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For a few weeks, the fans of my Lenovo B590 laptop, running on Xubuntu 14, turn to high speed a few minutes after it is turned on. The fans won't speed down until I turn the computer off.

This is quite strange, since

This didn't happen before

The temperatures are quite low (are they ?)

$sensors
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +36.0°C  (crit = +88.0°C)
temp2:        +30.0°C  (crit = +126.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +37.0°C  (high = +72.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
Core 0:         +34.0°C  (high = +72.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)
Core 1:         +31.0°C  (high = +72.0°C, crit = +90.0°C)

thinkpad-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1:           0 RPM

pkg-temp-0-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +37.0°C 

$sudo hddtemp /dev/sda
/dev/sda: ST500LT012-9WS142: 33°C

The computer is under low load:

top - 08:30:15 up 16 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.28, 0.23, 0.23
Tasks: 197 total,   1 running, 196 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.8 us,  0.5 sy,  0.0 ni, 98.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem:   3607944 total,  1973956 used,  1633988 free,    99660 buffers
KiB Swap:  3744764 total,        0 used,  3744764 free.   789936 cached Mem

The BIOS is up to date (and there are no fan settings in it)

The fan is clean and dust-free

Why would the BIOS turn the fans to high speed where there seem to be no reason for that ?

It seems that we cannot control the fan manually with this model, so I guess the only solution is to understand why this happens.

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    linux ACPI power management implementations are hit and miss with many laptop bioses. consider yourself lucky that it has your fans on high, rather than low. I had a laptop I couldn't do anything serious with becuase ubuntu couldn't tell the HP bios to spin them up when needed, so they never ran above low, even at a coretemp above 80C. HP of course would not relase a bios that had powermanagement configuration available. Jun 10, 2014 at 16:06
  • I have a laptop which does the same: I can't remember whether hibernating cured it, but my Lenovo has not exhibited the problem. Apart from the hardware, the main differences are that the Lenovo has UEFI and 64-bit Ubuntu. Both are running 12.10.
    – AFH
    Jun 10, 2014 at 18:04
  • @AFH What do you mean by whether hibernating cured it ?
    – Klaus
    Jun 10, 2014 at 19:15
  • It was configured to hibernate when the lid was closed, which stopped the fan: I can't recall if the fan came back to full speed when I resumed. I don't often use it now, so I have had no recent incidents. If your Lenovo is configured to hibernate, it's worth checking if this will reset it: it's a lot quicker than rebooting.
    – AFH
    Jun 10, 2014 at 21:12
  • @Klaus: What do you mean by "This didn't happen before". Before what? OS upgrade? Switch from Windows to Linux? BIOS update?
    – mpy
    Jul 16, 2014 at 21:12

3 Answers 3

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Its possible the fan is just running at the default speed for the power its getting if the bios has no setting for fan speed control? software issue?

seems their are many other people with your same issue

please refer here

the issue is still yet to be resolved with out having my hands on an B590 its hard for me to help you further. I think it most likely is a driver or bios issue.

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Your temperatures seem fine, but what i noticed is that the fan speed reported is 0 RPM .

That kind of a bad sign. either the fan probe dies [by overheat/usage/bad connection] , or its a software issue.

If the reports you posted are from BIOS then i would suggest taking a screwdriver to it and seeing whats up [only if you have done this sort of thing before - otherwise seek advise!]

Otherwise, it should be solved chipset drivers or such.

Does this happen wheather you boot into ubuntu or not? Does the fan go to full speed before ubuntu? I would also try booting a live CD ad seeing what happens.

good luck , report back!

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i would say it is software issue, i have the same issue, all of the sudden the fan will run fast, and the case is getting hot, i check temp it registering 80 deg C, usually it does not exceed over 60 deg, I immediately open terminal and type in reboot, after that will run normal again.

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