HOWTO: Fancontrol

[greys]

Thanks for a great guide!

[eje_s]

I'm using a Asus A8N-SLI deluxe Nforce4 motherboard and had great problems getting fanspeed working. Speedfan under windows works, so I know that fan speed control is possible.

After many hours of googling I found out about kernel modules parameters and that solved my problem.

The chip found by sensors-detect is: it87 (it8712)
I don't use cool n' quiet, so by default the pwm controls is disabled, I'm not even sure that they will be enabled if so.
Newer kernels use /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/ as the base folder for these controls by the way. The goal is to have pwm[1-3] in that folder.

After the standard installation of lm-sensors I used these commands to solve my problem:

sudo modprobe -r it87
sudo modprobe it87 fix_pwm_polarity=1
ls /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/pwm*

The result should be that pwm1 to pwm3 now is listed.

Pwmconfig should now work as expected. However for me only pwm1 and 2 is usable and this is normal for my motherboard.

Now is the time to set up your fan control settings and enable fancontrol following any other guide. The later part of http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=42737 for example.

I wish you a happy silent system!

[sha_man]

Hi, I do have the same problem LordKelvan had, but can't fix it with the solutions posted; pwmconfig always reports 'no correlation' I just want to lower the speed of the chassis fan, and it doesn't seem to work....

Here my 'sensors' output:

k8temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
Core0 Temp:
             +33°C

w83627hf-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
VCore 1:   +1.30 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.08 V)              
VCore 2:   +1.33 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +4.08 V)              
+3.3V:     +3.33 V  (min =  +2.82 V, max =  +3.79 V)              
+5V:       +5.00 V  (min =  +0.48 V, max =  +5.30 V)              
+12V:     +12.04 V  (min =  +5.96 V, max =  +0.06 V)       ALARM  
-12V:      +1.46 V  (min =  -4.88 V, max = -10.96 V)       ALARM  
-5V:       +2.34 V  (min =  -7.01 V, max =  +0.33 V)       ALARM  
V5SB:      +5.48 V  (min =  +2.58 V, max =  +3.44 V)       ALARM  
VBat:      +0.02 V  (min =  +0.06 V, max =  +1.54 V)       ALARM  
fan1:     1622 RPM  (min = 9375 RPM, div = 8)              ALARM  
fan2:     1622 RPM  (min = 12053 RPM, div = 8)              ALARM  
fan3:        0 RPM  (min = 2033 RPM, div = 8)              ALARM  
temp1:       +30°C  (high =   +32°C, hyst =   +16°C)   sensor = thermistor           
temp2:     +28.5°C  (high =   +80°C, hyst =   +75°C)   sensor = thermistor           
temp3:     +27.0°C  (high =   +80°C, hyst =   +75°C)   sensor = thermistor           
vid:      +0.000 V  (VRM Version 2.4)
alarms:   
beep_enable:
          Sound alarm disabled

and here 'pwmconfig':

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 w83627hf

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

Found the following fan sensors:
   hwmon1/device/fan1_input     current speed: 1638 RPM
   hwmon1/device/fan2_input     current speed: 1622 RPM
   hwmon1/device/fan3_input     current speed: 0 ... skipping!

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/fan1_input ... speed was 1638 now 1622
    no correlation
  hwmon1/device/fan2_input ... speed was 1622 now 1654
    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/fan1_input ... speed was 1638 now 1638
    no correlation
  hwmon1/device/fan2_input ... speed was 1622 now 1654
    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 is complete.

Any ideas?

[libos]

Hi sha_man,

You might want to check out your mobo manual does your mobo comes with the pwm outputs. What is your mobo anyway?

[sha_man]

hey,
i have an Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboard. Apparently, after some googling, i found out that other people with the same motherboard had similar problems with SpeedFan for windows (or whatever it's called). I think this motherboard does not allow any fan controlling.
What I will do, if nobody has any solution is to buy a hardware based controller.
Thanks anyway

[PheonixKotori]

sha_man: You've likely moved on since your last post, but I wanted to add this item for posterity.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned in fancontrol threads is the fact that some fans do not have speed sensors built-in. All my chassis fans are like that; you can tell because they only have 2 wires. fancontrol can adjust the pwm to their socket, but it has no idea how fast the fans are spinning. As such, pwmconfig always sees "no correlation," but I can physically inspect them to see that they have changed speeds.

This may not apply to your or anyone else's problem, but there you go.

[dd976]

Thanks remmelt for the guide! I have a question though. I've tried sensors-detect, and nothing is found on my c600 laptop (which smells like it's melting btw). I just have no fan activity whatsoever, and the fan was working in xp when it was installed on this computer. I've tried looking at the bios screen, and can't find anything there. Does anyone have any suggestions? Or can you point me to the appropriate thread/post please? Thanks! I need to turn this comp off for a while now, before it starts to smoke.

[cheetah1]

Well all that probably works well if you have a temp source.
Problem is that I don't quiet trust mine, as it is stuck on a constant 127°C.
The fan, however, is detected properly:

w83627hf-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
[...]
fan3:     2636 RPM  (min =   -1 RPM, div = 16)              ALARM
[...]

It also stopped during the pwmconfig test (although it is a 3-pin fan..), so it is controlable. Question is: is there something i can write in the fancontrol config file to set it to a constant RPM or voltage, or do I need some other app to do that?
My server really isn't working hard, running a wordpress blog with 5 visitors a day on an Athlon XP 1700+ with 512 MB of ram, so it's not like it's going to run hot if I set it at say 1800 RPM... Right now though, it sounds like a hurricane in my folks livingroom...

[chrwei]

fancontrol just cats stuff to the sys files for PWM, you could do that manually.

however, Athlon XP's tend to run on the hot side, especially the older ones, so lowering the fan speed may make it too hot. does the temp in BIOS read a reasonable value? adjust the fan speed and reboot check it after a while. If the BIOS has a temp alarm set it to its loweest and see if you can trigger to, to make sure it works, then set it to 70C or 75C as a safety backup and let people know to unplug it if it squeals.

if you can spare the $20, just get a quieter fan, much safer thing to do since the older XP cpu's don't have thermal throttling, if it does overheat, it just catches fire where newer sysems will slow down and/or shut off via a BIOS function.

[cheetah1]

fancontrol just cats stuff to the sys files for PWM, you could do that manually.

however, Athlon XP's tend to run on the hot side, especially the older ones, so lowering the fan speed may make it too hot. does the temp in BIOS read a reasonable value? adjust the fan speed and reboot check it after a while. If the BIOS has a temp alarm set it to its loweest and see if you can trigger to, to make sure it works, then set it to 70C or 75C as a safety backup and let people know to unplug it if it squeals.

if you can spare the $20, just get a quieter fan, much safer thing to do since the older XP cpu's don't have thermal throttling, if it does overheat, it just catches fire where newer sysems will slow down and/or shut off via a BIOS function.

As I said, the CPU temp sits constantly on 127,5°C, both in bios and when running sensors. The fan is pretty new, and way quieter, and it's supposed to be able to handle 3000+ CPUs. It appears to be out of stock, but it's similar to this one, only the attatchment is different. Sorry about the Swedish, but I belive it can be understood anyway.

If you touch it when it's running, it's never particularly warm, usually just a couple of degrees warmer than room temperature.

An option, of course, would be to buy a harware fan controller with a proper temp sensor. I don't know. What do you think?