Thinkpad Fan Noise Problem: Light at the End of the Tunnel

[Shimodax]

Hi Folks!

I'm a programmer and have bought a T43 (2668 97G) a few weeks ago and was quite annoyed by the fan noise. Subsequently I have spent almost four fulls days researching this f*cking fan problem and I came up with a little tool for Windows XP.

It's working quite okay now and this was only possible with help from some daring folks who were brave enough to test it on different modesl (at first it was only tested on my own machine).

This thread documents the progress of the program and includes a link to the current version and readme in the next post (you'll always find the latest readme and download link there).

If you're interested, I suggest that you browse through the thread and of course don't ignore the readme-file.

Cheers


Markus

PS: This post was edited since the thread was open to reflect the current state of the program.

[Shimodax]

As you know, the light at the end of a tunnel may be an oncoming train ...


Latest Version can be found here (but please read the README first):
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfil ... _id=153962


- README.TXT (Updated) -->


---------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO FRY EGGS ON YOUR THINKPAD
---------------------------------------------------------------


-------------------------------
License/Use:
-------------------------------

This program and source code is in the public domain.

The author claims no copyright, copyleft, license or
whatsoever for the program with exception of WinIO driver.
You may use, reuse, abuse or distribute it's binaries
or source code in any desired way or form, Usage of
binaries or source shall be entirely and without
exception at your own risk.

Usage of WinIO is excempt from this license. The WinIO
driver is (C) by Yariv Kaplan at www.internals.com.
License terms for WinIO can be found at
http://www.internals.com/utilities_main.htm



-------------------------------
Introduction:
-------------------------------

This is a early experimental fan control program for the
Thinkpad T43 and other models. It has mainly been tested
on my own machine (Model. 2668-97G). It may or may not
work on other series Thinkpads. Some have been already
been tested with success (see below), which may or may
not allow conclusions about usage on your computer.


THIS PROGRAM IS VERY EXPERIMENTAL. NO WARRANTY IS GIVEN
WHATSOEVER. USE OF THE PROGRAM IS ENTIRELY AND WITHOUT
EXCEPTION YOUR OWN RISK.

If you even think about blaming the author for problems
caused by the program, then just don't use it (instead
ask IBM to fix their d*mn fan.) If you are not sure if
you want to try, just read this carefully and think again.
If you are sure that you want to try it still read this
file. And please share your results (see links below).

Have you realy read the above? Do you get the picture?

Well, good!



-------------------------------
Further Warnings:
-------------------------------

There are possible caveats with this program, some may
even appyl after successfully having it tested for a
few days or even weeks:

- In active mode the program writes to a location in
the embedded controller area. Doing this on a system
where the byte at this location has another meaning
may do all kinds of unexpected and possibly serious
things to computers where the specific location in
the EC has a different meaning.

- Interfering with ACPI software: ACPI aware software
(including Windows XP, Thinkpad tools, Thinkpad drivers)
communicates with the EC. Running TP43 Fan Control may
interfere with these functions with unpredictable results.

- When the program controls the fan speed and crashes
it will obviously no longer be able to do so. If at
the time of the crash the fan was off, it will remain
so, independent of the system temperature.

- Probably other nasty and undesireable things.



-------------------------------
Tested Models:
-------------------------------

Currently users have reported successful initial tests
with the following Thinkpad machines. (Great thanks to
those who were brave enough try):

- Series (Model)
- T23 (2647)
- T40 (2373)
- T41p (2373),
- T42 (2373)
- T43 (1871 and 2668)
- T43p (2668)
- A31p (2653)
- R50 (1829)
- R50e (1834)
- X41 (tablet 1866)

There are no guarantees but this indicates that
trying it on T4X models may not run the risk of
immediate disastrous results.

Other Thinkpad Series (R, A, X, Z, etc.) may also
work.

A test on an X20 indicated that the program does
not work on this model.



-------------------------------
Links:
-------------------------------

Downloads:
- http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=153962


Support Thread for this tool:
- http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17715


Thread for sharing/comparing temperature results
- http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17733


Tech Background:
- http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Patch_for ... _fan_speed
- http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Prob ... _fan_noise
- http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:ACPI ... rol_script


WinIO Driver:
- http://www.internals.com/utilities/utilities.htm




-------------------------------
Purpose/Implementation:
-------------------------------

The program reads the fan control register and various
temperature sensors. In active mode it allows to manually
change the fan control register and it is able to
dynamically switch the fan speed depending on the
temperature readings.

