[Novalug] Broken fan control Compaq 6910p

Roger W. Broseus RogerB@bronord.com
Sun Jun 28 21:43:08 EDT 2015


Stuart:

Maybe create a bootable usb drive with DOS on it using Linux? I've done it
and ran the dos executable from there.

I can't recall the utility that I used but see some tips by googling

    create bootable dos usb

and find

    http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

Good ruck.
-- 
--
Roger Broseus
   RogerB@bronord.com
   www.bronord.com




On Sun, June 28, 2015 21:25, Stuart Gathman via Novalug wrote:
> On 06/27/2015 11:49 AM, Sean McGowan wrote:
>>
>> I have used lm_sensors in the past. http://www.lm-sensors.org/
>> http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/man/pwmconfig
>>
>> On Jun 26, 2015 3:54 PM, "Stuart Gathman via Novalug"
>> <novalug@firemountain.net <mailto:novalug@firemountain.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     I got a used 6910p, and it works great with Fedora 22 - except
>>     that after suspend/resume the fan comes on full blast and stays
>>     that way until reboot.  This is clearly a BIOS bug, but I'm
>>     looking for some way to kick the fan from linux.  There is no
>>     /proc/acpi/fan directory.  Any pointers?  This would be no big
>>     deal for a desktop, but for a laptop it is crippling.
>>
> There are no pwm sensors in this laptop.  The fans are controlled
> outside the OS.   Apparently, Windows users have the same problem.
> According to my research, it used to work with BIOS F09, was broken
> beginning with F10, and some users have claimed that if you update BIOS
> to F17 and set "Fan Always On" to true - the fan is no longer always
> on.  Obviously, there is some IO port somewhere that BIOS is tickling
> (and fails to tickle when resuming from suspend) - but it is all
> undocumented proprietary crap that is not even exposed via ACPI.
>
> Updating the BIOS requires running a Windows program that creates a
> bootable USB.  I borrowed a Windows machine, but the program refuses to
> run except on the Compaq 6910p.  I investigated, and the top level gets
> the machine model in hex from DMI, and then consults a map to determine
> which make bootable DOS to run.  I used dmidecode in linux to find the
> hex model of the 6910p, and ran the corresponding program on the Windows
> box - which is unsigned and scary to run, but it was created by the
> signed program, so it should be ok.
>
> The resulting allegedly bootable USB is not actually bootable (the
> Windows box was missing FreeDos, which apparently comes on HP/Compaq).
> But the 1MB rom image is on the USB.  Maybe I could use a linux utility
> to write the rom image.  But maybe I should take it back to PC Retro and
> pay the restocking fee.  I'm kicking myself for not testing
> suspend/resume at the store for a laptop.  Sigh.
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