How I solved A2D fan problem

Now I made it! I got rid of that annoying fan issue! [ ]

The scapegoat for all fan issues must be buggy Asus acpi etc. drivers.
I installed few days ago Fedora Core 3 linux on my A2D, and fan problem is gone. I left my lappy on overnight for downloading stuff from net. Uptime was almost 20 hours, and fan still worked perfectly (starting at ~55 C and stopping at ~45 C).

This proves that problem is not hardware related, i.e. they can't do nothing about it at repair shop. Only ASUS can fix it.

This really is not right way to get rid of it, as most users probably would like to stick with XP. I need it too, but I can live without it most of the time. Well, I'm happy that I can use my lappie without excessive noise.

If you like to try FC3 on your Asus, you can find it here: http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors.html
FC3 works quite well with notebooks.

 

Hm, I wonder if this REALLY was the case, as somebody earlier mentioned that software
running on the lap has nothing to do with bios/fan issues. So I'm waiting for more solutions like yours because I'm pretty frightened about buying Asus A2532DCBH. I wasn't few days ago but today I looked at this forum and wasn't very happy about what I've found.
Anyway I will make my decision (first lap) within two weeks, I'll be very glad if you post some more info about how is Your fan doing in about a week.
I'll just add that I will make extensive use of Linux on this lap, though Windoze will
be there for 90% sure. I will also be very glad if you could send me your kernel config
on yooz *at* _cut_tlen dot pl (repl. *at* with at, cut _cut_ and dot for dot [ ]).

Best regards [ ]

YooZ


Greetings from Poland!!

 

Well, it is pretty simple: do not buy an A2D.

It is now pretty easy to understand that the fan issue probably happens with all A2D notebooks, not just a few isolated cases. Hyde had his mainboard replaced. Problems seem to occur all over the world.

Most users have simply not bothered trying to find "why" the fan was staying on all the time. This is the only explanation I can find. When you play a game, the processor heats up pretty quickly, and having the fan on all the time can be considered "normal". I guess most A2D users are gamers...

My personal wish is that Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php) could hopefully support more fan controllers and hardware sensors in the future...

a2dfanissues .AT. maxnet .dot. co .dot. nz

 

I am wondering what else can I buy near this ASUS's price, and with Mobile proc. onboard, as well as Radeon with it's own memory (not shared) -> I haven't got much of choice BTW.
For me the working fan noise is not such a big problem, but if it has to be like in our buddy case from thread "A2D overheated" I am definitely against this buy...
And if it's Windows fault it is very promising cause I will be using Linux most of the time.

Best Regards

YooZ


Greetings from Poland!!

 

Hi YooZ!

And let me say this first: I would skip Asus notebooks after reading this information here if I was buying new notebook in near future... Do you have Acer notebooks for sale in Poland? I was considering Acer, and almost bought it, but unfortunately I found myself with this A2D [ ]
Acer has several low priced lappies with good hardware properties on the market. I own another notebook also (well, I gave it to my wife when I bought this A2D...), and I have nothing bad to say about it. It is Packard Bell with AMD 1400+. Never had any problems with it, so I can recommend that brand also.

What comes to my kernel configuration, it is just standard FC3 kernel. I have not compiled it myself, as I see no reason for doing that. I've been using my Asus with FC3 now couple weeks, and had no fan problems since. I noticed that suspending is not working, though. Otherwise this is working well. I can live with this now, as it doesn't scream all the time. A2D is good as a linux laptop.

There is serious malfunction in Windows with fan control system. It could even be considered as a dangerous! It could burn your house etc. if it gets so hot that cover starts to melt. That fan control really sucks! It runs when it is not necessary, and when you need it, it doesn't run at all. So, don't leave your A2D on alone....

 

Yep, I am considering another choice : Gericom Blockbuster AMD.
Here is the link, it is also great stuff for doable cash.
http://www.gericom.com.pl/?d=produkty&p=notebook&id=54
When you change DVD+-RW for Combo (as I don't need DVD writer
in notebook, maybe in the future - next lap, who knows?)
it's about 3900 PLN that is ~1000 euro. That's not so bad for
such a stuff I think. It has (mobile?) Sempron 2600+, Radeon
9700 and 40 GB HDD, 15'1 " LCD. One disadvantage is that when
something goes wrong you have to deliver the lap on your own
cost to the service (Warsaw). For me it's about 10-12 euro for
a trip, hope it won't be necessary too often.

