Problem with Samsung Series 9, fans not working.

First of all i would like to say Hi to everyone (im new on this forum), and also say thanks for all the help that i've found here.

Well, yesterday I decided to reformat my Samsung Series 9 NP900X3C-A04CL, and I did a clean install of windows 8. I downloaded all the drivers with SWupdate with no issues at all. Everything was working fine, until
the bottom of the notebook started to heat up and i noticed that the fans where not working. I checked if the silent mode was active, but it was off. Then I ran some programs to see if the fans were active at some
heat threshold, but they were not working at all. So I have the doubt, What could be the problem? is there any Driver for the fans? I know there is this application called "Setting" that control the backlight and the Fn
function on the keyborad, but i'm not sure which program controls the fans.

Hopping you can understand me (pardon my english), and give me some advice.

Al Jimbo Jones

 

Any chance you backed up the previous OS environment? It would be interesting to know if it is hardware or software.

 

Make sure you installed the Intel chipset driver and the Intel ME Interface driver.

You should also find that if you go into the BIOS setup (press F2 at the BIOS screen) then the fans should turn on after a few minutes.

John

 

Thanks for the Replies!

To Thors: Nop, unfortunaly I erased all the hard-drive, even the backup-Recovery partition, cause I thought it wasn't necessary and it was using a lot of space (no i realize that probably wasn't a very good idea...).
I don't think it's hardware, because i've using this notebook for about 2 months with no problems before I did the Clean Install of Windows 8.

To John: I've installed the upgrade of the Intel Chipset and the Intel ME interface driver with de SWupdate, and nothing happended, fans still not working. I went to the BIOS setup, and waited, but again, nothing happened.

Still don't know what could be the problem. I've been looking all over the internet, and seems that i'm the only one with this problem.

Again, thank you guys for the replies, and pardon my english (is not my first language)

Al Jimbo jones.

 

Two more suggestions are:

1. Try booting Windows into safe mode (keep tapping F8 when Windows is about to start loading (assuming that Windows 8 still has a safe mode.
2. Run Linux off a CD or flash drive (you may need to disable SecureBoot).

If hardware it's not a simple problem such as a broken or stuck fan because the other fan should still work.

John

 

Thanks for the help John, but it didn't work
I ran windows 8 under safe mode, looking for any conflict or problem, and I couldn't find anything. Im gonna try the second option right now (Im Downloading Linux).
I'm starting to think that probably there is a specific driver or something that controls the fans, or that, somehow, the silent mode got stucked, but the samsung setting program says it's off, and the processor it's working at an average rate of 1,0-1,2 ghz.

Again, thk you very much for the help John.

Al Jimbo Jones.

 

I am as puzzled as you are about this. But I don't think it's a driver thing: The fans should come on regardless (controlled by BIOS) once temps get too high. As John said, at least while you're in the BIOS.

Silent mode works by keeping temps low in the first place (switching to the Power Saver profile with Passive system cooling AND capping the CPU at a low speed). But it shouldn't prevent the fans from kicking in to keep the system cool if necessary. And you say it gets really hot.

A complete long shot from me would be that you're running in UEFI mode, and somehow the UEFI BIOS (on the EFI partition) got messed up. I don't even know if fan control is handled by UEFI, but IF it is, that could be a cause. It's the only explanation I can think of, how a Win8 installation could cause something like this.

How about trying trying a complete new installation -- this time making sure the SSD is converted to MBR and that UEFI is disabled (if this wasn't already the case)? You can follow the last section in this post to make that switch. It's a Win7 install guide, but that UEFI/GPT to BIOS/MBR conversion described is the same.

It's all I can think of

Update: I just remembered: If you didn't install Settings, try and do so. Not that I would have expected the fans to depend on it, but it's possible that Settings will rewrite or update fan speeds in the DSDT tables in BIOS that may have gotten corrupted. Settings has other hooks into BIOS as well.

