Fan control on Dell Latitude D830

[tiker]

Martin,

Playing around with the latest (posted) beta I noticed I've now got a fan control icon for my Dell Latitude D830 laptop.

I just wanted to point out a couple of things:

First, the fan slider has 3 positions - left, middle and right being 0, 2500 and 4400 RPM. The RPM value shown changes when the slider moves to the right position to 4400. If the fan speed changes, the value shown changes to 2500 or 4400 (whatever the fan speed is) without moving the slider. Is the value shown supposed to reflect the slider position or the fan speed?

Second, this Dell laptop overwrites changes to the fan speed. For example, if I set a threshold of 40c, and fan speed of 4400, HWinfo will increase the fan speed to 4400 but within 3 seconds the fan speed slows down again. If the temperature drops below 40c and goes above again, HWinfo will increase the speed again but only for another 2 seconds or so.

The I8KFANGUI utility seemed to monitor the RPM fan speed and when it saw the RPM drop below what it was set it would re-set the fan speed to whatever value I specified. It wasn't a perfect solution and the effect was a fan that would run fast but slow down for half a second every 3 seconds but at least it tried to keep running fast.

I'm not sure if this is something you want / can implement and I'm not sure which other Dell models are affected but I have access to a few I can test with if you want.

Thanks.

 

[Martin]

First, the fan control is only experimental, unofficial and not meant for wide usage. I currently have no plans for extensive fan control support.
It's strange that the fan speed is overriden by EC, I thought DELL machines will keep the speed set.
I'll reconsider the option to respin the fan speed in case it's overriden.

 

[tiker]

I know it's experimental. I'm experimenting.

I personally won't use it all that much.. I'm hoping this laptop dies so I can get a new one. (Work laptop)

I just thought you might want to know what was going on with the functionality on this system.

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the feedback ;-)
Have a nice holiday and Merry Christmas..

 

[tiker]

Thanks for the feedback ;-)
Have a nice holiday and Merry Christmas..

Did a quick test on a Dell Latitude D630 as well.

The RPM display under the slider does not change when the fan speed changes so the changing display is on my D830 only. The EC does overwrite the speed when trying to set the speed with the "set manually" button. The fan speeds up then slows down again.

Attached a debug file in case you want it.

Merry Christmas to you too! Enjoy the holidays and don't take time away from your family to work on this.