Fan control is implemented by directly communicating with
the embedded controller (EC) via port numbers 0x62 and
0x66 by means of a Windows driver (WinIO, see link above).




-------------------------------
Installation:
-------------------------------

Unpack the ZIP file to a folder anywhere on your *local*
hard drive. After that you should have the following files
there:

fancontrol.exe
fancontrol.ini
readme.txt
WinIo.dll
WinIo.sys

(WinIO is a third party driver. Please see the links and
license sections for more).



-------------------------------
Test "Compatibilty":
-------------------------------

So, you really did read the disclaimer above and still want to
try? Please read the test instructions fully before you start
the program.

Open the folder where you unpacked the ZIP file. Edit the
fancontrol.ini file (right click, open with, Notepad). Make
sure that the "active" switch is set to zero and save the file.

With this setting the program will only read values from the
Thinkpad but will not make any modifications. It is still
possible that this mode will will interfere with other programs,
but there is no high probability of permanent damage. If there
are problems, a reboot should cure the situation.

Then close all programs which may do things to your CPU or
BIOS. Mainly under/overvlocking, under/overvolting, temperature
and speed monitoring applications. I'm speaking of tools
like "Notebook Hardware Control", etc. The reason for this is
that these program are also reading from the EC and there is
currenty no known way to synchronize EC access between programs.


Now, hold your breath and double click the FanControl.exe icon.

This should give you a window named "Thinkpad T43 Fan Control".
If you get an error message about the WINIO Driver, make sure
that all files are in your folder and that it resides on your
local hard drive (not on a network). You also need to be logged
on with administrative privileges.

I have no experience with that driver yet, so if you keep getting
this message you'll probably need to experiment or check with the
WINIO developer (http://www.internals.com/utilities/utilities.htm).

Assuming that you did get the "Thinkpad T43 Fan Control"
window, you'll need to check the follwing fields to see
if they show meaningful values.


Check 1: "Fan State"
What you want to see in the first field is either:
"0x80 (BIOS Controlled)" or "0x0Y (Fan Level Y, Non Bios)"
with a value of 0-7 for "Y". The first value (0x80) is
preferrable.

Check 2: "Temp."
In the second field you should find something like
"Highest 47°C" and

CPU 41°C (0x78)
APS 38°C (0x79)
X7A 31°C (0x7A)
GPU 40°C (0x7B)
BAT 32°C (0x7C)
BAT 30°C (0x7E)
XC0 36°C (0xC0)
PCI 43°C (0xC1)
PWR 41°C (0xC2)


There should be a series of values with realistic temperatures
(in Celcius). For people from the Farenheit realm values from
25°C to 60°C are realistic (20°C is room temperature, 37°C is
human body temperature, 60°C is quite hot to the touch, 100°C
is boiling water). The meaning of the sensors is described
further below.

If you have a program which monitors the CPU temp. start it
later (remember, such stuff should not be running on your first
test) and check if the CPU value in brackets matches the tool's
CPU temperature display.

Check 3: "Status"
The list below the status field shoud show a configuration
(Active= 0, Cycle= 5) and some levels. If you scroll down
there should be no further messages, especially none saying
"Can't read status!" (this error indicates problems reading
from the EC, reason could be collision with other software
which reads the embedded controller at the same time).

If you have problems here, do not continue. Please report
them on the forum instead and I'll see what I can do.




-------------------------------
Test "Active Run":
-------------------------------

Remember, this program is very early and has only been tested
on a few machines. It may do funny things to other models and
may have bugs. So have a fire extinguisher at hand or a fresh
egg (the Thinkpad may turn into the most expensive pan ín your
house).

Okay, I see you'res serious. Well, edit the fancontrol.ini
file, change the "active" setting to 1 and save. Start
FanControl.exe again. Now the same window should appear with the
same realistic values (see above), but the buttons for "Mode"
should be enabled and the one for BIOS should be selected.

For a test switch mode to "Manual" and change the value between
0 and 7 (only type these digits, no spaces or other characters).
You should hear a quick beep and see a message in the field
at the bottom of the window which hopefully will say "RESULT: OK!"
After a few seconds (up to 5) you should hear the fan change
it's speed. If you turn it off (value "0") the fan may in
fact accellerate for a moment before going off.



