Dell Precision M6600 - Fan Control Support

[katmai7]

Martin Hwinfo is great software, I use it every day. Congrats.

Yesterday I checked Fan Control support for my Dell M6600. It has dual fan cooling system - one fan for CPU and another for GPU.

Unfortunately 'HWinfo Fan Control' is not working with this workstation.

Sorry, It' s working but partly...Fan control icon is available, but I must click 'set manual' button all the time very quickly, then I can set fans at 4900rpm. When I stop clicking-fan also stops.

So I think HWinfo can't overdrive Bios EC table.

Tip:
I have special windows power plan from Dell in tray:"Max cooling"
It's available only after installing soft from Dell: Control Point System Manager

When I set this plan fans are spinning at higher rpm-system cooling is faster.
I think inside this .exe Dell implents something that can overdrive Bios EC table.

What do You think, is it possible to implent this feature somehow in HWinfo to control fans?

Links:
Latest motherboard Dell bios A09: link 1
Dell Control Point System Manager software: link2

Regards and Big thanks for your efforts,
katmai7

edit/
Why I can't add my debug file to this post?
It's only 34 kB (.rar package)

 

[Martin]

Yes, it seems that some machines try to override the custom fan speed set.
How long does the custom fan speed hold? Does the fan then completely stop, or switches to the original speed?
I can look at the Control Point System Manager, but it won't be easy and I cannot promise anything. Does it allow you to set more different fan speeds that remain, or only the maximum speed? Or is there some kind of offset applied to the default fan speed range?

 

[katmai7]

Hi Martin, thanks for answer.

Yes, it seems that some machines try to override the custom fan speed set.
How long does the custom fan speed hold? Does the fan then completely stop, or switches to the original speed?

For both: Fan1 (CPU) and Fan2 (GPU), Hwinfo allow me to set custom speeds: 0, 2500, 4900 rpm. (by fast clicking "set manual").
When I stop clicking fan is going back to original default speed-depending on current CPU/GPU temp. It switches very quick: ~0,5 sek.

I can look at the Control Point System Manager, but it won't be easy and I cannot promise anything. Does it allow you to set more different fan speeds that remain, or only the maximum speed? Or is there some kind of offset applied to the default fan speed range?

This software adds only extra "Windows power plans" with i.e "Max cooling plan", "Quiet plan". I can't set anywhere my own fans speed that remain. Everything is working automaticly. So yes, it's kind of offset applied to the default fan speed range.

For example: I did some tests with 100% load on CPU/GPU. I reached temps:
75*C/85*C.

On standard "Windows balanced plan' system was cooled with 3500rpm/3500rpm (CPU/GPU)
But when I switched to Dell "Max cooling plan" I could see 3700rpm/4200rpm (CPU/GPU)

I hope everything is clear for You. English is not my native language. If you want I can do additional tests, logs and screenshots.

Regards.

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the additional clarification, yes it's clear now.
I was just thinking about implementing a fan re-spin method in HWiNFO, which would constantly measure the current fan speed set and if it's overriden by the system, then set the speed again. However because when the speed set by HWiNFO lasts for only 0.5 sec, this is not a good idea (it would cause too frequent fluctuations and traffic).
I can check that software, but it will be quite hard to find out what's needed. Moreover, it might not allow the requirements for a full custom fan control (just modulate the existing method), which is not what's needed here.

 

[katmai7]

I was just thinking about implementing a fan re-spin method in HWiNFO, which would constantly measure the current fan speed set and if it's overriden by the system, then set the speed again. However because when the speed set by HWiNFO lasts for only 0.5 sec, this is not a good idea (it would cause too frequent fluctuations and traffic).

Martin.
My idea is little bit different (without measuring the current fan speed). I don't know what HWiNFO does after one clicking button "Set Manual", but I suppose it's writing kind of "value.rpm" info to the windows registry.
This info is written only once, so it's quickly (~after 0,5 sec) overriden by system and our "Fan Set" stops working as we want.

Martin you could implement two buttons: "Set Manual" and "Reset Manual".
They will start/stop kind of loop function:

After clicking "Set Manual" start writing value.rpm every 0.1 sec. to the registry (start loop)
After clicking "Reset Manual" stop writing value.rpm to the registry (stop loop)

value.rpm is what we could set by slider.

I could test it and give you report.

 

[Martin]

No, the value is not written into registry, but sent to the BIOS via a special call and then the BIOS sends this request to the Embedded Controller which manages fan control.
This is a quite resource heavy and high priority operation, so doing this every 0.5 sec would have significant system/performance impact.

 

[dtdionne]

Greetings,

I've struggled with this exact issue for over the past 2 years on my Dell Precision M6500 and M6600 laptops. It's been wildly frustrating.

