my computer, the issue was that the BIOS was turning the fans so far down the computer was in serious danger of overheating when the processor was working hard - so when I used the "reset=1" command, my fans jumped up to full speed. Since yours are already full speed, you may not notice any immediate change.

[LordKelvan]

tweedledee: THANKS!!! Finally, it works (I tried it using "reset=1"). Now, I noticed a couple of things when trying this:

1. Even though the chip name is w83627thf, it actually uses the module w83627hf (it seems that module is used for both chips). For example, I had to do 'sudo modprobe -r w83627hf' to unload the module.
2. After I unloaded and reloaded the module, I noticed that when I ran 'sudo sensors' I had lost the CPU fan reading (it now reported 0 rpm with div=2), and that under beep_enable it said 'Sound alarm disabled' (it used to say 'Sound alarm enabled'). These changes persisted regardless of whether I reloaded the module without any extra parameters (i.e., 'sudo modprobe w83627hf') or with extra parameters (e.g., 'sudo modprobe w83627hf reset=1' or 'sudo modprobe w83627hf reset=0'). Hopefully the 'sound alarm' thing will be fixed with a restart, while I fixed the CPU fan reading thing using the method detailed below.
3. In order to get back the CPU fan reading (i.e., the reading I mentioned losing above), I had to follow the guide (on pg. 1) on how to change the fan_div to get readings on fans which are running, but reported as 0 rpm. For reference, I had to add the line 'set fan2_div 8' (it is fan2_div because my CPU fan is fan 2) to my /etc/sensors.conf file, under the section for w83627thf. Please note that the sections are according to chip name and NOT module name (I would imagine chip name and module name are usually the same, but they were a little different on my machine as I mentioned earlier in point #1). This is why I placed it under the section for w83627thf, and NOT w83627hf.

Once again, things are finally working, so thank-you very very much to tweedledee, and of course, to remmelt for creating this guide in the first place.

Oh, one more thing - I think the guide forgets to mention that you should make the fancontrol file in /etc/init.d (NOT the one in /etc) executable. I did so with the command:

sudo chmod +x fancontrol

Maybe remmelt could add this to his/her excellent guide.

[tweedledee]

tweedledee: THANKS!!! Finally, it works (I tried it using "reset=1"). Now, I noticed a couple of things when trying this:

1. Even though the chip name is w83627thf, it actually uses the module w83627hf (it seems that module is used for both chips). For example, I had to do 'sudo modprobe -r w83627hf' to unload the module.
2. After I unloaded and reloaded the module, I noticed that when I ran 'sudo sensors' I had lost the CPU fan reading (it now reported 0 rpm with div=2), and that under beep_enable it said 'Sound alarm disabled' (it used to say 'Sound alarm enabled'). These changes persisted regardless of whether I reloaded the module without any extra parameters (i.e., 'sudo modprobe w83627hf') or with extra parameters (e.g., 'sudo modprobe w83627hf reset=1' or 'sudo modprobe w83627hf reset=0'). Hopefully the 'sound alarm' thing will be fixed with a restart, while I fixed the CPU fan reading thing using the method detailed below.
3. In order to get back the CPU fan reading (i.e., the reading I mentioned losing above), I had to follow the guide (on pg. 1) on how to change the fan_div to get readings on fans which are running, but reported as 0 rpm. For reference, I had to add the line 'set fan2_div 8' (it is fan2_div because my CPU fan is fan 2) to my /etc/sensors.conf file, under the section for w83627thf. Please note that the sections are according to chip name and NOT module name (I would imagine chip name and module name are usually the same, but they were a little different on my machine as I mentioned earlier in point #1). This is why I placed it under the section for w83627thf, and NOT w83627hf.

Once again, things are finally working, so thank-you very very much to tweedledee, and of course, to remmelt for creating this guide in the first place.

I neglected to mention I had a similar experience, using the w83627hf module but w83637hf chip (and did it take me a while to notice that 2->3 change), and also had to change the fan_div value for one of my fans. I don't recall if I had any alarm status changes. I'm not actually sure what the reset command does, other than allowing me to regulate the fan, but it is odd that it influences the display like that. I'm not noted any other side effects so far, though, so I'll take it.