Samsung X series – fan is on permanently on AC power.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Fri May 20, 2005 11:43 am

I’ve been looking for a new laptop recently and was seduced by a couple of Samsung X series models, X30 & X15+. Unfortunately, their fan is on permanently when on AC power, even if you use SpeedswitchXP or other methods to enable Speedstep when running on mains. There could be a software solution our there of course….

JanW · Post by **JanW** » Sat May 21, 2005 3:16 pm

I don't know about The X15 or X30, but I just bought an X20, and the fan is not always on. The fan is teperature controlled, in two modes: "standard" and "etiquette". Undervolting the CPU and running Prime torture test, the fan remains off for CPU frequencies up to 1GHz, switches on/off intermittently (in a very slow and unobtrusive cycle) from 1.2-1.47 GHZ and stays on (at its lowest speed) at 1.6GHz.

Controlling the fan by software failed for me, though. Speedfan doesn't recognize the M/B.

smilingcrow · Post by **smilingcrow** » Sun May 22, 2005 1:24 am

I tried Speedfan but it didn't recognise any devices.
The fans were temp controlled when running from battery, but not when running from mains!

JanW · Post by **JanW** » Sun May 22, 2005 1:41 am

For my X20 the behaviour of the fans does not depend on the power source at all.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 5:55 am

The Samsung website says AC+X30 = fan always on.

Been looking at these because I'm considering getting one. Maybe its because the X30 is a discontinued model?

Anyone know of any 3rd party utilities?

JanW · Post by **JanW** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:56 am

I tried Centrino Hardware Control, and it doesn't allow me to control the fan on my X20. Fortunately the fan is very unobtrusive in the silent mode already. I haven't tried the newer beta version of this program (now called Notebook Hardware Control).

ibear · Post by **ibear** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 4:11 pm

it seems that this is a bios issue.
it can be fixed by a bios "downgrade"
i suggest that you contact samsung for a "downgrade"

JanW · Post by **JanW** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:42 am

Thanks for the hint, ibear, but I don't think I'll go throught the trouble of changing the BIOS, especially downgrading it. The noise is just not cumbersome enough, it's really quite unobtrusive with the undervolted CPU. It could maybe become an issue if I were using it a lot at home (and if I got around to silencing my second rig which has been waiting for a year now)---but I mainly use the laptop in loud places (train/work) anyway.