Minimum fan speed in applesmc is too low

[David Stansby]

Currently the minimum fan speed is set to be 2000rpm in the applesmc kernel module. This speed doesn't appear to change, and my CPU has reached temperatures over 60c whilst this was the case. I think that this is way too high, and it should be raise to 3000rpm to prevent overheating.

A workaround can be done by switching to a root prompt and typing 'echo 3000 > /sys/devices/platform/applesmc.768/fan1_min'

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: david 2115 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
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   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC889A'
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CheckboxSubmission: 60f5c44b0fba535831cbb17e791b9f2f
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Date: Mon Oct 26 15:30:21 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=ae4a8832-4ea9-4c90-b883-0640c76691d0
MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBook5,2
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
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 linux-firmware 1.24
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SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
dmi.bios.date: 02/17/09
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: MB52.88Z.0088.B02.0902171256
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag#
dmi.board.name: Mac-F22788AA
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
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dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-F22788AA
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dmi.product.name: MacBook5,2
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.

[Alex Murray (alexmurray)]

60C is perfectly fine - the processors are rated to almost 95C. Trust the Apple SMC firmware - it monitors the temperatures and raises the fan speed when needed - you need to hit temps over about 75C before it will do this though.. In you case 60C is nothing, so this really isnt a bug. I for one definitely wouldn't want to see this changed.

[David Stansby (dstansby-deactivatedaccount)]

Right then, I'll trust you and mark this as invalid then ;)

[Ouilsen (ouilsen)]

My laptop is Macbook 2.1.

I had openSUSE installed and I had never problems with the temperature.

With Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04 I suddenly had random freezes and I couldn't figure out why for several weeks. Finally I came across several forum threads and wiki entries about temperature problems which finally made perfectly sense.

I set fan1_min to 4000 and all the problems went away.

Due to the randomness of the freezes I guess that a lot people do not know about the cause of their problem.

Alex is right about the temperature limits. Therefore the freeze often happens after a continued limited CPU load (watching a video) getting the laptop heated up. If you then run a program at full load the temperature jumps behond the upper bound and the system freezes.

I hope this bug is opened again, because IMO, this leads to shorter lifespan of your hardware.