-------------------------------
Test "Exit from Active":
-------------------------------

When exiting the program should switch the fan control back
to BIOS. To check if this works, turn the fan off (manual
mode, value 0) and exit the program. You should hear a short
beep and then the fan should come up again. (The fan may stay
off if your system is cold, so try with a well heated state.
The idea here is to test if the progam swtiches the fan back
to BIOS controlled mode.)

*** WARNING! If the program crashes while the fan is off
*** it will not be able to switch the fan back to BIOS mode.
*** This will leave the fan locked in it's current state
*** (which may be off).
*** This could seriously harm your computer. If the program
*** crashes either try to start it and then exit or reboot
*** your machine.




-------------------------------
Smart Mode
-------------------------------

Smart mode is quite straightforward. The program takes the
highest temperature value and compares it to the table in the
fancontrol.ini file. The fan speed will be triggered up
as soon as a value is reached. To fall back the temperature
must fall back to the previous value. E.g. on the default
table the fan will go on at 50°C but will only go off it the
value drops to 48°C or below.

*** WARNING! The values in the should be ascending and
*** meaningful. Anything else than ascending (e.g. switching
*** fan off at 80°C) will have unpredictable results
*** (among which may be blisters and fried eggs).

The values in the table can be edited in the fancontrol.ini
file. You can have more or less steps there. The first
level should be associated with a fan level of zero, the
temperature there is the switch-off temperature (fan will
go off if system cools down below that point).

Also, one user idicated, that possibly fan speed
1/2 and 3/4/5 and 6/7 are equivalent to each other.

Also on T40/R50 machines users reported that there were only
fan levels of 0/1/2(?)/3





-------------------------------
Temperature Sensors:
-------------------------------

The first temperature value seems to be the CPU. The meaning
of some other sensors is currently unknnown. If someone wants
to open his machine and treat it with some cooling spray, please
let me know.

Here's what's currently known (or more accurately the result
of experminetation and some creative guessing on
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Prob ... _fan_noise)

CPU: quite definitely the CPU

APS: temperature sensor between CPU and PCMCIA slots
(below left Alt key) (T43 2668)

PCM: below PCMCIA slot (front/left)

GPU: graphical processor

BAT: battery (inside, front/left of battery in a T43)

BAT: battery (inside, rear/right of battery in a T43)

BUS: between Northbridge and DRAM (below R/T/Y keys)

PCI: Southbridge chip below the touchpad (reacts to
WLAN usage, located under WLAN mini PCI card)

PWR: power supply, somewhere below the Acess-IBM button.
(heats when charging the battery)




-------------------------------
EC Port/Other Programs:
-------------------------------

I have had problems running Fan Control with other similar
programs. Mainly with NHC (Notebook Hardware Control). There
seem to be conflicts when reading the EC (Embedded Controller)
registers. So far my only solution is to turn these programs
off.





-------------------------------
Versions:
-------------------------------

V0.10 - 2005-11-27
- first release


V0.11 - 2005-11-28
- display temperature with their (known) meanings
- display fan mode on change commands in hex
- display stats in minimized window title
- option to change/disable beep
- some GUI changes

V0.12 - 2005-11-29
- RPM fan speed display
- allow smart mode to automatically switch to bios
mode at certain temperature

V0.13 - 2005-11-29
- more detailed log display
- log display limited to 100 lines
- write logfile (fancontrol.log)


V0.14 - 2005-11-30
- taskbaricon (see fancontrol.ini)
- allows to start in smart mode (see "active" in
fancontrol.ini)

V0.15 - 2005-11-30
- IconLeves could not be read from ini
- option to start minimized
- option to ignore sensors in max. temp evaluation
- function to exit after max allowed read errors

V0.16 - 2005-12-04
- prevent sluggishness in window handling
- allow to switch back from 0x80/128 in smart mode
- option that close button minimzes window instead

V0.17 - 2005-12-05
- program was broken (internal lockup)

V0.18 - 2005-12-08
- another possible bug fixed (buffer overrun, crash)
- sensors now all named
- included picture with T43 sensor locations
- included German readme file
- fancontrol.ini sample has German descriptions also



-------------------------------
Ideas:
-------------------------------


- Run as service
- Take care of the pulsing fan problem.
- Different threshold for CPU/GPU



-------------------------------
Hall of Fame:
-------------------------------

Thanks to

- Thinkerer from the www.thinkpads.com forum
for providing a lot of insight regarding the
temperature sensors

- Sebume from the www.thinkpad-forum.de
for providing the German translation of the
readme file.

