Ubuntu fan noise

When my laptop (hp pavillion dv2700) runs ubuntu, the fan seems to go into overdrive, it's like a hairdryer.

I did a bit of googling and it seems I'm not the only person with this problem, however a lot of threads didn't solve the problem and many are laptop specific.

I love ubuntu and would like to use it all the time, but with this level of noise it's simply not practical. Any advice on what to do from here? :)

Thanks in advance,

Stonehambey

Have you enabled CPU speed variation depending on load? Which policy/governor are you using?

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Mats

Hi Mat, thanks for the reply,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by matsp

Have you enabled CPU speed variation depending on load?

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Given that I don't know how to do that, I would say no ^_^

Quote:

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Which policy/governor are you using?

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Despite an interest in programming, I'm actually not very computer literate, could you explain what you mean here? :)

Please forgive my ignorance,

Regards,

Stonehambey

There is a functionality called "cpufreq" that varies the speed of the CPU depending on how much you "need". So if you are just sitting there typing something, it will not use much CPU power, so it will slow it down to a minimum (e.g. 500MHz), then when you compile, CPU usage will be high, so it will speed up the CPU to max speed (e.g. 2000MHz).

This was the first ubuntu related thread on CPUFreqd:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=394911

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Mats

Quote:

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Originally Posted by matsp

There is a functionality called "cpufreq" that varies the speed of the CPU depending on how much you "need". So if you are just sitting there typing something, it will not use much CPU power, so it will slow it down to a minimum (e.g. 500MHz), then when you compile, CPU usage will be high, so it will speed up the CPU to max speed (e.g. 2000MHz).

This was the first ubuntu related thread on CPUFreqd:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=394911

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Mats

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Thanks, I managed to install and get it running no problem, but it doesn't appear to have fixed the problem. However it could be that I haven't changed the right things in the .conf file.

Stonehambey

After some more digging, I found this link

http://aldeby.org/blog/index.php/hp-...oad-links.html

Does it look like it's worth a shot? It seems a pretty recent BIOS update and mentions fan and CPU settings.

One question is can I run this BIOS update in ubuntu? Since I no longer have windows on my laptop (don't ask).

I reard BIOS updates can seriously damage your comp if not done correctly, hence my apprehension!

Regards,

Stonehambey

It appears those BIOS only come with a utility to flash from Windows... which by the way, I never trust anyway. I'd prefer an on-the-bios flashing utility or at least one that operates out of an MS-DOS boot disk.

>>Despite an interest in programming, I'm actually not very computer literate

I feel your pain.

Do you actually have all the proper drivers installed? Some fans for CPU or GPU are regulated by the drivers and not having them installed causes it to run at full speed all the time.

I forgot to mention. I have almost the same laptop as you, run Ubuntu, and still have no fan problems. I also only run the live CD version if that makes any difference.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Elysia

Do you actually have all the proper drivers installed? Some fans for CPU or GPU are regulated by the drivers and not having them installed causes it to run at full speed all the time.

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I don't know, how would I find this out?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lruc

I forgot to mention. I have almost the same laptop as you, run Ubuntu, and still have no fan problems. I also only run the live CD version if that makes any difference.

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I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse tbh :P

If it helps, the fan is ok when I turn the laptop on, after about 15 mins of use, with little more than a browser running, the fan will run high. It won't stop until I turn off the laptop.

I was on the phone to a linux guy last night, and I think we managed to discern that the fan is not controlled by the acpi, whatever that means :P

I'll keep digging, ubuntu is too good to let this beat me! :)