acertimeline team mailing list archive

[Burkhard Ritter <burkhard@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim wrote:
> I re-read your post and realized I might experience the same noise. The
> pitch of the whoosh increases slightly whenever the hard drive is
> accessed in short bursts.
>
> Hey, also, have you used the machine in Windows and do you get the same
> results?
>
> Sorry I should have read your post better the first time.
>
> Jim

Jose Baeza Noci wrote:
> I have a 5810TG-dual core (9400) and would not say the fan is noisy at
> all!!
>
> Jose

Tuukka Hastrup wrote:
> Are you sure you have the ATI switched off when using the Intel?
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/435906
>
> Also, does the fan slow down as it should when you unplug the AC
> adapter? In any case, you should check the power usage with powertop
> to get an idea of the amount of heat produced. A 3810t owner should
> be able to give you a reference for how many Watts is normal.


I have to clarify, the behaviour that I described in my first mail was 
with Windows 7 running on AC. However, I can't reproduce that behaviour 
now; I still get it when running Windows on batteries - the fan is 
running pretty quietly but spins faster every few seconds for a very 
short time. Running Windows on AC the fan's very well audible all of the 
time. Still on Windows it doesn't matter which graphics card I'm using 
(it also doesn't matter whether the BIOS setting is switchable or discrete).

Behaviour with Ubuntu is pretty much the same. Acceptable quiet when 
running on batteries (but still the fan is running all the time), 
without the bursts I've seen on Windows. Pretty noisy when on AC. This 
is with the proprietary ATI driver. For whatever reason this Ubuntu 
(residing on an USB stick) won't even boot properly now when the BIOS is 
set to switchabel graphics. I suspect that this happened after 
installing the flgrx driver.

CPU temperature reported by `sensors` is a very cool 29 degrees Celsius 
right now, the maximum I've seen is 39. Power consumption reported by 
powertop is somewhere between 12 and 15 Watts.

Lastly, what Bios version do you have? This here is 1.14, the latest 
available from the website is 1.10 and I've read at ubuntuforums.org 
that with the newer versions the fan spins up more often. I'm reluctant 
of downgrading the Bios as it seems that I can't go back to 1.14 afterwards.

As it is I'm at the point of giving up and returning the laptop. The 
situation is still not clear to me. It seems that users with models 
without an ATI card are definitely not experiencing this issue.
I'm not so sure about models with these ATI cards, might be related to 
Bios version. I'll call Acer support and see if they can offer any 
advice, although I'm not too optimistic about this.

Burkhard