Fanless Aspire One

Discussion in 'Modding and Customization' started by obarriel, Jul 22, 2008.

  1. obarriel

    Guest Guest

    Good job! now we could try to modify this register directly and see what happens.. if this works, we have access to the ec =)

    only 254 registers left :D

    UPDATE: saw you just succeeded modifying the register.. ;)
     
    Guest, Aug 13, 2008
    #81
  2. obarriel

    casainho

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    I was putting all registers to 0, one by one, until I understand that control light of display was not working anymore, nor using keyboard keys nor changing the values on EC register. I reboot and all is ok again (as supposed to be).

    Can people continue to try change the values of that registers to find what each one do?? - I found some registers that keep always his values...

    I will update wiki page now with this information about controlling EC registers.
     
    casainho, Aug 13, 2008
    #82
  3. obarriel

    Guest Guest

    So, here is a part of the acpi table. this one maps the ec registers to names.. it might be helpful although the names are not that speakful..

    and look at this: 0x51 -> BLVL, maybe.. backlight something :)

    Code:
                        OperationRegion (ERAM, EmbeddedControl, Zero, 0xFF)
                        Field (ERAM, ByteAcc, NoLock, Preserve)
                        {
                                    Offset (0x04), 
                            CMCM,   8, 
                            CMD1,   8, 
                            CMD2,   8, 
                            CMD3,   8, 
                                    Offset (0x18), 
                            SMPR,   8, 
                            SMST,   8, 
                            SMAD,   8, 
                            SMCM,   8, 
                            SMD0,   256, 
                            BCNT,   8, 
                            SMAA,   8, 
                            BATD,   16, 
                            ACDF,   1, 
                                    Offset (0x41), 
                                ,   5, 
                            FLS4,   1, 
                                    Offset (0x42), 
                                    Offset (0x4C), 
                            ARCD,   1, 
                                ,   3, 
                            DOCK,   1, 
                            LANC,   1, 
                            LID2,   1, 
                            CRTS,   1, 
                                    Offset (0x51), 
                            BLVL,   8, 
                                    Offset (0x53), 
                            DOFF,   8, 
                                    Offset (0x58), 
                            CTMP,   8, 
                            RG59,   8, 
                                    Offset (0x60), 
                            WLAN,   1, 
                            BLTH,   1, 
                            CPLE,   1, 
                                ,   3, 
                            WLST,   1, 
                            BLTS,   1, 
                                ,   2, 
                            ST3G,   1, 
                            MNST,   1, 
                                ,   1, 
                            ED3G,   1, 
                                ,   3, 
                                    Offset (0x63), 
                            TJ85,   1, 
                                ,   6, 
                            VGAF,   1, 
                                    Offset (0x70), 
                            BTMD,   8, 
                            MBTS,   1, 
                            MBTF,   1, 
                            BATF,   1, 
                                ,   3, 
                            MBDX,   1, 
                            MBAD,   1, 
                            MBTC,   1, 
                                ,   2, 
                            LION,   1, 
                                    Offset (0x77), 
                            BA1C,   8, 
                            MCYC,   16, 
                            MTMP,   16, 
                            MDAT,   16, 
                            MCUR,   16, 
                            MBRM,   16, 
                            MBVG,   16, 
                            MRTF,   16, 
                            MMER,   8, 
                            BA2C,   8, 
                            LFC2,   16, 
                            BTSN,   16, 
                            BTDC,   16, 
                            BTDV,   16, 
                            BTMN,   8, 
                                    Offset (0x93), 
                            BTST,   8, 
                                    Offset (0x9D), 
                            OSTP,   1, 
                                    Offset (0xA0), 
                            ABMD,   8, 
                            ABTS,   1, 
                            ABFC,   1, 
                                ,   4, 
                            ABDX,   1, 
                            ABAD,   1, 
                            ABCG,   1, 
                                ,   2, 
                            ABTP,   1, 
                                    Offset (0xA8), 
                            ACYC,   16, 
                            ATMP,   16, 
                            ADAT,   16, 
                            ABCR,   16, 
                            ABRM,   16, 
                            ABVG,   16, 
                            ARTF,   16, 
                            AMER,   8, 
                                    Offset (0xB8), 
                            AFCC,   16, 
                            ABSN,   16, 
                            ABDC,   16, 
                            ABDV,   16, 
                            ABMN,   8, 
                                    Offset (0xD0), 
                            EBPL,   1, 
                                    Offset (0xD1), 
                            PWRE,   1, 
                                    Offset (0xD2), 
                                ,   6, 
                            VAUX,   1, 
                                    Offset (0xD6), 
                            DBPL,   8, 
                                    Offset (0xE0), 
                            DESP,   8, 
                            DTS3,   8, 
                            DE0L,   8, 
                            DE0H,   8, 
                            DE1L,   8, 
                            DE1H,   8, 
                            DE2L,   8, 
                            DE2H,   8, 
                            DE3L,   8, 
                            DE3H,   8, 
                            DE4L,   8, 
                            DE4H,   8
                        }
    
    
    
     
    Guest, Aug 13, 2008
    #83
  4. obarriel

    casainho

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    BackLight VoltageLevel??

