Fanless Aspire One

rory said:
Any idea where we can get a replacement?
Would it need to replace the whole thing including all the metal bits, or just the fan itself? I'm not worried about warranty, it's a bit late for that...
Rory
Click to expand...

I have the second One and it has the same noise... No need to replace the fan in it because it has quality fan ( i posted the model type before) there is problem with the speed, we hope the next bios update will resolve it!
 
I bought a computer to work, not something to give me headaches!!

Lets find together a solution to this problem!! I can disassembly my AA1 if needed.
 
I think we should try to slow down the idle fan speed, and maybe speed up for a few seconds once in a while (every minute or so - at least it's not a monotone tone)

Why not make the fan produce some well known melodys compatible with it's frequency range (one melody a minute sould do it;) hum... maybe we could have some speedy music for high CPU load :)
 
mikexilva said:
I think we should try to slow down the idle fan speed, and maybe speed up for a few seconds once in a while (every minute or so - at least it's not a monotone tone)

Why not make the fan produce some well known melodys compatible with it's frequency range (one melody a minute sould do it;) hum... maybe we could have some speedy music for high CPU load :)
Click to expand...

lol love the idea
those running windows xp, surely ive seen a program that will control the cpu fan.
 
I have this idea: Can someone using original GNU/Linux say if fan is always turned on? -- Looks like to me that at GNU/Linux Ubuntu as I am using, the fan is always turned on and do not goes down due to some driver needed to embedded controller of it. The some was happening with Asus eee pc 701 until someone disassembled the assembly code on embedded controller (a kind of 8051) and made a Linux driver to it, after that fan speed could be controlled :-)

My idea: try to find in original GNU/Linux what drivers/modules are being used, that will help us to understand what driver for hardware.

Can some one post the results of "lsmod" command? (this will show the drivers/modules name).
 
I like everything about this laptop but the fan noise is annoying because it is a high-pitched noise not just blowing air sound. I tried changing the CPU frequency as noted above but it was already at 800MHz. Also the latest bios update changed nothing. I don't notice the fan in noisy environments though at work or in public so much.
Fan whine hurts my fillings.
 
The fan might be good quality, but it's sound reminds me the server's FAN's that also make this kind of noise (not just air flowing).
Could the whole problem be just related to the electric waveform used in PWM or the frequency itself resonating with the fan coild?
Is it the board that gives the pulses to the fan, or is the fan itself that controlls the pulses based on some reference.
Could be a ball bearing?

Someone asked for an lsmod, here it is:

[user@localhost ~]$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
aes 26368 1
fuse 26708 2
aufs 95956 3
wlan_tkip 8384 1
wlan_ccmp 4480 1
wlan_xauth 640 0
wlan_wep 3904 0
wlan_acl 2048 0
wlan_scan_sta 7232 1
fastoffdrv 768 0 [permanent]
pciehp 22232 0
pci_hotplug 7688 1 pciehp
cpufreq_conservative 3080 0
cpufreq_userspace 1388 0
cpufreq_powersave 640 0
cpufreq_stats 2256 0
cpufreq_ondemand 3532 1
acpi_cpufreq 3604 1
freq_table 1608 3 cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand,acpi_cpufreq
mspro_block 9860 0
mmc_block 5636 2
snd_hda_intel 268816 1
fmaud 142820 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_oss 20096 0
snd_seq_midi_event 3008 1 snd_seq_oss
uvcvideo 39752 0
snd_seq 27856 4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
compat_ioctl32 640 1 uvcvideo
videodev 20928 1 uvcvideo
snd_seq_device 3468 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
v4l1_compat 10500 2 uvcvideo,videodev
ath_pci 68320 0
sdhci 9292 0
ath_rate_atheros 23424 1 ath_pci
jmb38x_ms 4484 0
memstick 4292 2 mspro_block,jmb38x_ms
wlan 126744 9 wlan_tkip,wlan_ccmp,wlan_xauth,wlan_wep,wlan_acl,wlan_scan_sta,ath_pci,ath_rate_atheros
mmc_core 14852 2 mmc_block,sdhci
v4l2_common 10688 2 uvcvideo,videodev
rng_core 2180 0
ath_dfs 25796 1 ath_pci
ath_hal 147200 3 ath_pci,ath_rate_atheros
uhci_hcd 13644 0
snd_pcm_oss 26144 0
jmb38x_xd 3776 0
xd_card 18696 1 jmb38x_xd
flash_bd 5056 1 xd_card
snd_pcm 41028 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
r8101 16400 0
snd_timer 11012 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 4168 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_hwdep 3524 1 snd_hda_intel
thermal 8092 0
video 10896 0
backlight 1860 1 video
output 1280 1 video
ac 2116 0
processor 18624 2 acpi_cpufreq,thermal
battery 6472 0
button 3536 0
snd_mixer_oss 9856 2 snd_pcm_oss
snd 27172 9 snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep,snd_mixer_oss
soundcore 2976 2 snd
usb_storage 34656 0
ehci_hcd 20300 0
atkbd 8912 0
psmouse 13320 0
 
I'm using Linpus (been using Fedora since Core 3, so a mini laptop designed for an optimized version of Fedora is kind of a wet dream for me :p), and I've noticed a change of behavior in the fan since I updated the bios.

The previous behavior was :

Slow and quite silent > Quite noisy > Noisy
And it would go from Quite noisy to Noisy depending on the load.

Now it seems to behave a lot more actively... starting slow, or off, then varying in speed... I can actually hear it speeding up, slowing down etc... gradually.

But... once the fan reaches it's quite noisy state (which is seconds after boot) it never becomes quite silent or silent again.

