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I have an hp dv4 laptop running Ubuntu 10.10. While booting up, the laptop fan just runs excessively for a few seconds until the login screen appears. Then it functions normally for the rest of the session.

I've read somewhere that you can do some tweaking in boot options. When I checked it out it was given laptop fan always ON : Enabled so I disabled it. Now, while running the system the fan alternatively picks up speed and then slows down.

The laptop is not hot at all and the temperature is a bit cold here. Any help will be appreciated :)

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I have the same problem since installing 10.10. Formerly running 9.04 with same graphics driver. My /usr/bin/sensors report 45.5C which is not too bad. – intrader Feb 23 '11 at 0:19
Bs, looking for the answer but 10.10 does mess with your fan. Got a dualboot with 7 and after 2 weeks i cant see why its happing (the fan speeds up) Sometimes when i just watching some online content with vlc. But its also with uh say it.....got lots and lots of moments were its starting to flip out. Nothing running at my toshiba the fan just go insane...aaarrrggggghhhh i want to hit. i ignored it for about 2 hours but its getting faster and faster at a slow rate but the temp or running progs are normal...its a bugggggggggg!!!!!! – anoyed Feb 23 '11 at 0:22
When you say "the temp or running progs are normal", have you actually checked the output of /usr/bin/sensors? My Macbook likes to kick up the cooling a fair bit, but you can physically feel it heating up, and if I go and check system processes (using top or system monitor) nine times out of ten its Chrome or npviewer (flash plugin, I think?!) going nuts and using up 75% of a CPU. This in itself is a WTF, and I think its a bug somewhere in chrome or with a plugin, but hardly Ubuntu/Maverick(10.10) at fault. – kwiksand Feb 23 '11 at 0:22

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

This is normal functioning for a laptop. Remember that the external temperature of the laptop is not necessarily a guide as to the temperature of the CPU, and naturally manufacturers are cautious when it comes to keeping the hardware cooled!

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but I didn't have this problem before when I was running 10.04, I couldn't even hear the fan at that time. Now the fan sound is audible! :( – Gayathri Oct 24 '10 at 17:46
up vote 1 down vote

If you're using proprietary drivers for your graphics card, this may have something to do with it. When I was running windows, and now on Ubuntu, I had a similar behaviour. On boot, you could clearly hear the fan spinning like mad, it would slow down only when the drivers were loaded.

I think that the card firmware is playing it safe and spinning the fan at some "standard" speed until drivers kick in and read the temperature, and adjust the fan speed to a sane level.

But you might have a completely different issue... >_>

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