- mANoLo27 from the www.thinkpad-forum.de forum
for German translations of the fancontrol.ini
comments

[BillMorrow]

IRT the disclaimer, what is the worst that can happen..?

wipe out the HDD..??
no problem, i have a bunch sitting around just doing nothing..

wipe out the embeded controller..?
hmm, then its not such a great idea to try this unl;ess the experimenter was willing to send it in for service.. warranty service..

in any event, send me a copy of the utility and i'll give it a try..

and if you know where the hidden sensors are located, i'll get a can of air (usually, my red head wife as lots of air, but her air is HOT air! )
and try out cooling off each in succession..

[Shimodax]

Bill,

I'll post a link for the tool here this evening. And I'll be happy to hear from everyone who is willing to try it if they know what they're doing.

'later


Markus

[Shimodax]

OKay, here is something for the daring:

http://www.emtec.com/zzstuff/tpfancontrol_v010.zip

Please read the README.TXT about installation and use. Please do it before running as it, this is a bare bones tools with no bells or whistles (you'll need to modify the ini file to be able to access the function to turn chang the fan).

Also see the links on the initial posting of this thread for tech background. If you have opened your Thinkpad before and want to experiment a bit with cooling spray, I'd like to know more about the locations of the sensors. One in particular seems to kick on the fan (see the link about the secret sensors discussion in the first post).

If you try it on other models (I have a T43 2668-97G) please post the results here.

Also I have some odd results about the initial state of the fan. When I boot up (not hibbernating) the program comes up with fan fixed to level 7. When I come up from hibbernation, it shows BIOS-Mode (0x80).

Again, please first fully read the readme, then start.



Enjoy

Markus

[envent]

Test Feedback:

Model: T43 1871-I3V (GMA900 Display)

Tested all the functions of this little program, and no problem at all!

Now using RMClock, setting the CPU to run 800MHz @ 0.716V
All the readings are well below 50 degrees while not doing anything intensive, so the fan never runs.

Tested the Smart Mode by running Prime95 at 1.73GHz @ 1.306V, and the fan level switched according to the default setting flawlessly.

Good job Markus! Thanks a lot!!

It would be perfect if it can be minimized to tray!

[kimr]

All well here - T43 2668-94U. Really cool, so to speak!

[Aristotle11]

Any brave T42 users?

[smugiri]

Going to try this for the next couple of days and see how it works out for me.

Admins, any chance of a sticky on this? Might be a good way to get lots of people trying this out if it does not keep being pushed down the pile.

[edit]
Update

I have been running this on my T40p ( 2373G1U ) for a little while now, no other temp control programs running but I have speedswitch for processor speed on. Manual functionality seems to work quite well and the smart funcationality seems to work even better. I really like the idea that you can configure the machine to run the fan exactly when you need it to by setting temperature ranges for yourself.

This is a nice little utility, just need to spend some time figuring out what are the best settings for each fan speed. Footprint of the app is also pretty small at about 2MB so thats nice. I agree with nrj45 that it would be great to get this as a service.

Great job!!
[edit]

[nrj45]

Just dared to run it in active mode directly without exiting notebook hardware control.

It seems to work on my t43p (see sig. for more specs). I just didn't see any difference between some fan level...
0 -> shutdown
1,2 -> same low speed
3,4,5 -> same middle speed
6,7 -> same high speed

I don't know what you want to make with your source code, but it woud be smart to give it to the NHC developper Since his tool has all the rest but the fan control for ibm/lenovo T serie and your tool make the T serie fan control but the rest...

Wonderful... as i'm writing this my fan is off...

For the sensors temperatures : what about generating a csv file (perhaps one writing every 10 seconds or customizable in the ini file) with the sensors temperature values ?
That csv file could be imported in some spreadsheet program (not to say openoffice.calc) and we could make pretty graphs to try isolating the sensors...

Thanks for your work and pliz continue to hire us outside the tunnel...

[NeoteriX]

Haven't yet tried it, but from your documentation, it appears you've done some wonderful work. Kudos.

[Jmmmmm]

My fan is off. The temp isn't going up. Thank you, shimodax, you're my hero.

I know you've done so much, but you think there could be a way to minimize the program to the bottom right of the menubar (like where the volume icon, chc, etc are) so I can leave this open without it being in the way of the other stuff?

I'm also using chc without a problem.

[vpn-user]

AWESOME!

Successfully run it on my T41p (2373-GEG) without any problems!