    Nice findings sc2k :) -- I will take a rest now. It's your and others turns now, to discover, to hack ;-)
     
    casainho, Aug 13, 2008
    #84
  5. obarriel

    esaym

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    What is vibrating on the fan? If something is vibrating that means that it is loose. So what is loose and why can't it be fixed with tape,glue, or something else?

    If you are wanting to heat up the cpu then run prime95:

    ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/mprime256.tar.gz

    execute mprime and select "just stress testing" and use test #2
     
    esaym, Aug 13, 2008
    #85
  6. obarriel

    rachel

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    No, because it can be caused by resonance. Essentially, at a guess, the metal fan enclosure is acting as a resonating chamber.

    So, I think, is the outer case of the computer.

    Of course, clever accoustic design is supposed to reduce this, but we're also talking about a cheap bit of kit. :)

    That's why people are talking about the pwm - because the power to the fan can only be either on or off, variable fan speeds are produced by turning it on and off very very fast. The frequency and duration of pulses determines the speed. Pulse Width Modulation. :)

    And that frequency is, we're guessing, the cause of the vibration. Wouldn't be surprised if there's a direct correlation to the pulse frequency and the sound pitch.

    I think cleverer systems would pulse according to a quasi-random pattern to break up these frequencies - so you get the same amount of on:eek:ff time in a second, but it's in a complex pattern instead of just a regular on/off sequence. I'd guess this isn't doing that.

    The only wrinkle that makes me worry about that theory is that, in theory, if the fan is running at full pelt, with the power constantly on, not pulsing, it would suddenly go silent (apart from the air rushing). Maybe it's never been up to full speed? Maybe the underlying electrical frequency is also a factor? Or would it not be because it's DC, not AC at this point? I'm sure someone who knows more about electrics than I do can correct me. :)

    or apt-get install stress. :) There are others. I think I used to use stresscpu; I just couldn't be bothered earlier. :)

    I wanted an extreme-but-realistic load. In fact, when I was stressing it and it 'crashed', I now suspect that it might have been the GMA950 that crashed, not the CPU. I think now that the machine was still running. I'll have to try it again to find out, and log in from outside and run top to see if the system is still alive.

    A plain CPU stress tester would probably not cause the graphics to overhead, but streaming video for that long without cooling maybe did. Possibly also there's an extra load on it from driving the external monitor rather than the internal one.

    --
    Rachel
     
    rachel, Aug 13, 2008
    #86
  7. obarriel

    thompa

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    I also Emailed Tech Support the same about fan noise. I think its a good idea if we keep the Emails coming to them about this....
     
    thompa, Aug 13, 2008
    #87
  8. obarriel

    esaym

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    esaym, Aug 13, 2008
    #88
  9. obarriel

    casainho

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    I also believe that this is caused by incomplete ACPI implementation made by Acer, since nor fan speed nor temperature thresholds are available to control :-( -- I hope they release soon a BIOS update with that!!

    cat /proc/acpi/fan --- empty directory :-(
    cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone --- empty directory :-(

    So GNU/Linux can't take control over fan :-(
     
    casainho, Aug 13, 2008
    #89
  10. obarriel

    rachel

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    Not so much caused by, as a software fix prevented by... But yes, the point is an important one. If they did that in a bios update they'd then be able to put out a software update for linpus to take advantage of it themselves, thus making future tweaking of fan behaviour easier.

    ... except that bios updating is pretty nontrivial; acer's own instructions start with an unhelpful "first put MS DOS on a bootable USB disk..." (Thank heavens for unetbootin, but Acer could and should be more helpful here - they could surely package something up that could download the latest bios and install it with a minimal DOS bootable system on a USB stick.)

    Of course, if the hardware sensors simply aren't there, there's a problem...
     
    rachel, Aug 13, 2008
    #90
  11. obarriel

    casainho

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    Maybe because that program used to flash the BIOS is not made by Acer but by some other company... BIOS and tools for it were not developed for sure by Acer, so, we must work with available tools.

    People is reporting that after latest BIOS update, the fan is always on... I will try to go back, using older BIOS files shared here.

