CPU Fan doesn't work. System shuts off because of high temps.

[Markus01]

I have a Toshiba Satellite L355D with AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-72 2.10 GHz. Insyde H2O BIOS version 1.5. and integrated ATI Mobile Radeon Graphics Card.

Since going from windows 7 to Ubuntu 9.10 my cpu temps get very high when using cpu intensive applications. My system shut down because of high temps and that's when I noticed that the fan didn't kick in to cool it down. When I booted the system back up the fan ran full blast even when the temps were down to about 38C. To get the fan to go back down I had to reboot the system and then when I tried using applications again the temp went back up and again with the fan not kicking in unless I reboot. I tried an omnibook fix but it did not work. Please HELP

I also have latest updates and fresh install of Ubuntu and latest version of Grub. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the CPU itself or the BIOS or both.

[2hot6ft2]

From Synaptics info

Toshiba laptop utilities

This is a collection of utilities to control a Toshiba laptop. It includes
programs to turn the fan on and off, to view the power mode, and to set
the supervisor password.

Note that these utilities work with APM features in the Toshiba BIOS.
If your laptop's BIOS only supports ACPI and not APM, then toshutils will
probably not work for you. Toshiba's newer models tend to support ACPI
only, and therefore toshutils will not work with them.

toshutils
Get it from Synaptic or use

sudo apt-get install toshutils

to install it
or toshset

Access much of the Toshiba laptop hardware interface

Toshset is a command-line tool to allow access to much of the
Toshiba laptop hardware interface developed by Jonathan Buzzard. It can do
things like set the hard drive spin-down time, turn off the display
and set the fan speed without the help of the kernel.
Toshset requires an experimental version of the toshiba_acpi kernel module
with an ACPI-enabled kernel. Otherwise it works only if the laptop supports
the old APM BIOS. (The last of these was produced something like 5 years ago)
Please read README.Debian how to install the experimental version of the
toshiba_acpi kernel module. (Ubuntu users don't need it)

This package also includes the Toshsat1800-irdasetup by Daniele Peri. It
can be used to configure IrDA for laptops with ALI1533 bridge (LPC47N227
SuperIO), smc-ircc and not initializing BIOS (tested on Toshiba Satellite
1800-514). Homepage: http://www.csai.unipa.it/peri/toshsat1800-irdasetup/

or fnfx

fnfx enables owners of Toshiba laptops to change the LCD brightness,
control, the internal fan and use the special keys on their keyboard
(Fn-x combinations, hot-keys). The internal functions will give the
possibility to map the Fn-Keys to functions like volume up/down, mute,
suspend to disk, suspend to ram and switch LCD/CRT/TV-out. These
functions heavily depend on the system and/or kernel configuration.
You will need at least a kernel (v2.4.x, v2.5.x, v2.6.x) with ACPI and
Toshiba support (CONFIG_ACPI and CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA).

[Markus01]

I'm new to Ubuntu. I don't know how to use toshutils. I have them installed as well as toshset, but I don't know how to use them. Help?

[Markus01]

My cpu fan does not work on my Toshiba Satellite L355D laptop.

Specs are AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-72 2.10 GHz. Insyde H2O BIOS version 1.5
Integrated ATI Radeon HD 3100 Graphics. Ubuntu 9.10, GNOME 2.28.1, Kernel 2.6.31-20-generic.
I installed Gkrellm and gnome sensors applet. I also installed toshutils and toshset and fnfxd. I don't know how to use toshutils or toshset or fnfxd. I'm new to linux and really need help. My system keeps overheating.

How do I use toshutils? How to control fan manually?

[2hot6ft2]

I don't have a Toshiba so I don't have them installed or know how they work. They are probably command line utilities so you'll have to look at their manuals by reading them in a terminal.
Each one works the same. You scroll down to read it and hit the letter "Q" (case doesn't matter so lower case works too) to quit the manual or help pages before closing the terminal.
The commands that start with "man" are for the manual.
Those that end with --help are the help pages.
Open a terminal
Applications > Accessories > Terminal
and run

man toshutils

toshutils --help

man toshset

toshset --help

man fnfxd

fnfxd --help

Mods. This thread should be merged with this one. (Same OP and same topic)
CPU Fan doesn't work. System shuts off because of high temps.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9041845

[2hot6ft2]

Mods. This thread should be merged with this one. (Same OP and same topic)
CPU fan not working on Toshiba laptop
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9041842

[overdrank]

Threads merged

[steve161]

I posted this fix in an earlier thread. It worked for my Toshiba L305 laptop. There was mixed success for others that tried it.

Open /etc/default/grub as root. Look for the line that ends with quiet splash. Add acpi_osi=\\\"Linux\\\" to the line so it looks like this

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=\\\"Linux\\\""

Then run sudo update-grub from the terminal. Reboot.

If it does not work for you, just remove acpi_osi=\\\"Linux\\\" and again run sudo update-grub from the terminal and reboot. Just make sure you are careful with the quotation marks.

[Markus01]

When I try to run toshset as super user I get a line that says

required kernel toshiba support not enabled

What do I do to enable it?

[cbecker78]

When I try to run toshset as super user I get a line that says

required kernel toshiba support not enabled

What do I do to enable it?

I could be wrong here, but I believe the insyde Bios does not allow the toshset to work... that was the conclusion I came to when I was trying to installand use that myself (don't remember where I saw that at).

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=\\\"Linux\\\""

^^That code (using the "acpi_etc." on the same line as quiet splash may be the right way to do it in the new grub, as opposed to what I sent you in the pm where I was suggesting adding it on a separate line.

@Steve: are the "\\\"s necessary? I assume those are to escape the quotes? So maybe it would be worthwhile to try with and without the backslashes? Just wondering here.