SpeedFan on A2D

I decided to start new topic for this eternal A2D fan issue and SpeedFan software.

peacerist originally wrote these lines on this topic:

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Hi A2D folks,

Speedfan 4.22 Beta 11 has allowed controlling HI LIMITs for temperatures from MAXIM MAX6657. So you can change two available temperatures values for your Asus A2D, I have done some tests, following is what I have achieved so far.

How to change values:

Click on Configure button on speedfan windows then go to Advanced tab select MAX6657 at $4C on SiSx30 SMBus, there you'll see two temp values Temp1 Hi Limit = 127 (original) Temp2 Hi Limit = 55 (upper limit for fan to turn on in game mode of PowerGear or lower cpu speeds).

For this test, my cpu was underclocked to multipler 11.5x and 1.150V (very stable) using CrystalCpuid. In this setting fan is off until 55 C, and then turns on until it drops to 50 C again.

Result 1:

Temp2 can not be set to lower values than 55 unless the fan jams. I have recovered from a fan jam (without going into stand-by) by setting to 40 C while current cpu temp was just dropping from 41 C and then the fan turned off. Temp 2 value was automatically reset to 55 C each time fan stops.

(By the time, I have written above lines, I found that while fan is on and cpu temp is < 55 C, setting temp2 to less than 54, turns off fan. This should be tested when fan jamps, may replace above statement.)

When fan is on, Temp2 value is automatically set to 70 and when it is off, Temp2 is set back to 55 again.

Result 2:

Temp1 can be set to any value, I couldn't figure out its usage yet. However, when Temp1 is lower then 55 C and and fan is on, such as 53 C, fan turns on for very short period time and keeps cpu temp around 54-55 C, lesser fan noise!!.


Result3: (Handle with caution)

When fan is off, setting temp2 > 55 degrees extends fan turn on time. Temp1 should be > 54 in order to this to be working.


So far so good. In the dawn of controlling A2D's cpu fan


Links:

Speedfan 4.x beta software: http://www.almico.com/sfdownloadfile.php?thefile=4
Speedfan beta page: http://www.almico.com/sfbetaprogram.php

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I played with that new SpeedFan 4.22 beta 11 version.
It works, but just partly... First time I managed to stop that jammed fan with that software without booting. That's progression, anyway!

Problem is that when I set new Temp2 HI Limit (temperature which triggers fan on), example to 60, it gets overwritten back to 55 when fan has started and stopped.

I changed speedfansens.cfg file to read-only, but it didn't cure the problem. That file contains those temperature limits etc. And speedfansens.cfg file remains as it was, but SpeedFan reads new temp limits from somewhere else? Some driver or something returns those original values after fan has started. Same issue with PowerGear and SpeedswitchXP running.

If SpeedFan could ignore those limit changes, it would be solution for this annoying fan issue.

 

I suggest you write to the author of Speedfan (he's very nice) and explain the situation and see if he can make a hack for all you A2D users. Maybe even a small little program using the speedfan code (or maybe he'd provide the code to control that SMBus).

Asus M3NP 1.5GHz Centrino (Dothan /w 2mb L2)
1GB PC2700 DDR
40gb 5400rpm 8mb Cache Seagate Hard Drive /w 5 Year Warranty
Intel 2200BG 802.11g Wireless

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>
MAYBE: It could also still be that when you set this temperature to 60 when Temp2 is set to 55, that the fan kicks into overdrive mode (probably 5000 rpm, the sound you hear when the A2D is turned on shortly)
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

OK, just tested that, and that is not what Temp1 HI Limit is, because I had it on 60, and when my CPU reached 65 the fan still didn't go into overdrive mode. It just kept on spinning on normal speed until the temp dropped under 50 degrees and then the fan turned off.

 

I tried it, and it works! The very first time of solving a fan jam without a standby or reboot.

I had a fan jam, and Temp2 HI limit was on 70, while my CPU was 36 degrees. I changed the Temp2 HI limit to 40, and as soon as my CPU hit the 40 degrees barrier shortly and dropped under it again, the fan went OFF! The Temp2 HI Limit is then automatically reset to 55.

What apparently happens, is that the fan monitoring chip "realizes" that it's going through the Temp HI Limit barrier when it's going up from 36 to 40 degrees, and then resumes normal functionality, which is to shut the fan off when the temparature drops below the 40 degrees.

Just like Hyde said, whenever the fan turns off the Temp2 HI Limit is set to 55 again, so then it functions again like it should for a while.


