Comment 5 for bug 410596

I have a work around which I can confirm works on my Latitude E5500.

1. Download the i8kutils *source* package with: cd ; sudo source i8kutils
2. In the created directory build the smm tool with: make smm
3. To turn off bios taking control of fans run: sudo ./smm 30a3
4. You'll need to do this every time you restart, so put it in a startup script somewhere.

That's it, but if you want to re-enable bios control of the fans, run: sudo ./smm 31a3

I'll copy this notice about the smm tool from smm.c:

 * WARNING!!! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS PROGRAM!!!
 *
 * THIS PROGRAM IS VERY DANGEROUS. IT CAN CRASH YOUR COMPUTER, DESTROY DATA
 * ON THE HARDISK, CORRUPT THE BIOS, PHYSICALLY DAMAGE YOUR HARDWARE AND
 * MAKE YOUR COMPUTER TOTALLY UNUSABLE.
 *
 * DON'T USE THIS PROGRAM UNLESS YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. I WILL
 * NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT DAMAGE CAUSED BY USING THIS
 * PROGRAM.