Acer Aspire One - First Impressions

Hi All,

I received my Aspire One yesterday and overall I like it but there is one thing that really bigs the hell out of me - the fan noise!

When I first started it up it was silent (for about 2 minutes) but then an incredibely nerve-racking fan noise became audible. Now I'm not a complete newbie to Linux, but it's been a few years since I've used it and I'm a little rustry wrt the command line.

Anway after trying to use the script to reduce fan noise I was stumped with trying to get the files needed to the location as is described in the script: Can anyone tell me how to access the usr/local via a graphical interface. This isn't a problem in Ubuntu, but Linpus apparently doesn't want you to get that close to the system. The directions on how to install the fan control inlcude downloading a file to the usr/local/ folder, but there's now way to direct the file to it. Also: Linpus didn't let me install the Nautilus file manager.

In the end I installed Windows XP. That's not what I wanted as I'm sick of it (that's why I bought the Acer and not the fanless Dell). But at least I was able to disable that POS fan with it.

 

Have you considered replacing the AAO? I keep reading about people complaining about fan noise and mine is not annoying at all. Isn't this a hardware/manufacturing problem? Surely throwing software at the problem isn't the answer.

Had you left Linpus on your system and come here for help on how to do such trivial things as copying files to system directories, you would have gotten help immediately. No point in trying to educate you about Linux if you've got XP on it now, is there?

Cheers.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.
Sorry if I didn't make myself clear enough: My goal is to install only Linpus Light on my Acer Aspire One: after all, it was made for the system and runs pefectly. I just need the netbook for surfing the internet, Skype, a bit of IM and word processing.

The only reason I have XP on there now because I simply couldn't take the fan noise anymore. My plan was to put Ubuntu (dual boot) on there and try to deactivate the fan in Ubuntu if I don't find a way to access the usr/local/bin folder to place the perl script in. Do you know how to do this becasue I am very much interested in knowing how.

Some might not object to the fan noise themselves, but this forum is full of people who do and one reason I was so excited about getting an SSD-based netbook was to have a silent system. But the fan in the Apspire One 110 is much worse than a spinning hard drive.

 

sorry to hear about yr noise-problem. mine is pretty quiet though, and it seems, acer are having problems with their production lines...

cheers
cf

 

You just need root permission. Get a terminal open and do `sudo su' and you're set (at least for command-line operation).

But if you turn the fan off, the unit will overheat. It could probably run a bit warmer than the default, but unless you throttle the CPU, you're taking a risk by turning the fan off altogether. I really don't think the AA1 is designed for fully fanless operation.

 

Thanks Kevin. I have in fact accessed the usr folder via the terminal before but I guess I've just forgotten how to get a file from the internet to the usr/local/bin folder via the command line.

It's this portion -

"-Place acer_ec.pl and acerfand in /usr/local/bin, marking them as executable
-Add a call to acerfand from /etc/rc.local"
(from http://the.taoofmac.com/media/Acer/Aspire One/AA1notes.html)

- that I have problems with as, I've mentioned above, the GUI doesn't let you access the usr/local/bin folder directly.
So maybe you can help me with step-by-step instructions. I could then post them as a guide for others who want a noiseless system.

1. download acer_ec.pl and acerfand to the "downloads" folder.
2. Go to the terminal as root and transfer acer_ec.pl from the "downloads" folder to usr/local/bin (via mv command???)
3. (In the terminal as root) transfer acerfand from /etc/rc.local to etc/rc.local.

WRT the system shutting down because of overheating: I've been using the AAO with Windows XP and the fan software I got off of this forum for a several hours and I haven't any problems. It seems to me that ACER just wanted to play it safe with the cooling. Dell's Mini has almost the same hardware and makes do without a fan so I don't see why the AAO shouldn't be able to do the same. Of course I'm not running some 3D game. That might indeed overheat the system!

 

Have you tried updating your BIOS ?

 

No it won't. The acerfand script kills the fan unless the machine is under load. Office apps and internet use my fan stays off. Multimedia and games it switches on and off as needed.

OP I no longer run the default os, I'm using onelinux (much better) I can't remember if the default filemanager is nautilus or thunar but all you need to do is type:

sudo nautilus

or

sudo thunar

in a terminal to get a graphical file manager with admin rights. It should be easy to copy and edit files from there.

 

There's no magic here: if you have the fan on less, then CPU will run hotter. This is just physics -- there is no magic tweak to stop this happening.

The CPU may be able to tolerate the extra heat. Turning the fan off completely when the machine is lightly loaded may mean that the CPU runs at, say, 55C on average rather than 45C. Is this a problem? I don't know, but my gut feeling is that manufacturers have probably thought quite carefully about the optimal temperature to run at. Mucky about with the fan just doesn't seem worth the risk to me, unless you're prepared to throttle the CPU clock speed to keep the temperature in the design limits.