Some ideas:

- Make the program running as a system service. That way it could be automatically restarted when crashed and you wouldn' t have to care about the fan (and the program) anymore.

- Contact the author of NHC if he may use your code and implement it in NHC. NHC is an already really great program and it would be nice to have fan management added for your lovely Thinkpads.

- My T41p seems to have only 3 levels of fan speed. Would it be possible to only show these three and not 7?

- MobileMeter shows another temperature for the CPU than your tool. Wrong sensor?

Yeah one and a half year after buying that notebook I am just happy now. Please, don' t stop development!

[nrj45]

Please, all testers share your values here : http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17733

[Aristotle11]

Tried it on my T42 and it works great. I modified the fancontrol.ini file to...

Level#0= 52°C -> Fan 0
Level#1= 54°C -> Fan 3
Level#2= 56°C -> Fan 4
Level#3= 60°C -> Fan 5
Level#4= 70°C -> Fan 7

Currently Fan : 00 / Temp.: Highest 52°C ( 52 42 31 44 29 n/a 23 n/a 0 0 0 0 )

I'm thinking of knocking all those values up 2 degrees. I have CHC running the 1.7 GHz processor at 1.004volts.

The only thing I don't like is that it makes a loud beep every time the fan goes on or off. And I get a lot of "Can't read status" messages, but that may be CHC's temp monitor's being on (I don't seem to get the messages when I turn CHC temp monitoring off). But that is minor, since this is the greatest program since sliced bread. Now if I can only get this program to run in systray as a service



Thanks Shimodax!
Aris

[BillMorrow]

Admins, any chance of a sticky on this? Might be a good way to get lots of people trying this out if it does not keep being pushed down the pile.

done..

[BillMorrow]

running fan control now.. T43p (2668Q2U)..
works (so far, no fried thinkpads) quite well..

intresting to note that when switched back to bios control the command apparently sent to the fan is "SET FAN TO 80"..
not sure if 80 is a decimal value or a hex value..

set control to "smart" and the utility reported and set the fan to "4" (temp: 57 c.)..

so i held my hand over the vents on the left edge and waited for the temp to reach 60 c...
when that happened the fan control set the fan to "5"..

temp slowly going down (too slowly) so i set fan control to "manual" and to "7"..
fan picks up speed and temp is now coming down (currently as i type this it is 58 c. ..

[Shimodax]

Hi Folks!

I'm glad to read that there's some great success here.

Regarding the questions: Yes, I'll continue to develop this thing, maybe not as extensive as NHC but to a point where it runs unobstrusively (making the beeps configurable, minimize to tra, etc.).

In fact I'll post a new version here today. I found the meaning of a couple of the sensors and will update the README, etc.

The list of meanings is taken from: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:ACPI ... rol_script
(he is also the guy who found the hidden sensors)

CPU
HDAPS (through EC)
???
GPU
BAT (SouthWest)
n/a
BAT (NorthEast)
n/a
???
mini-PCI (?)
RAM?
n/a

Btw, with the levels from the ini file you can also have more or less levels, e.g.:

Level#0= 52°C -> Fan 0
Level#1= 58°C -> Fan 4
Level#2= 70°C -> Fan 7


I will also release source code (hopefully on sourceforge). However, I had short contact with the NHC guy, but he wasn't very responsive. I'd be happy to contribute to his program, but I'm not entirely sure that the way I access the embedded controller fits into his scheme of things. From my experience as a developer I guess it would be a good thing if the guy heard from several people, that thinkpad support would be something that they want from his program (and possibly even willing to purchase the pro version for it).

Speaking of NHC: yes, the "Can't read" errors seem to be interference with it. Same happens here. He may be reading the the EC constantly, causing collision on the port. I wrote him a mail last Saturday about how he accesses the system but haven't gotten an answer (dunno if he will answer at all).

More and new version later.



Markus

[vpn-user]

Great!

@Markus: Sounds like a german name, are you? Maybe we can talk via PM/ICQ in native language.

If the NHC author is unresponsive, don' t care! Then we all will use your program

What do you think about running it as a hidden system service in the background while consuming minimal resources? Trayicon, blink blink, temp display etc would just waste resources. Personally, I never cared for my CPU temperature, it never reached a critical level. Sure, while testing your program I did, but when the optimal values are found, I wouldn' t care about temps anymore and IMHO it should be that way.

One thing I did not really understand: Does the program depend on the _highest_ temperature of _any_ of the sensors or just on the CPU?