 

Thanks for the replies guys...wow, it's amazing how much i've learned about BIOS setup, SSD MBR config, and a lot of stuff just reading on this forum.

Well, to the point: I did a new clean install of windows 8, this time making sure that I was working under CSM OS (UEFI disabled) and setting the SSD to MBR. I've downloaded the SWupdate, installed settings and the necessary drivers, and everything was fine, but fans still not working... I'm starting to think that, somehow the BIOS got corrupted or something, and I'm thinking to Downgrade (Roll Back) the BIOS following the instructions on this post http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/696197-samsung-laptops-roll-back-bios-updates.html, but I’m not sure... is it safe? Am I going to screw up the Notebook? I have my doubts, so please, if u can, give me some advice...

Al Jimbo Jones

 

If you have got UEFI disabled then it should be possible to do the BIOS downgrade without the risk of bricking the computer.

John

 

Problem Solved!
Well, it worked. I downgraded de BIOS, and then reinstalled everything. Later, I Updated the BIOS to the latest one. Fans are working quite well, they get active when the the processor reaches 55% of use or 1.4 Ghz.

Thank you so much guys, I really appreciate all your help.

Al Jimbo Jones

 

Thanks for the update. I'm not sure if we provided much help and I'm wondering which of those steps fixed the problem. Given that the fans should be controlled at the BIOS level I'm thinking that the problem was there. Perhaps Samsung still haven't totally debugged the BIOS interacting with Windows 8 (particularly with UEFI lurking in the background) and their development efforts are concentrated on the new models with fixes for older ones being of lower priority.

John

 

Congratulations, great job there, both on being so persistent, and on finally nailing it.

I actually think the issue could be what you suggested earlier: Either the BIOS itself or the DSDT tables (which control a bunch of ACPI parameters) were corrupted. A solid BIOS update (in this case a downgrade) corrected that: Either flashing a good BIOS or writing correct values to those tables.

If that is the case, the actual BIOS release wasn't what fixed it, but just a good flash. I guess sometimes a BIOS needs that

I'll refer another poster from the 2013 Series 7 Owner's Lounge to take a look here. His problem is the fans just won't quiet down, even in Silent Mode with low temps. Who knows, maybe it's corrupt BIOS/DSDT tables in his case as well.

Thanks again for posting your results and solution here

 

Hey there,

thx for the hint. I tried to figure out if there is a BIOS-File for my 770z5e series 7 laptop. Unfortunately i couldnt find one yet. I will have another try later on. Right now i am trying out using windows 7 (fresh install) to make sure my fans wont quiet down problem isnt OS-related somehow (well hope dies last right? )
However i didnt get how to manipulate DSDT settings. Is there any hint someone can give me?

 

I didn't mean to manipulate DSDT tables directly (though I've heard of that). Merely that a good BIOS flash might restore those table as well as the BIOS itself, in case there is any corruption. Heck, I don't even know if that's what fixed it for Al Jimbo Jones. It just seems logical to me -- and evidently something in his down/up flashing solved a fan problem.

Check the threads linked below for BIOS update and rollback discussions. I don't even know if there are any available for your model. Another topic I don't have much firsthand experience in

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/696197-samsung-laptops-roll-back-bios-updates.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/698094-samsung-bios-update-problems.html

 

@Dannemand:

Hehe ok. Thx for your efforts so far. I couldnt find a bios update for my model. I think i kinda give up for now and wait if they gonna release a new bios through swupdate somewhen. I already spend too much time on this i guess
Still annoying hat i couldnt fix my problem yet. Well lets wait and see ...

 

i seem to be having the same problem, and samsung people flashed my bios to P12AAJ themselves, and it worked for a good few weeks and then poof my fans have stopped working, yesterday i gave in and upgraded bios to P14AAJ thinking that would fix the problem but nothing! im thinking i should also try downgrading but i dont know which version to downgrade to any advice?

 

Please don't cross post. See my reply in your other thread. There is a specific thread about downgrading a Samsung BIOS.

John