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PLEASE READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO FRY EGGS ON YOUR THINKPAD
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License/Use:
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This program and source code is in the public domain.
The author claims no copyright, copyleft, license or
whatsoever for the program with exception of WinIO driver.
You may use, reuse, abuse or distribute it's binaries
or source code in any desired way or form, Usage of
binaries or source shall be entirely and without
exception at your own risk.
Usage of WinIO is excempt from this license. The WinIO
driver is (C) by Yariv Kaplan at www.internals.com.
License terms for WinIO can be found at
http://www.internals.com/utilities_main.htm
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Introduction:
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This is a early experimental fan control program for the
Thinkpad T43 and other models. It has mainly been tested
on my own machine (Model. 2668-97G). It may or may not
work on other series Thinkpads. Some have been already
been tested with success (see below), which may or may
not allow conclusions about usage on your computer.
THIS PROGRAM IS VERY EXPERIMENTAL. NO WARRANTY IS GIVEN
WHATSOEVER. USE OF THE PROGRAM IS ENTIRELY AND WITHOUT
EXCEPTION YOUR OWN RISK.
If you even think about blaming the author for problems
caused by the program, then just don't use it (instead
ask IBM to fix their d*mn fan.) If you are not sure if
you want to try, just read this carefully and think again.
If you are sure that you want to try it still read this
file. And please share your results (see links below).
Have you realy read the above? Do you get the picture?
Well, good!
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Further Warnings:
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There are possible caveats with this program, some may
even appyl after successfully having it tested for a
few days or even weeks:
- In active mode the program writes to a location in
the embedded controller area. Doing this on a system
where the byte at this location has another meaning
may do all kinds of unexpected and possibly serious
things to computers where the specific location in
the EC has a different meaning.
- Interfering with ACPI software: ACPI aware software
(including Windows XP, Thinkpad tools, Thinkpad drivers)
communicates with the EC. Running TP43 Fan Control may
interfere with these functions with unpredictable results.
- When the program controls the fan speed and crashes
it will obviously no longer be able to do so. If at
the time of the crash the fan was off, it will remain
so, independent of the system temperature.
- Probably other nasty and undesireable things.
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Tested Models:
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Currently users have reported successful initial tests
with the following Thinkpad machines. (Great thanks to
those who were brave enough try):
- Series (Model)
- T23 (2647)
- T40 (2373)
- T41p (2373),
- T42 (2373)
- T43 (1871 and 2668)
- T43p (2668)
- A31p (2653)
- R50 (1829)
- R50e (1834)
- X41 (tablet 1866)
There are no guarantees but this indicates that
trying it on T4X models may not run the risk of
immediate disastrous results.
Other Thinkpad Series (R, A, X, Z, etc.) may also
work.
A test on an X20 indicated that the program does
not work on this model.
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Links:
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Downloads:
- http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=153962
Support Thread for this tool:
- http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17715
Thread for sharing/comparing temperature results
- http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17733
Tech Background:
- http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Patch_for_controlling_fan_speed
- http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Problem_with_fan_noise
- http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:ACPI_fan_control_script
WinIO Driver:
- http://www.internals.com/utilities/utilities.htm
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Purpose/Implementation:
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The program reads the fan control register and various
temperature sensors. In active mode it allows to manually
change the fan control register and it is able to
dynamically switch the fan speed depending on the
temperature readings.
Fan control is implemented by directly communicating with
the embedded controller (EC) via port numbers 0x62 and
0x66 by means of a Windows driver (WinIO, see link above).
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Installation:
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Unpack the ZIP file to a folder anywhere on your *local*
hard drive. After that you should have the following files
there:
fancontrol.exe
fancontrol.ini
readme.txt
WinIo.dll
WinIo.sys
(WinIO is a third party driver. Please see the links and
license sections for more).
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Test "Compatibilty":
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So, you really did read the disclaimer above and still want to
try? Please read the test instructions fully before you start
the program.
Open the folder where you unpacked the ZIP file. Edit the
fancontrol.ini file (right click, open with, Notepad). Make
sure that the "active" switch is set to zero and save the file.
With this setting the program will only read values from the
Thinkpad but will not make any modifications. It is still
possible that this mode will will interfere with other programs,
but there is no high probability of permanent damage. If there
are problems, a reboot should cure the situation.
Then close all programs which may do things to your CPU or
BIOS. Mainly under/overvlocking, under/overvolting, temperature
and speed monitoring applications. I'm speaking of tools
like "Notebook Hardware Control", etc. The reason for this is
that these program are also reading from the EC and there is
currenty no known way to synchronize EC access between programs.
Now, hold your breath and double click the FanControl.exe icon.
This should give you a window named "Thinkpad T43 Fan Control".
If you get an error message about the WINIO Driver, make sure
that all files are in your folder and that it resides on your
local hard drive (not on a network). You also need to be logged
on with administrative privileges.
I have no experience with that driver yet, so if you keep getting
this message you'll probably need to experiment or check with the
WINIO developer (http://www.internals.com/utilities/utilities.htm).
Assuming that you did get the "Thinkpad T43 Fan Control"
window, you'll need to check the follwing fields to see
if they show meaningful values.
Check 1: "Fan State"
What you want to see in the first field is either:
"0x80 (BIOS Controlled)" or "0x0Y (Fan Level Y, Non Bios)"
with a value of 0-7 for "Y". The first value (0x80) is
preferrable.
Check 2: "Temp."
In the second field you should find something like
"Highest 47蚓" and
CPU 41蚓 (0x78)
APS 38蚓 (0x79)
X7A 31蚓 (0x7A)
GPU 40蚓 (0x7B)
BAT 32蚓 (0x7C)
BAT 30蚓 (0x7E)
XC0 36蚓 (0xC0)
PCI 43蚓 (0xC1)
PWR 41蚓 (0xC2)
There should be a series of values with realistic temperatures
(in Celcius). For people from the Farenheit realm values from
25蚓 to 60蚓 are realistic (20蚓 is room temperature, 37蚓 is
human body temperature, 60蚓 is quite hot to the touch, 100蚓
is boiling water). The meaning of the sensors is described
further below.
If you have a program which monitors the CPU temp. start it
later (remember, such stuff should not be running on your first
test) and check if the CPU value in brackets matches the tool's
CPU te
