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View Full Version : [other] Alienware Area 51m cooling fan issue



Mad Bob
April 23rd, 2008, 10:50 AM
I have an Alienware 51m with a P4 3 gz processor and Nvidia 5600 video card. Things work great, but the cooling fans will stay at a constant low speed and let things get really hot without spinning up until I unplug the ac plug and let the battery kick on. From that point the fans spin up and continue to work properly in response to temperature. I have tried to get cpu freq working and apparently the P4 chipset is not supported. I've also attempted to get lm sensors working as well with no success. Not being able to detect temperature is not a big deal, but most of the solutions I've tried seemed reliant on the sensors working. Fortunately, I do have a work around, but would like not to have to apply it and am confused why it works. I believe there may be some difference in configuration between power models, but do not see any options in my bios. I am stumped and would much appreciate any ideas. I'm running Mint 4, but am hoping this issue will get more exposure over here.