Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 17:39:04 -0500 From: ito <egunther@warwick.net> To: freebsd-acpi@freebsd.org Cc: Ian Smith <smithi@nimnet.asn.au> Subject: Re: loud fan pavilion ze2000 Message-ID: <1388443144.2697.31.camel@res-cmts> In-Reply-To: <20131222153537.T25305@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <1387551635.2533.21.camel@res-cmts> <20131221152703.E25305@sola.nimnet.asn.au> <1387666895.5356.22.camel@res-cmts> <20131222153537.T25305@sola.nimnet.asn.au>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Ok,
So I have tried looking around more, and working on powerd.There seems
to be no difference in any change I make aside from the temperature staying
below where I set PSV.
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0_PSV: 85C
(set back to what it was)
> I wouldn't worry about that. Are you not running powerd(8)? As Kevin
> Oberman often points out, p4tcc is for thermal control - as we've just
> exercised - but cpufreq(4), controlled by powerd, is the way to save
> power when you don't need the CPU running at maximum frequency, which is
> likely most times. Running it slower when idle _greatly_ reduces heat.
cpufreq and powerd, but I have a question about that; in the man page
for powerd, a bug is stated thus;
"if powerd is used with power_profile, they may override each other."
-in any case it seems to me both are being used on this machine.-
man cpu freq --------snip----------
..."The cpufreq driver provides a unified kernel and user interface to CPU
frequency control drivers. It combines multiple drivers offering different
settings into a single interface of all possible levels. Users can access
this interface directly via sysctl(8) or by indicating to
/etc/rc.d/power_profile that it should switch settings when the AC line state
changes via rc.conf(5)"...
------------snip------------
I thought that cpufreq calls or is called by /etc/rc.d/power_profile. I see
in the script that is 'power_profile' that it is called via devd.
Does one actually edit the script, /etc/rc.d/power_profile? Or is there
a more user friendly approach?
While trying to dig out the problem:
I tried kldstat -v | grep cpu
503 cpu/smist
502 cpu/powernow
501 cpu/p4tcc
500 cpu/hwpstate
499 cpu/est
486 legacy/cpu
33 cpu/acpi_perf
24 acpi/cpu
410 cpu/cpufreq
112 cpu/ichss
37 cpu/acpi_throttle
Most if not all of these are related to thermal control, no? It looks like there
is redundancy, is that the case?
thanks,
eg
> Right, 1135 / 1298 ~= .875 = 7/8, so yes that's your 1.3GHz CPU dropping
> down one step for thermal control.
OK
> > I suppose that is the 8 (freq_levels) you where referring to. Further I
> > infer that this -1 means that the BIOS has set them or does set them.
>
Yes, but here the -1 indicates for freq_levels that power consumption in
milliwatts at that freq is unknown, likely the same for p4tcc settings.
Ok.
> While doing the above (find) the fan is on but not full out.
>
> find(1) works disk harder than CPU as a rule, though here that command
> gets xorg about 70% busy, and keeps going for ages after hitting ^C, as
> it lists each file on the disk :) Maybe useful: find / -name "*acpi*"
OK, I will keep that in mind
find / -name "*acpi*"
> > PS, is this the exact command?
> > " dd if=/dev/random > of=/dev/null "
>
> No, no. I was careful to be precise, and yes a mistyped dd can be
> dangerous, and redirected to a file could indeed fill your disk.
> Fortunately that one doesn't work, invalid filename. see dd(1).
>
OK
so "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/null"
I see:
if=FILE read from file instead of stdin
/dev/urandom, kernels random number generator
of=FILE write to FILE instead of stdout
/dev/null, data sink
:
> > I am reluctant to type anything like dd: anything: I'm not really that
> > confident with the command line.
>
> Without your redirection it just reads from /dev/random, burning CPU,
> discarding the output, until you hit ^C .. perfectly safe.
>
:>
> > After setting the PSV value it does not go above 71 when rendering
> > animation with blender.
>
> Yeah rendering will busy the CPU (and GPU too) pretty well. Good, so
> we know passive cooling works (in case your fan ever really packs up).
>
The passive cooling seems to work pretty well. :0
> > I will try cleaning it again, but I think I remember that I thought
> > cleaning would fix it before.
>
> Unless you live in an extraordinarily dust-free environment, this needs
> doing with some regularity anyway. I did mine the other day, as summer
> ambient temperatures over 30C are becoming normal here (happy solstice!)
>
I did a quick cleaning but did not want to take it apart at the moment.
However, I noticed in the past that a thorough cleaning only helped but
did not solve noise.
> At the temperatures you've quoted, apart from annoying fan noise, it
> doesn't seem broken to me. How warm does it run just idling (versus
> what ambient temperature where you are)?
>
Yeah, thats the thing this is an old computer and all but it still works
+stock+ more or less. That is one of the few things that is actually
bothersome, the fan that is.
I do not have AC but the window is often open, it is winter here. I
would guess between 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit (15-21C).
> >
> > Found the source online for freebsd acpi.
>
> It'll be on your disk if you installed sources.
I did not install the sources, although I did find acpiio.h
in /usr/include/dev/acpica/ so I may try the find command you mentioned
(find -name "*acpi*") and see what else I can find.
And as I mentioned I can find it online.
> > So I guess that I could adjust the throttling, through the process that
> > the machine uses to save power??
>
> I wouldn't worry about that. Are you not running powerd(8)? As Kevin
> Oberman often points out, p4tcc is for thermal control - as we've just
> exercised - but cpufreq(4), controlled by powerd, is the way to save
> power when you don't need the CPU running at maximum frequency, which is
> likely most times. Running it slower when idle _greatly_ reduces heat.
Powerd is the first thing that was mentioned on the FreeBSD forums. I
tried it but possibly did not configure it properly.
It did not seem to fix the fan issue and as I said above the computer
works fine otherwise; no emergency shut down's or slow downs really to
speak of.
I don't really work this computer that hard so I am not demanding too
much out of it. Which is why I thought maybe the 'normal' operation of
the CPU could be curtailed.
-----
-----------/etc/rc.conf----------
----snip-----
powerd_enable="YES"
powerd_flags="-a adp -b min -i 30"
------snip------
-----------------------
------
--I am trying powerd -i 30 to see where it gets me.
> cheers, Ian
Thanks a bunch,
eg----------
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?1388443144.2697.31.camel>