    I believe that sensors are there, maybe just the firmware on EC controller is not finished...
     
    casainho, Aug 13, 2008
    #91
  12. obarriel

    rachel

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    I found the fan was always on with the original bios that was in mine; I updated it and... yes, it's still on all the time with the latest, but at least it seems a bit more prepared to step *down* from the higher fan speeds when activity drops.
     
    rachel, Aug 14, 2008
    #92
  13. obarriel

    Frojd

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    I've measured temperatures of the Atom using RealTemp in Vista, and I can say that it's probably not the CPU that's gonna overheat without the fan.
    On maximum stress the temperature of the Atom reached 52*C (~30 min runtime) and at Idle it stays around 38*C. I seem to have been lucky with the fan as mine doesn't make much noise at all at the lowest speed, which is where it runs almost all of the time. During the CPU-stress i don't even think it speed up to max (when it does though, it's not very pleasant...). I have found no app which can read the fan speed or other sensors on the mainboard.
     
    Frojd, Aug 14, 2008
    #93
  14. obarriel

    rachel

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    So, an idea seems to be to fit a little preset potentiometer onto the fan lead - if the potentiometer itself could be physically sited so it's accessible by opening the 3G hatch on the bottom that would be perfect.

    I've tried to read up on the electrics though and it just confuses the hell out of me. It looks rational, but can someone who understands such things figure out what spec of potentiometer to get and how to connect it (what should be soldered to what) I could give it a go maybe...

    There doesn't seem to be a pre-made product to do this job - the zalman fan speed controller seems closest, but has the wrong size connectors and works with the wrong voltage (and is physically enormous).
     
    rachel, Aug 14, 2008
    #94
  15. obarriel

    glibdud

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    Are you talking about bypassing the built-in PWM control, or letting it work along with pot control? If the former, I think you'd just want to add the pot in between the positive lead of the fan and a 5V contact point somewhere on the mobo. As for value, if you have any normal resistors, insert different values until you can get a rough idea of what value is going to make the fan stop completely, and use a pot the next size up.

    If you want to use both voltage control and PWM control... I dunno, that could get a bit complex.

    (Note: I'm speaking pretty generically here... I don't actually own an A1 yet, so I can't directly contribute.)
     
    glibdud, Aug 14, 2008
    #95
  16. obarriel

    rachel

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    I did want that; so that it could still turn the fan under high activity. But the former would do. I don't have any resistors or anything for electrical work at the moment; I'm not actually into that sort of stuff I just wanna shut this damn fan up! :)

    Basically I think what I want is something equivalent to this: http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=206 but with the 5V 0.6W fan in the AA1, and with the tiny 3-pin connector it has. And nice and small so it can fit in the case. And if it's not too difficult to make (ie: there are clear instructions) I would give it a go...
     
    rachel, Aug 14, 2008
    #96
  17. obarriel

    electric0ant

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    i have also noticed that the fan is always on, its not that loud, I have left it on close to my pillow when i went to sleep last night and it wasn't disturbing.
    but I can hear it it I listen out for it.
    I have to agree that having the fan always on is going to drain the battery.
    I have also noticed that the CPU seems to be always clocked at 1.6GHz when i'm in XP, even when idling. I would have thought it would be clocked down.
    this might also be why the fan is always on.

    overall it still looks like these issues can be resolved with a BIOS update.
     
    electric0ant, Aug 14, 2008
    #97
  18. obarriel

    esaym

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    If my math is right, you would only need a 10ohm resistor to drop a 5 volt .6 watt load down to 4 volts
    http://www.cpemma.co.uk/diodes.html
    4 volts would really slow it down alot
     
    esaym, Aug 14, 2008
    #98
  19. obarriel

    rachel

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    You got one of the quieter ones then. :) I wonder if HDD models have a different fan (or are you running XP on the SDD model?) If it was that quiet I'd have been happy to live with it. There is no *way* I could sleep to this; it would be like having a wasp in the room. Distracting in a primal way. :)

    No, because in Linux it easily idles down to 800MHz and the fan still remains always on.

    And it just doesn't need it. Mine's been running over a day now with the fan blocked and it's quite happy... I've been using it too, in a typical-netbook way (occasional browse/email type behaviour), so it's not been idling all that time.

    Yes, very much so. Preferably to add thermal_zone and fan to the acpi implementation so we can bring all this into the domain of software control, where it should be.

    Text of the email I sent to acer about it earlier:

     
    rachel, Aug 14, 2008
    #99
  20. obarriel

    esaym

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    Well the good news is that I got my One today!

    The bad news is that it is completely silent so you guys are on your own! :D :p

    Yes the fan does fun always but this is the quietest laptop I have ever owned!
     
    esaym, Aug 14, 2008
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