I've already said it and I'll say it again, I'm very disappointed about that fan noise. I was hoping for a silent device, it was really important for me. But now, as it is, the aspire one is the noisiest of my computers (I also have a desktop computer and an Athlon 64 3000+ laptop).
 
Hello,

Instead of disconnecting the fan you may be able to solder a resistor to the fan. This way. It will get slightly less voltage.
Say the fan has speeds A,B,C,D . A being fastest D slowest.
What probably would happen it would take a little bit longer to spin up. Like previous speed D would happen only at previous heat levels of Speed C. So at previous heat stage of Speed A , would have a sound of Speed B. Slightly less sound at all levels. Hope that makes sense to at least most people.
This at least should be safer than fully disconnecting the fan.

Also remember the chipset in these things can draw a fair amount of power as well, it is not just the cpu that needs a little air to breath.
 
I'd just like to say that my One's fan sometimes comes on but the fan noise is barely noticeable. I can feel the fan blowing heat out of the unit so I know it's running. I use an Antec Minuet desktop at home, G4 mini at work, Sunfire X4100 (now that's noisy). The G4 mini is the quietest but the One is not much more. It is close enough to "fanless" quiet for me.
 
ph_leung said:
I'd just like to say that my One's fan sometimes comes on but the fan noise is barely noticeable. I can feel the fan blowing heat out of the unit so I know it's running. I use an Antec Minuet desktop at home, G4 mini at work, Sunfire X4100 (now that's noisy). The G4 mini is the quietest but the One is not much more. It is close enough to "fanless" quiet for me.
Click to expand...
Did you run the updates?
 
Mine was as noisy before the bios update. We have 4 notebooks here and this is the noisiest. Blowing would be fine but this persistent hum is annoying. Its pitch hurts my ears, I can only use this in noisy environments. Is there a way to control the fan speed? I am thinking on trying to replace the fan somehow because I really like this device.
 
People have replaced the fan with no real reduction in noise.
I'm crossing my fingers for the next bios update or a nice piece of Linpus friendly software to control fan speed.

Here I sit, outdoors, having a coffee in 6 degrees Celsius and the fan is still roaring away. Thankfully the noise of passing traffic is blocking it out.
You know something is wrong when traffic is soothing to your ears.
 
Yeah, I bought mine (linpus, 512MB, Samsung SSD) yesterday and I'm getting that annoying fan whine as well; it's pretty much constant after the machine's been on about a minute or so. Well, constant except for when it goes even faster/louder.

Unhappy. :-( Wish I'd seen this thread before I bought it. I expect I've blown the warranty (disassembled as far as the underside of the mainboard to add RAM and check out the fan assembly) so I need some kind of solution to this.

lm_sensors in Ubuntu doesn't seem able to detect any sensors. This makes software control of the fan a nonstarter until that's fixed. Anyone with Linpus still on theirs been able to see if their lm_sensors works? (bet it doesn't.)

I suspect this fan is just making that noise whatever speed it's running at; just at different pitches. Replacing the fan itself may be the best way if anyone can find a match that's silent. I noticed someone saying they did swap in a different one and it didn't help though. I *would* expect a different model fan to sound different though.

The people who tried disconnecting the fan entirely and finding that it shut down after a short period of use... Any idea if that shutdown was because it detected the fan wasn't running or if the cpu temperature had actually gone high enough to trigger a thermal protect? If the latter, maybe some kind of passive heatsink to replace or sit in the current fan assembly (the metal that actually goes over the CPU and mobo chipsets to the vent on the side) might be an option to pursue?
 
Just to add, none of my messing about made the slightest difference to the fan noise either way: it was as bad as it is now from a few seconds after i first turned it on.
 
Roark said:
People have replaced the fan with no real reduction in noise.
I'm crossing my fingers for the next bios update or a nice piece of Linpus friendly software to control fan speed.

Here I sit, outdoors, having a coffee in 6 degrees Celsius and the fan is still roaring away. Thankfully the noise of passing traffic is blocking it out.
You know something is wrong when traffic is soothing to your ears.
Click to expand...

Heh, that made me try something out.

I turned it on, and put it inside my fridge. (2 deg C according to the fridge's display.) Five minutes or so later I took it out. The fan was running, same speed, same noise as ever, even though the whole machine was cold to the touch, including directly under the CPU on the bottom, and the air vent next to the VGA socket.

Whatever metric is in that bios to determine fan behaviour, it doesn't seem to have much to do with temperature; and based on that, I think any cooling technique that depends on a sane response to temperature changes (like one of those notebook cooler-stands) isn't going to make a blind bit of difference.

I think at some point I'll try a test where I unplug the fan, see what happens, and see what happens in the fridge...

For comparison's sake, I'm using it now on a hard surface right in front of my Linux server; that machine has 3 120mm case fans, cpu fan, and six 3.5" hard drives all spinning away; and the aspire one is still the most intrusive noise in the room. (It's not the rush of air, it's the electronic whine...)
 
So the fan just runs all the time? No wonder the battery life is not as good as other models. Maybe stick some resistors or diodes inline with the fan to drop the voltage some? If mine is loud when I get it, I will definitely do that.
 
esaym said:
So the fan just runs all the time? No wonder the battery life is not as good as other models. Maybe stick some resistors or diodes inline with the fan to drop the voltage some? If mine is loud when I get it, I will definitely do that.
Click to expand...

I deeply suspect that'll only make the whine lower in pitch; it won't eliminate it. I'm basing that on the fact that when it first starts up I can hear the whine start right away, rising in pitch until it reaches the pitch it's normally at.
 
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