Compal EL80 bios digging/temperature sensors

Hi!

So I've been wondering, since I got my compal el80, all is sweet in it, apart from the terribly noisy fan it has.

One thing I could do would be oil the fan, or completely chuck it and get a new one. That's one. Another thing would be applying AS5/LiquidMetal to the cpu and gpu. That's okay too.

But the real deal would be, on what basis is the cpu fan being turned ON ? Is it hardcoded in the bios or somehwre else? Had it been hardcoded in the bios, perhaphs I could raise the temperature treshold a bit, so that the fan kicked in at say 50 degrees - 55. What temperature is the recommended one is a bit of a later topic, firstly I'd rather wonder how hard /if at all possible/ would this bios 'improvement' be?

Regards,

//m.

 

The fan isn't loud, it just comes on full blast when the computer reaches a certain temperature. Why it does this I'm not sure. It's fully capable of starting at a much lower RPM.

The only things I can suggest are getting AS5 (it will make the fan not come on as often, and not run for as long), under volting your processor, and checking for updates to the program called Speedfan. Speedfan allows you to control the fan, and do exactly what you are asking to do. Be very careful with the program though, you can do some serious damage with it!

I wouldn't hold out on Speedfan though. It has much better support for desktop hardware, which is a lot more standard across all models than it is for laptops. When I tried Speedfan, there was something about ACPI for my laptop that it couldn't recognize or detect or something.. I can't remember unfortunately.

Regardless, the technicians at Compal aren't stupid. The fan comes on at around 50C and turns off at around 40C for a reason, and you would do well to not change those values. Also, editing the BIOS is extremely risky. Any change you do could result in losing its functionality and gaining a nice, large paper weight on your desk to impress your friends with.

 

yes,well, no risk no fun eh ?

also, speedfan is out the question since i run Linux.

wondering where would i look for the bios specs, if anywhere, so i'd know what bits to flip to another way, i mean it can't be *THAT* hard. i've done hex editing before heh

i might take a look at the binary bios files supplied from biznet.

what is the temperature treshhold exactly? what values would i be looking for? the best way would be to incorporate these values into a neat, changeable option from the bios menu... hehe. but i doubt i'm skilled enough for that. maybe i'll ask a mate who's well aquainted with assembler, doubt he'd have the time tho :/

I do know as5 would be a definite thing to do, and i'm going to get on with it, just waiting for a different cpu so i can upgrade to c2d as this celeronM sucks, then i'd be applying the paste

also, in asus'es afaik the fan goes on at about 55 degrees, i reckon if it had a similar treshold here, that shouldn't hurt.... it rarely heats more than 30-40, my body's ~36'6 and i don't need a fan so i guess it would also survive (bad joke if at all i know i have more surface to let the heat away then the tiny cpu core).

regards!

//m.

 

I'm just basing the 40C, 50C thing on my HGL30. Technically a C2D processor is good till something like 90C.. the processor shuts itself off at 100 or so to prevent permanent damage.

I can't stress enough how bad of an idea it is to tinker with the BIOS. If you get one thing wrong, you could screw your computer up big time. I suppose I was exaggerating when I said you'd make your laptop a paperweight. You CAN send it back to Compal and they can replace the BIOS chip (for a hefty sum)

/opinion piece
Honestly, when all is said and done, I can't imagine how anyone could justify going through all that trouble and risk to fix an intermittent noise that most of the time is drowned out by ambient noise or the sound of a game/movie/music playing. I realized it wasn't worth the trouble. But if you feel you can trust your buddy to be perfectly flawless with his fixing attempt, then by all means, go for it.

And if it does work, I definitely give you permission to smear it in my face. I would do the same if someone was saying to me what I am saying now. You'll definitely help out the more adventuresome HGL30 owners on this forum by detailing how it's done.
/end opinion piece

 

Well I'm just wondering, since other brands seem to not have such issues. I wonder also then, on the other hand, where exactly, physically, are the temp sensors located, that the bios reads data from ?

Are these in the core of the cpu itself? Since that would then probably really give me a lot of less fanning had I applied as5 or anything alike - the entire area around the fan is usually very very cool! not just the air, but the plastic etc, so I really think the fans are going overkill for some reason.

Cheers,

//m.

 

I always see people recommending SpeedFan, but I've never been able to use that program to control fan speeds on any desktop.

 

btw, now, i must say that i've rebuilt my kernel with pentium-M support by default, and it's significantly quieter it would seem, that is, the fan doesn't turn on as often, nor does it stay for as long as it used to (running ondemand here on AC, conservative on batt).

maybe that was the key? :/ anyway, i guess arctic silver won't hurt to get either. i've already ordered my liquidmetal paste, now waiting for a new cpu as i'd rather upgrade the cpu first since i heard the paste seems to join the cpu and heatsink rather well after minor even usage.

regards!

//m.