How to Control Your Fan on x64 Vista

I have a new Studio 17 laptop that I have installed x64 Vista Business on and I am overclocking my graphics card via the PowerStrip utility found here.

I wanted a way to view my CPU temperatures and control my fan since both the CPU and GPU share the same cooling pipe.

SpeedFan is able to monitor the temperature but not control the fan on the Studio motherboard. NBR poster atbnet mentioned I8kfanGUI which is offered in both 32 and 64 bit versions. I downloaded the 64 bit version (3.1) here.

When you try and install this on x64 Vista you get the dreaded unsigned driver error even if you thought you turned that crap off through CMD. Apparently MS keeps releasing updates that re-enable that unsigned driver block.

Luckily I stumbled upon a neat program called ReadyDriver Plus V1.1 which can be found here. This program basically runs your Windows in local mode which I guess is the equivalent of hitting F8 at boot to disable forced driver signing. When you first boot, just sit back and let the program choose the correct menus. It does add a few seconds to your boot time, but you no longer have to use signed drivers. It also does not boot into the developer mode with annoying notification on every corner of your screen like one method I had used.

The first thing you need to do before installing ReadyDriver is to copy bcdedit.exe from C:\windows\system32\ to c:\windows\SysWOW64\. Then install ReadyDriver Plus by following all of the defaults, reboot, and you are ready to install I8kfanGUI so you can monitor your temps and manually set and control your fan speeds.

Hopefully this helps anyone who is experiencing a fan that is always on high even when the CPU is not being heavily utilized. Or anyone who just wants a way to control exactly what speed and when the fan kicks on a any given temperature.

 

Thankyou for the info on the fan speed control utility. I have a Studio 17 and my fan runs a lot, even when the unit is stone cold, and speedfan says my core temp has never gone over 43 C , its usually hovering around 35 C.

I installed the I8kfan utility, and Im on Vista 32 bit, when I put it on automatic temp control it locked up my touchpad and I had no control of the mouse. I had to do a forced shutdown, and I booted into Safe Mode, and removed this utility. The Studio laptops are not yet listed on the compatibility list, and for whatever reason it didnt work on mine. It did shut the fan off, but in so doing it locked up the mouse.

I think I would rather have the peace of mind knowing my fan is running, and my cpu is cool than have this utility shut it off and not know what other conflicts it may run into. I also have the 2 year Total Care warranty, if the fan quits, Dell can fix it.

Thanks,

 

That is too bad it does not work for you. It must be a 32 bit problem as I did not run into any problems despite like you mentioned, the Studio line not being listed as being supported.

I know you probably noticed but I thought I would check. Were you sure you downloaded the 32 bit version of I8kfan?

These laptops are crazy. I can't for the life of me get ATITool to work on my system yet other people seem to be using the 64 bit beta on the Studio without a problem. For me it installs but will not allow me to control the clock speeds.