M6500 - 940XM, 32G 1333
M6600 - 2960XM, 32G 1333

It's stupifying to watch my M6500 thermal trip at 100C with the fan's spinning at half-speed.

Alfrado's (speedfan) taken a pretty good crack at it without success.

The only workaround that I've found to date is to disable BIOS thermal control (yes this can be thermally dangerous) through the secret Dell Engineering menu during boot up. This allows SpeedFan to control the fans...well, by control I mean either off, 50% or 100%.

Here are the steps to get into Engineering Mode (these steps must be preformed from the laptop keyboard):

1. FN+SHIFT 1,5,3,2,4
2. FN+SHIFT R
3. Then use arrow key's to move around and the enter key to exit

I just set both my fan speeds to 6000 then hit enter twice to exit. This disables BIOS thermal control and set's both fans to their max rpm's.

I've attached a pic of the eng mode.

This workaround is best done after hitting F2 to get into bios as it often jacks video. As well it does NOT survive cold restarts.

 

[dtdionne]

What are the chances that HWiNFO will be able to crack this nut?

 

[Martin]

The problem is that every notebook model uses a different way for controlling fans and this all is proprietary for the manufacturer so they don't give out any information about it. Of course they don't like it when people mess with they default fan speeds which could result in damage.
There are some 'standards' designed for internal usage only which seem to work on more models, but this is proprietary as well and without any compatibility guarantee.
It's almost impossible to support fan speed setting on all notebook models, one could spend with this the whole life and wouldn't cover all possible models... Also without a help from manufacturer this is very difficult.
If I get the required information/know-how I'll implement it, but there's no guarantee and I cannot make any promise.

 

[katmai7]

Here are the steps to get into Engineering Mode (these steps must be preformed from the laptop keyboard):

1. FN+SHIFT 1,5,3,2,4
2. FN+SHIFT R
3. Then use arrow key's to move around and the enter key to exit

dtdionne,
Is it working also with Dell M6600?

 

[dtdionne]

Sorry for the delayed response...Yes I believe it does work on the 6600 as well.

Has there been an progress?

Here are the steps to get into Engineering Mode (these steps must be preformed from the laptop keyboard):

1. FN+SHIFT 1,5,3,2,4
2. FN+SHIFT R
3. Then use arrow key's to move around and the enter key to exit

dtdionne,
Is it working also with Dell M6600?

 

[ainidit]

Hi,

I have issues with fans on my DELL M6600.
Link2 is dead so I would like to install ControlPoint System Manager but can't find the software.

Could you please help me?
The "bios expert mode" request me a password so I was unable to try something on fan configuration ..... if any clue do not hesitate ....

Thxs

Martin Hwinfo is great software, I use it every day. Congrats.

Yesterday I checked Fan Control support for my Dell M6600. It has dual fan cooling system - one fan for CPU and another for GPU.

Unfortunately 'HWinfo Fan Control' is not working with this workstation.

Sorry, It' s working but partly...Fan control icon is available, but I must click 'set manual' button all the time very quickly, then I can set fans at 4900rpm. When I stop clicking-fan also stops.

So I think HWinfo can't overdrive Bios EC table.

Tip:
I have special windows power plan from Dell in tray:"Max cooling"
It's available only after installing soft from Dell: Control Point System Manager

When I set this plan fans are spinning at higher rpm-system cooling is faster.
I think inside this .exe Dell implents something that can overdrive Bios EC table.

What do You think, is it possible to implent this feature somehow in HWinfo to control fans?

Links:
Latest motherboard Dell bios A09: link 1
Dell Control Point System Manager software: link2

Regards and Big thanks for your efforts,
katmai7

edit/
Why I can't add my debug file to this post?
It's only 34 kB (.rar package)

 

[turn_back_time]

Greetings,

I've struggled with this exact issue for over the past 2 years on my Dell Precision M6500 and M6600 laptops.  It's been wildly frustrating.

M6500 - 940XM, 32G 1333
M6600 - 2960XM, 32G 1333

It's stupifying to watch my M6500 thermal trip at 100C with the fan's spinning at half-speed.

Alfrado's (speedfan) taken a pretty good crack at it without success.

The only workaround that I've found to date is to disable BIOS thermal control (yes this can be thermally dangerous) through the secret Dell Engineering menu during boot up.   This allows SpeedFan to control the fans...well, by control I mean either off, 50% or 100%.

Here are the steps to get into Engineering Mode (these steps must be preformed from the laptop keyboard):

1. FN+SHIFT 1,5,3,2,4
2. FN+SHIFT R
3. Then use arrow key's to move around and the enter key to exit

I just set both my fan speeds to 6000 then hit enter twice to exit.  This disables BIOS thermal control and set's both fans to their max rpm's.

I've attached a pic of the eng mode.

This workaround is best done after hitting F2 to get into bios as it often jacks video.  As well it does NOT survive cold restarts.

very valualbe