Alienware Area 51m cooling fan issue

[Mad Bob]

I have been running Mint 4.0 for about two weeks and have noticed that while my cooling fan comes on, it does not adjust as it needs to in AC mode and things will get really hot. Lm sensors is not working for me, so some help reading CPU temp on this computer would be helpful too. If I pull the AC plug and briefly put it into battery mode, then the fans begin proper adjustment and continue to do so after I plug my laptop back in. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions because I have no idea how to proceed other that making unplugging and re plugging my laptop part of my boot process. Please let me know what information you need posted and I will get it up, sorry I'm so new.

[Husse]

Funny name - Alienware Area 51m - have they sighted a UFO?
Can you tell us the hardware inside - it's so hard in general to find that on the net that I don't even try
(well it's Intel dual core and Nvidia 8800) but the chipset please
Some help is to add an applet to the panel to check CPU temperature
If in the main gnome edition right click the panel > Add to panel and you find a hardware monitor

[Mad Bob]

Intel Pentium4 3GHz and Nvidia 5600. When I add the applet it says "75C and -22C," that is probably not right?

[Husse]

Probably?
But this could explain why the fan does not spin up....
Can you check the reading after your workaround?

[Mad Bob]

First off, thanks for working with me. I've tried to solve as many issues as possible by seeing what is already posted, but this issue seems to be rare. Yes, the sensors are not working. I've tried ksensors, acpitools and i8k. Including the applet, all have been fixed at 75C regardless of what actual temp is. I tried using the new Nvidia driver which gave the video card temp, but that driver caused all kinds of other problems which lead to me eventually going to the legacy driver for my old setup. The lack of sensors is an issue I have not been able to work around and is probably related, but my laptop in general seems to want to at least start up in battery mode. Very strange. I wonder if running off of battery activates some mode which is otherwise turned off...?

[Husse]

I wonder if running off of battery activates some mode which is otherwise turned off...?

Most certainly....
What about the -25 temperature if you do your work around?

[Mad Bob]

The gnome applet is the first time I've seen the -22 measurement. When I add that sensors function I see two numbers; a box with a red thermometer looking icon that has 75C next to it, and a similar one that is blue with -22C. I probably have to add some module to get the sensors working, but none so far have worked and I kind of don't want to continue randomly changing system settings with no idea what I'm doing.

[Husse]

There is a package called lmsensor which you can install. But they need configuring quite a bit
You could explore lmsensors and see if it's something for you

[Mad Bob]

lmsensors does not work either.... Perhaps my system is not compatible.

[MagnusB]

You need to have the correct modules loaded. Look at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cpufrequtils for more info about the available modules, I am guessing you need p4-clockmod or speedstep-centrino if you have a dated system, I think the powernow modules is for AMD. I might be mistaken, but it seems like you are using modules that does not support your chipsets...

[Mad Bob]

I'll check out that angle. Thanks for the link.

[MagnusB]

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MataroSessionsWorkshops/CPUFreqModuleLoading?highlight=%28cpufreq%29
That might be better, I used the Arch wiki since I had it laying around anyway..

[Mad Bob]

I used the first set and it looks like the fans are working on their own today. I'll continue to keep an eye on them, but it looks like this issue might be fixed with the p4-clockspeed module and cpufreq. Thanks to all for your help.

[MagnusB]

Is the temperature readings correct now as well?

[Mad Bob]

No, instead the gnome applet just gives the 75 degree box. It lists acpi as the only option for sensors with THRM as an enabled sub selection. Lm sensors did not detect anything. Actually, I've only used the Nvidia sensors, even in XP, which are not going to work in linux, so for all I know there may not be any CPU sensors at all? I cannot tell because nothing will detect them. This is the first I've delved this deeply, in XP I just heard the fans spin up and down as needed and assumed that was all there was to it.

[Mad Bob]

Fan troubles are back tonight. In between this and the boot issues I'm reluctant to remove XP and may go back entirely. I have no idea what is wrong. My system was fine on XP.

[Husse]

Troublesome...
lmsensors needs a bit of tweaking to work properly
There's a long thread in the Ubuntu forums beginning in 2004 and running until today
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2780

[Mad Bob]

Thanks for the link. Troublesome is the word. I'd be a lot less frustrated if the problems happened every time.

[Mad Bob]

The lack of fan controls continues interminably. cpufreq-detect.sh gives a warning message "Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz" is known _not_ to support power-saving. I have loaded

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

fuse
lp
sbp2
tifm_sd
p4-clockmod
acpi-cpufreq
cpufreq_ondemand

tifm_sd was an attempt to get my internal card reader working, but the pressing issue here is getting my fans responsive to heat without pulling the plug and putting it into battery mode. I'm especially confused as to why it continues working properly even after resuming ac power? Ideas are much appreciated.

[Mad Bob]

bump