 

Kev, I don't know if it's correct or not but I've heard it said that the Atom was designed as a fanless cpu from the getgo and that the graphics chip in the AAO is more of an issue regards heat generation. Whatever, I have been messing around with computers for much longer than I care to remember, I know what a flaky system is like. Both of my AAOs perform faultlessly for hours and hours with the modified fan settings. Anyhow, if the worst were to happen, it's only £250 for a replacement - I've eaten more than that at a single sitting before now .

 

Thanks Arcflup. Linpus light uses thunar as its default filemanager, it didn't even let me install nautilus for some reason. Does "sudo thunbar" work for Linpus Light as well or just for OneLinux (I assume you meant LL, but I just want to be certain before I wipe my Windows installation!).

I'd try OneLinux, but after reading the following on the website, I don't think I should try it with my very limited knowledge of Linux:

"Where can I download it?
You can't. Don't call me asking for an .ISO, since there is a README file at the download directory explaining there are no downloads available.
But I want! I want it!
Why would you want to download 700MB of something that doesn't work? Something that doesn't even boot?! There is a reason I'm not making images available for download. They are not stable to be used!"

It looks like you made something work that doesn't ;-)

 

Thunar is, I believe, the default Linpus light filemanager. In Onelinux it is Nautilus although I have the Kubuntu desktop running on it so I use Konqueror.

Onelinux is very promising but still in alpha. There was a lot of interest in it and the developer wasn't the best communicator in the world. He got swamped with impatient requests/demands for updated versions. The last release was broken so he took it down. Apparently he lost all of his development work so presumably has to start over from scratch. Quite why he hasn't posted the most up to date alpha (that I am running very well) for download I don't know. Other than having to install it two or three times before it picked my wireless up (no biggy) it's been great. I don't think the sd slots are working as they should but I don't use them anyway and the speakers don't mute when the headphones are plugged in, again no biggy, other than that great with KDE 3.5 installed.

Looks like we'll just have to wait for the next release.

I found that linpus worked well out of the box but is very limited. As soon as I activated advanced mode and started adding other software it got flaky very quick. Both of my AAOs would hang at reboot necessitating a hard power off. They would usually recover but eventually both corrupted the os and got stuck in loops so I installed onelinux.

 

Well, yes -- the AAO isn't phenomenally expensive, and I can see why you might want to take the risk of shortening its service life in return for quiet operation. My worry is that people think they can get a quieter operation with _no_ adverse consequences, and I'm not really sure you can.

I find that on my AAO, web browsing and word processing (i.e., light work) with the fan running normally tends to show the CPU temperature at around 55C (if the BIOS registers are to be trusted). Operations like starting new, substantial apps cause the temperature to zip up quite a bit -- as much as 10C, but it sons comes down again with the fan running. In my tests, the temperature only ever drops much below about 50C when the machine is completely idle.

So it seems to me that the only way you're going to have the AAO quieter in operation is to allow the temperature to average at somewhat more that 55C or thereabouts. I've seen people suggesting 65C or even 70C, which is within tolerance of the CPU, but it's still fairly warm. To be fair, if the AAO sits on you desk not doing much most of the time, then probably the temperature will settle at around 50C even with the fan off -- in that case there may be no problem. But I'm assuming people actually _use_ the thing

I really have no idea of the long term consequences of the CPU running at around 65 (or 70) rather than 55 or so. They may be insignificant, for all I know. But, if they are, then why has the vendor decided on a fan policy that means that the CPU tends to run at about 55C (rather than 60 or 65 or whatever)?

But that isn't my only concern...

1, As other people have pointed out, it might not be the CPU which we should be worried about. When the CPU is at 60C, what is the rest of the system doing? Maybe the difference between 55 and 65C on the CPU corresponds to a difference between 70 and 90 on the graphics chip? Of course, that's guesswork, but I have to wonder why the designers chose the temperature limits they did.

2. These fan control scripts generally rely on undocumented BIOS registers, whose values may not even be meaningful on the AAO. When the temperature appears to be 55C, perhps it is really 65? (Or 45, of course; who knows?)

3. What happens if this script turns off the fan and then crashes, or is accidentally stopped? Is the script really reliable enough to cope with all situations? What if there is a sudden increase in load that takes attetion away from the script, to the extent that it is not able to switch the fan on quickly?

4. The standard fan policy is to run the fan at varying speeds for quite a lot of the time. This seems to keep the temperature relatively constant. But if your fan control script allows the temperature to swing back and forth in, say, a 20C range, is that good for the components?

I suppose if you found the fan noise really objectionable, you might be willing to take these risks. Personally, I rarely use the AAO in an environment in which I can hear the fan at all, so the risks outweigh the benefits for me.