Continued testing: I have my Temp1 HI Limit now set on 50. I don't know what this does yet, Maybe I'll still find out. MAYBE: It could also still be that when you set this temperature to 60 when Temp2 is set to 55, that the fan kicks into overdrive mode (probably 5000 rpm, the sound you hear when the A2D is turned on shortly)

 

Maybe it's not a real problem that Temp 2 HI Limit keeps resetting back to 55 C. I just wanted fan to kick in a little bit later, because my normal temperature on my daily set of programs is around 50-54 C. So it is running very close to that 55 C trigger temperature, and that causes fan to start quite often for few seconds. But better that than constant hummmm...

I've been using my A2D couple days with latest SpeedFan and I haven't faced any fan jams yet. SpeedFan just returns correct behaviour when temperature limits are reached, and it seems to work.

I haven't figure out either what that temp 1 HI Limit does. It was set to 127 by default.
I wish to see a possibility to set low limit (fan off) in a future versions of SpeedFan. That would be nice feature. It would be nice to set hi limit to 60 and low limit to 40 to achieve less fan action, but longer cooling periods.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Hyde
I haven't figure out either what that temp 1 HI Limit does. It was set to 127 by default.
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Well... My fan was stuck, proc temp was 37 degrees. I started SpeedFan... Temp 2 HI was on 70, Temp 1 HI was on 127... As normal...

Then I switched the Temp 1 (!!) to 40 degrees, and the fan went off immediately.... I don't know what that thing does exactly, but it definitely has an influence on the fan jam.... When I leave the Temp 1 on low value (40 or 50) then the fan jam also doesn't come back all day anymore, as long as I keep the laptop on....

It keeps getting more interesting (-:

 

So the fan jam could be linked to a temperature transition afterall...

Apparently the MAX6657 sensor also reports its own temperature:
http://www.almico.com/foruminfo.php?id=326

 

Well, the fan jam can be solved very easily like this:

1. Install this Beta of SpeedFan.
2. Set Temp 1 (yes, one) HI limit to 40 degrees (I tested that, you might take another low value), use the "remember it" option
3. Make a shortcut to SpeedFan in your StartUp folder so it's started on system startup
4. You might want to set "Start minimized" in SpeedFan's Conf. Options

No more fan jams, whatsoever. (With my A2500D that is)

 

Good work SXW.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Hi
I tried it yesterday and now there is no fan noise,everything is ok. I changed temp1 40 and temp2 55(no change). For this setting,fan is so quiet[ ] Thanks everybody , especially Hyde.

 

Keep in mind - try to make sure you're keeping within twice your room temp....... You shouldn't worry about burning out the cpu, becasue the system will shut down before that sort of failure... but you also don't want it to run hot because that would be uncomfortable, would use more battery life up, and would start to hurt performance.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I had today my first fan jam after installing SpeedFan 4.22. I had Temp1 set to 40 and temp2 55. System temperature was about 32 C when I opened SpeedFan main window and configured temp1 to 30. Fan stopped immediately.

I think temp1 is some kind of low limit, but sometimes it just won't work. Maybe temperature is dropping too fast and it skips that low limit temperature? Hmmm... Well, I'm very happy that I can put that fan back in order with this software. Thanks to SpeedFan! (Now even ASUS engineers could deliver driver/BIOS updates if they wanted. It shouldn't be too hard, because someone already has solved their problem.)

I suggest that all who find SpeedFan software helpful should donate few dollars to its author. I just donated 10$ for him.

 

Yes, but again...... you may say it's a problem, but they have their reasons. What they are aren't exactly up to me to say, but you found something that changes something you don't like, and thats very good.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Wait... you're saying that after 20 minutes the fan locks up? I'm not following now.. but if thats what you're saying, it's not happening to me or my customers, so I'd like to be on the same page.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Well, I'm glad the problem is solved somewhat... Although the solution is also not _that_ great... But I'm convinced that this _is_ a software design flaw, and Asus never intended this to happen...

Without SpeedFan the problem occurs so incredibly random... Sometimes it happens after 20 minutes after booting from cold, sometimes only after 4 hours... I think somebody at Asus had a bad bad bad monday morning when programming these drivers... )-:

 

No, it doesn't lock up... It goes into a mode where it will keep turning on 3000 rpm, no matter what temperature. If you want to know more about the problem then read several other threads in this forum...

The problem must be in a Windows driver or something, the problem (what I've heard) doesn't occur in Fedora Core linux.

 

It's not happening with linux, eh? That is certainly interesting.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Hyde

 

Not entirely true, because I've had cases where the temp was 35, and the fan stopped when I set Temp 1 HI limit to 50...

So I still can't really figure out what it exactly means... Oh and by the way: System temp does not exist in the A2D... There are 3 temps being measured:

HD-temp
CPU-temp (called "remote")
The temp of the sensing chip itself (called "local")

Although you could of course call the last one the system temperature.... Ah well...

The weird thing is that sometimes the measurement that you get is something like minus 64... If you look at the SpeedFan graph, you see a dip to such a minus temperature about every 2 minutes....