XPS 9000: Fans speeds up while in BIOS setup?
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From: Nick on 21 Mar 2010 13:08 On Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:40:23 -0700, in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, "Larry Hermann" <lhermann(a)nospam.com> wrote: >I haven't tried going into the BIOS, but the fan on my 9000 is audible for >about ten seconds on cold boot and again on shutdown. Now I know why. Most of the time my XPS 9000 is barely audible, but it sometimes gets a little louder when I have it doing something intense. But in the BIOS, it's noticeably louder than even when it's working hard, which is why I was wondering if this was normal. -- Nick <mailto:tanstaafl(a)pobox.com> Nick's two rules of spammer talk: 1. Spammers lie. 2. If a spammer ever appears to be telling the truth, please refer to rule number 1.
From: Cmplx80 on 21 Mar 2010 17:02 Larry Hermann wrote: > I haven't tried going into the BIOS, but the fan on my 9000 is audible > for about ten seconds on cold boot and again on shutdown. Now I know why. > > Larry > Larry, Any chance of your booting into the BIOS on your 9000 and leaving it there for 15 minutes or so and let us know what your fan speed does? Thanks. Frank
From: William R. Walsh on 22 Mar 2010 10:18 Hi! > The BIOS has no way of controlling fan speed. This is a function of > an OS driver (after OS has booted) and motherboard circuitry. It varies depending upon who built the motherboard and how they decided to implement it. The operating system has nothing to do with it in any case, outside of a few specialized areas like lmsensors, i8kfangui, Motherboard Monitor and SpeedFan (all of which are optional add-ons). The functionality is centered in the LPCIO IC, and typically has a few different modes of operation, usually at least a "manual" mode paired with a thermal-sense mode. Some also have a simple "on/off" mode. Today these ICs have everything in one package. Older boards (or boards that call for more sensors/controllers than would be offered by the LPCIO) may have dedicated sensor/controller ICs. For the most part, fan speed control and temperature monitoring started to appear in desktop computers very late in the life of the Pentium II processor. Some desktop computers, servers and "other stuff" had such functionality for quite some time prior to any of implementations that are popular today. Those usually used a proprietary method. Most Dell systems still use a Dell proprietary method of controlling the fans, which is mostly undocumented. It appears that the BIOS keeps track of the fan speed, although how it does this is unclear. Dell's choice of LPCIO doesn't usually have fan speed monitoring, temperature sensing or control support. Fan speed is controlled in many systems by the use of a thermal sensing bulb on the actual fan. The Dell BTX systems appear to work from the CPU core temperature. In the Dell systems that do have an LPCIO capable of reporting these things, they show nothing (0 RPM for fans, no temperatures). Outside of the laptops, I know of only one exception to this, and that is the Precision 220 workstation--which has some software-accessible sensors and fan speed monitors. It does not appear to support fan speed control. William
From: Daddy on 22 Mar 2010 11:07 William R. Walsh wrote: > Hi! > >> The BIOS has no way of controlling fan speed. This is a function of >> an OS driver (after OS has booted) and motherboard circuitry. > > It varies depending upon who built the motherboard and how they > decided to implement it. The operating system has nothing to do with > it in any case, outside of a few specialized areas like lmsensors, > i8kfangui, Motherboard Monitor and SpeedFan (all of which are optional > add-ons). > > The functionality is centered in the LPCIO IC, and typically has a few > different modes of operation, usually at least a "manual" mode paired > with a thermal-sense mode. Some also have a simple "on/off" mode. > > Today these ICs have everything in one package. Older boards (or > boards that call for more sensors/controllers than would be offered by > the LPCIO) may have dedicated sensor/controller ICs. > > For the most part, fan speed control and temperature monitoring > started to appear in desktop computers very late in the life of the > Pentium II processor. Some desktop computers, servers and "other > stuff" had such functionality for quite some time prior to any of > implementations that are popular today. Those usually used a > proprietary method. > > Most Dell systems still use a Dell proprietary method of controlling > the fans, which is mostly undocumented. It appears that the BIOS keeps > track of the fan speed, although how it does this is unclear. Dell's > choice of LPCIO doesn't usually have fan speed monitoring, temperature > sensing or control support. > > Fan speed is controlled in many systems by the use of a thermal > sensing bulb on the actual fan. The Dell BTX systems appear to work > from the CPU core temperature. > > In the Dell systems that do have an LPCIO capable of reporting these > things, they show nothing (0 RPM for fans, no temperatures). Outside > of the laptops, I know of only one exception to this, and that is the > Precision 220 workstation--which has some software-accessible sensors > and fan speed monitors. It does not appear to support fan speed > control. > > William I believe you are quite correct, William. Control of the fan is just one more thing that the paranoids at Dell are keeping to themselves. Looking at the BIOS of my new PC, about the only worthwhile thing you can do is choose what devices boot in what order and whether NumLock is enabled at boot. Nevertheless, I came across an application called CrystalDiskInfo which, among other things, displays the temperature of the hard drive(s). It must be getting this information from somewhere. Daddy
From: Cmplx80 on 22 Mar 2010 18:44
William R. Walsh wrote: > Hi! > >> The BIOS has no way of controlling fan speed. This is a function of >> an OS driver (after OS has booted) and motherboard circuitry. > > It varies depending upon who built the motherboard and how they > decided to implement it. The operating system has nothing to do with > it in any case, outside of a few specialized areas like lmsensors, > i8kfangui, Motherboard Monitor and SpeedFan (all of which are optional > add-ons). > > The functionality is centered in the LPCIO IC, and typically has a few > different modes of operation, usually at least a "manual" mode paired > with a thermal-sense mode. Some also have a simple "on/off" mode. > > Today these ICs have everything in one package. Older boards (or > boards that call for more sensors/controllers than would be offered by > the LPCIO) may have dedicated sensor/controller ICs. > > For the most part, fan speed control and temperature monitoring > started to appear in desktop computers very late in the life of the > Pentium II processor. Some desktop computers, servers and "other > stuff" had such functionality for quite some time prior to any of > implementations that are popular today. Those usually used a > proprietary method. > Most Dell systems still use a Dell proprietary method of controlling > the fans, which is mostly undocumented. It appears that the BIOS keeps > track of the fan speed, although how it does this is unclear. Dell's > choice of LPCIO doesn't usually have fan speed monitoring, temperature > sensing or control support. > > Fan speed is controlled in many systems by the use of a thermal > sensing bulb on the actual fan. The Dell BTX systems appear to work > from the CPU core temperature. > > In the Dell systems that do have an LPCIO capable of reporting these > things, they show nothing (0 RPM for fans, no temperatures). Outside > of the laptops, I know of only one exception to this, and that is the > Precision 220 workstation--which has some software-accessible sensors > and fan speed monitors. It does not appear to support fan speed > control. > > William A program like CoreTemp reads the cpu temps from a register internal to the cpu. It's a baby step from there to controlling a pin on a fan control module in a PID loop. It's all software with no external sensor circuitry required. This is relevant to the Intel Core series and some of the AMD stuff. I have no idea if Dell boards use this technique or not. But since it's free, I'm going with a "yes". Frank |