Another thing to consider is laptop without Radeon, with Intel
Extreme Graphics but from HP, cost about 1000 euro, just 1 year
warranty (extendable to 3 years) but from a sure source (as I
always have thought about Hp(-compaq now).

Best Regards

YooZ

Greetings from Poland!!

 

Hi JooZ and Everyone here !

I've just bough A2D (A2542DUH) a week ago and I'm very angry with myself for making that choice without doing a proper research for potential problems.
Apart from A2D being noisy I have more serious problems (down to power management - I guess)

(I run XP Professional SP2 Polish language (512 RAM))

1) most of the time when I plug or unplug the DC adapter the notebook flashes the blue screen for a moment and then resets (so I must turn the notebook off to safely connect or disconnect the adapter). I've found on the net that I'm not the only one with this problem - but no solution yet. Very annoying !

2) several times when I suspended (not hibernated) the notebook, it then wouldn't wake up (black screen, fan working like crazy, LEDs flashing). I just avoid suspension now.

3) once it happened that after a short travel in the car (temperature outside like 5 Celsius, this notebook would not turn on later - in room temperature - without a DC Adapter (although the battery was 50% full)

I did not apply the CPU Hot fix utility as I already have service pack 2. (I tried to apply it - and windows said it already contained the newer version of the fix).

I was really naive to believe that for a reasonable price I could get something that would work without problems. I should have spent 1000 US dollars MORE and buy Toshiba or IBM or even Acer - but not Asus). Damn - I'm angry.

 

ASUS is good... just that the A2D is one of the not-so-good ones.
It's Pentium-M and A64 notebooks tend to be quite good

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Tohiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

Hi Mulder!

I suggest you to contact Asus service or your dealer a.s.a.p. You have really bad individual among all the lousy A2D's. Maybe your mainboard needs to be changed. They changed my main board, and my A2D did have only that fan problem (and it still does). Your computer shouldn't blue screen/reboot when you plug AC on. Your Asus has 2 years global warranty.

 

Hi AuroraS,

There is absolutely no relation between the processor and mainboard sensors.
The problems of the A2D do not come from the fact that this series of notebook computer has Athlon XP-M processors. Actually the XP-M can be a pretty good choice because of good overall performance and low price.

 

Mulder,i had the same problem with AC plugged-unplugged...it's processor driver issue.You should change you processor driver with one that has a 4/1/2004 driver date.It`s just incompatibility with SP2 Procesor driver,just update driver from Device manager manualy.

P.S.
With SpeedswichXP v1.4,my A2D run just fine.

 

Hello Hector,

Thank you so much ! I did the trick. You don't know how happy you made me [ ] !

One can only complain that they did not bother to mention it on the Asus support web pages or FAQs. They just gave the cpu-hot fix on the CD, but Windows with SP2 complains about installing it - I think that even many advanced users would rather not risk continuing with this hot fix installation without any confirmation from Asus that it is really OK to override Windows naitive coresponding SP2 fix.

For the reasons above I had assumed (wrongly) that this fix was only for users without SP2.

Now I have done what Hector kindly suggested (I took the driver manually from the Asus' cpu hot fix) and the plug/unplug problem is gone.

Hector, once again: thanks, thanks, thanks.[ ]

 

You welcome,Mulder...

 

me too is a a2d owner with amd m-2800+ and at first time ,didn't care at the fan going so often, after checkin a bit, and in using it, I become more aware of it.

well, ironic, since I switched to desktop replacement to replace mainly other than the space issue, the desktop fan doing the ommmm costantly....

I could buy a m6n but at last I chose the a2500d for saving almost 500€.

well surprise, I'm happy with this laptop, but the fan is going to really bore me.

me too I installed fc3 in a dual boot enviroment (grub),
and with also 4 desktops with different applications in multitasking, the fan kicks in just sometimes, and is really quiet.

anyway, since I'm a musician, I mainly use the pc in xp, since in linux there isn't still a nice alternative, despite the huge leaps ahead taken in last years, to cite Planet CCRMA audio/video suite for example.

so I'm willing, when I'll have the possibility, to replace this last asus notebook I will buy; probably seeing the popularity, towards the Dell 9200, but, this time I'll look on a Centrino, light and thin one, possibly widescreen, any suggestion about it?

the other could be the toshiba m30 or m35 (couldn't find it on the italian catalog though)

apple is going to be discarded since not so much to spend on it, althought is not so bad.


what clues me, is why is so difficult to replicate the silent behaviour this a2d laptop has under linux sysop....who knows, is a matter of software, for what I could witness....

cheers [ ]