On my Dell Vostro 200 (2.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB ram) there's very noticeable difference in fan noise (and thus fan speed?) between WinXP and Ubuntu 10.04. I'ts a dual boot setup, and the fans (or at least one of the fans?) make more noise when using the Linux install. Since I use Linux most of the time, it'd be nice if I could bring down the fan noise.
When booting the fans start running fast, as is expected, and gradually slow down, to end up at a reasonably low speed. When booting into WinXP I can hear the fans slow down in steps — this does not happen to the same extend in Ubuntu.
I've tried running 'fancontrol', but its config application (pwmconfig) tells me
/usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed
Any clues as to what else I can try to fix the problem? There don't appear to be any BIOS settings regarding fan speeds on this machine.
[Update]
So I opened up the case, turns out it's the fan on the GPU (ATI RV610 [Radeon HD 2400 XT]) that's making the noise.
Best Answer
I had loud fan noise too upon a new install of Linux Mint 13, an Ubuntu derivitive, but when I install the "additional drivers" in the form of the nvidia video driver, the fan speed goes back down to normal volume, i.e., I can hardly hear it now. Point being it's the video card fan and not the CPU fan. At least for me.