no fan on Acer Aspire 5315

[bawldiggle]

Very new to Linux and Mint

With an old (2009) Acer Aspire 5315 ... I installed Linux Mint to replace WinXP (on an original OEM Win-Vista setup)
- so far all I can do is browse and email (Thunderbird)
- good bye Windows.

The fan does not run at all on the Acer, and I have not a clue what to do next
- the Acer black screened last night in the middle of writing an email -- it was stone dead, not just a screen drop out
- after about 20 minutes the Acer was ready to cold boot. (Followed by an alert from Firefox that it had been shut down suddenly and had captured my "tabs"
- in 2009 when a paid guru installed WinXP over Vista I remember reading somewhere about fan problems on Acer (but that is all I can recall)
- the machine is "propped" up on a narrow piece of timber (like my Windows laptop) to help ventilation
- I am not a gamer ... and the Acer is out-of-box MInt MATE

Underneath the Acer was extremely warm, and not knowing anything about Linux I am stuck !
- my Windows machines have 3rd party temp monitoring
- I do not know how to install new programs on Linux nor where might I find a Temperature management prog.
- First off I need to rectify the no-fan problem.

Would appreciate any help

[josweet]

Good news and bad... To fix you need to update the Bios, bad news is.. it can only be done in windows.

BIOS Acer BIOS V1.45 1.4 MB 2008/12/08

http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers

[kukamuumuka]

Good news and bad... To fix you need to update the Bios, bad news is.. it can only be done in windows.

Not true. You can update bios using freedos cd.
http://www.freedos.org/
http://www.acer.fi/ac/fi/FI/content/drivers

lm-sensors may be helpful.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/22108/ho ... -fan-speed

[josweet]

I was trying to keep it as simple as possible for the guy who is clearly struggling. He obviously knows how to use Vista and as that takes a mere 30 mins to chuck onto a machine that imo is his most simple solution.
But if u think he is able to figure out how burn discs on a an unfamiliar O/S without his system shutting down abruptly & sit and figure out how to use it, then i stand corrected.

[bawldiggle]

@ josweet
The fan worked in Vista then in WinXP, up until I installed Linux Mint Mate about 2 months ago.
Both Vista and XP are long gone on the Acer ... Vista was OEM, no longer on the Acer.
With Digital River ISOs no longer available ... that is the end of a Windows upgrade/repair of the fan management/driver.
And I fail to see the logic of a driver update using Windows if installing Mint Mate is going to have the same result of no fan ?

I vaguely remember the WiFi on the Acer fell over after downgrading to XP. After many dead ends I finally found a guru who upgraded some firmware (not driver) on the fan chip.

Thanks for your ideas anyway