IMHO it should only care about CPU and optionally via .INI also the GPU. Not all models have the long fan so they can' t influence the GPU temperature directly. It even makes no sense at all because these GPUs (Radeon 7500 etc) never get too hot.

What do you think?

[monkey243]

I have tested in my T43 2668 L3TA143.It's very successful!

[special]

Hello,

i have tested this fantastic tool on my T43p 2668-WTB.


Thank you very much Markus. Keep going.


.special

[Eugene]

Successfully running on my T43-2668-4DU
I'm using NHC at the same time and no problem.
Thinks a lot!

[Shimodax]

New version.

Current Version: http://www.emtec.com/zzstuff/tpfancontrol_v011.zip
Previous Version: http://www.emtec.com/zzstuff/tpfancontrol_v010.zip

Source Code: http://www.emtec.com/zzstuff/tpfancontrolsource.zip (MS Visual Studio 6.0 project)

As always:

README.TXT updated in 2nd post of this thread (version changes, tested models, some adjustments etc.)

Please read the README.TXT before running the program for the first time. This is a bare bones tools with no bells or whistles (you'll need to modify the ini file to be able to access the function to turn chang the fan).

Also see the links section on the readme.txt for tech background.

If you want to discuss temperature settings, sensor locations etc. please use this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17733

Questions, suggestions, and reports of successful tests on various untested models (see readme) should be posted here.

Enjoy


Markus

[Thinkerer]

The current README says sensor 0x79 is HDD. This is definitely not the case on T43. Sensor 0x79 gives the same value as directly reading the HDAPS sensor, and the HDAPS sensor is under the middle left of the touchpad (i.e., under the left edge of the miniPCI card). On the T43, none of the EC readouts is correlated with HDD temperature as reported by SMART.

Speaking of which, it would be great to also take the disk SMART temperature readout into account when controlling the fan. However, when I tried adding it to my Linux fan control script it turned out that reading the SMART value wakes up the disk from spin-down. Any idea how to get around that, or at least to check whether the disk has spinned down and avoid the query in that case?

[sebmue]

Works on a Thinkpad R50 1829 7RG (modded with Longfan)

the only thing which does not work is setting seven fan steps. As far as I've tested, 0 (off), 1(slow) and 3 (fast) work. From my experiences with games it there is one even faster step, which I can't reach with the program.

But nevertheless, you are a savior... thx a lot

a further wish / suggestion (except the fan-speed thing):

- different tresholds for cpu/gpu

[vpn-user]

For me, setting "fanbeep=0 0" or "fanbeep=0" does not disable the buzz in v0.11

[Shimodax]

Oops, that was a misunderstanding (I didn't know what HDAPS was).

The problem with reading other stuff from the system is that I don't have real ACPI access. I can currently only read the EC memory area and I don't have a clue how to access other ACPI functions and I don't want to implement complete ACPI support.

I may try I can find some Windows API to read other values, but for the moment these are not available unless they are on the EC.


Markus

[Shimodax]

@vpn

fanbeep=0 0

works here. (Did you restart the program)? Also, it's only supposed to turn off the beep when switching fan levels was ok. Errors will still beep.



@sebmue

Thanks for trying. Regarding the levels, you can still mod the table in the fancontrol.ini file to just use these values.

On the T43 I also have a higher fan speed when starting. There is one other bit in the fan control register. A value of 0x40 (64 dec.) continously speeds up the fan more and more (there's some description about this on thinkwiki) but I did not try to let it run long enough to find out if it does any damage. If you're in an experimental mood, try 64 in the manual field (it should give a Set fan control to 0x40).


Suggestion is noted.


Markus

[Thinkerer]

The problem with reading other stuff from the system is that I don't have real ACPI access. I can currently only read the EC memory area and I don't have a clue how to access other ACPI functions and I don't want to implement complete ACPI support.

The SMART values are read from the disk via an ATA command, not through ACPI. Maybe it's exposed at a higher level by some Windows driver (in Linux it's exposed by the ide driver and can be accessed using, e.g., smartctrl)

[Thinkerer]

the only thing which does not work is setting seven fan steps. As far as I've tested, 0 (off), 1(slow) and 3 (fast) work. From my experiences with games it there is one even faster step, which I can't reach with the program.

Before trying the disengaged mode (64) suggested by Shimodax, try using speed 63. That's still manual control, but at the highest expressible speeds. I wrote the specs based on my T43, on which speeds between 8 and 63 are the same as 7, but maybe it's different on your R50?