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Fan Control for Mac Pro ( NOT MBP )

Thats not a bad idea at all.

The top intake fan has no affect on cpu or memory temps. It would only cool the HDs, motherboard and PCIe cards.

You might be able to key it off of the installed HDs smart temp or the expansion slots temp though i'm not sure what the expansion slots temp is actually reporting.

It would also make sense to key the Power supply fan off the PS temps instead of following the other fans as it currently does.

I would be hessitant to let someone mix and match fan and sensor willy nilly. I would hate to see someone accidentally trying to cool the cpu with the cpu fan using a HD temp.

The only fan that i think has options available to it is the top intake fan. I would think keying it off of the PS, HD, expansion slots, or CPU temp would make sense.
 
davepk said:
I would be hessitant to let someone mix and match fan and sensor willy nilly. I would hate to see someone accidentally trying to cool the cpu with the cpu fan using a HD temp.
Click to expand...
On second thought, I agree with that. Only allow certain ties:
-top front fan to HDs or expansion slot temp
-PS fan to PS or HD or expansion slot temp
-bottom front fan to CPU only
-bottom rear fan to CPU or memory

Is that reasonable?
 
Oh, I have a question. What happens if this code bombs out at some point? Say I leave the machine running a CPU intensive task overnight. Will the machine maintain at least it's default fan/temp curve or is it in trouble?
 
"uninstall"

is there a way to remove any affect of Fan Control which i installed? since instalation, the fans dont fall under 4800 rpm no matter what settings i apply.. since i recently got I-Lap i want to go back to "dead quiet" MBP..

so, how to put the MBP to the "original" fan speed settings - how to remove the fan control from sistem..?

thanks!!


davepk said:
After following this thread > http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=734247&tstart=0 < for awhile i became concerned that the hard drives (5 of them) in my MP where running too hot (well above 40C).

So i decided to download and try out the following utility > http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/index.html <.

Unfortunately, it didnt detect the CPU core temps correctly nor did it let you set the fan RPMs below 1000. Being unable to detect the cpu temps meant that it couldnt respond to high load/temp conditions and thus required you to run all the time at a rpm that was sufficient for a high load condition.

Fortunately, it came with source code and I was able to make some changes to it so that it worked better (not perfect) with my Mac Pro.

I've attached the modified source code for anyone who might be interested in building this util for themselves.

The changes i made are as follows...

Base speed minimum value is now 700rpm
Default Base speed is now 1000rpm
Lower Threshold minimum value is now 25C
Default Lower Threshold is now 25C
Upper Threshold minimum value is now 25C
Default Upper Threshold is now 50C
reported temp is the higher of the 2 heat sink temps.

When i attempted to use what appeared to be the SMC CPU temp keys the values reported where higher than expected and fluctuated in unexpected ways. That lead me to believe i either had the wrong keys or the value decoding was in error or some filtering was in order.

I then looked at the values reported by the SMC heat sink keys and they matched perfectly the values reported by "Temperature Monitor" so i decided to use them instead.

Installation...
Build the attached source code.
Download and install Fan Control 1.1 from Lobomoto from the link above.
replace the installed "Fan Control.prefPane" with the newly built version.
Stop FanControlDaemon from activity monitor if one is running.
replace the installed "FanControlDaemon" with the newly built version.
/Library/StartupItems/FanControlDaemon/FanControlDaemon start
goto systempreferences/FanControl and make changes to the setting as desired.

With this util running on my MP (2.0GHz, 6BG, 5 hard drives internal) 25C abient temps running Seti@Home http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/index.php with all 4 CPUs pegged at 100%.
I get the follwing temps reported by "Temperature Monitor"
CPU A Heatsink: 29C
CPU B Heatsink: 29C
CPU Core 1: 34C
CPU Core 2: 34C
CPU Core 3: 35C
CPU Core 4: 35C
Memory Modules varied between 44C - 48C
HD Smart varied between 32C - 38C

I hope this helps some of you...

But be carefull, There is more than enough rope here to hang yourself (kill your new computer).

Dave Kennedy
Click to expand...
 
quepao said:
is there a way to remove any affect of Fan Control which i installed? since instalation, the fans dont fall under 4800 rpm no matter what settings i apply.. since i recently got I-Lap i want to go back to "dead quiet" MBP..

so, how to put the MBP to the "original" fan speed settings - how to remove the fan control from sistem..?

thanks!!
Click to expand...

You do know that this thread is about the Mac Pro modified version? did you install the version from this thread? if so thats why its like that. But all you need to do is kill the process from activity monitor and remove it from startup items and preference panes in library. Then either sleep then come out, or restart.
 
actualy it's a non modified version.. but on the lobomoto site there is no faq or anything about uninstalation.. searching on this topic, point me to this forum.

so, i killed the process, removed the control fan from the preference panes in library and startup. i guess this is it? reboot and im back 2 "normal" ? :)

please tell me, what should be the normal fan speed rpm if computer is not doing anything cpu intensive? I remember, the cpu heat was 85 degrees celsium on idle state, when the fans were "dead quiet". Is this normal?

thank you!

trainguy77 said:
You do know that this thread is about the Mac Pro modified version? did you install the version from this thread? if so thats why its like that. But all you need to do is kill the process from activity monitor and remove it from startup items and preference panes in library. Then either sleep then come out, or restart.
Click to expand...
 
I made an uninstaller for my purposes. Here you go.
 

Attachments

  • UninstallFanControl.zip
    901 bytes · Views: 580
royalassassin said:
im having trouble using your program it wont let me type my password in. how do i do this
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the uninstaller? What do you mean by won't let you type the password in? Maybe you need an administrator type account for this.
 
I have my 2 x 2Ghz MP set to a 900RPM base speed with the lower threshold at 29C and upper threshold at 55C with the ambient temp at 24C.

This has worked great for the last several months and i havent touched the setting in that time.

If you work in an especially quite environment then you may want to lower the base speed to keep the machine dead quite when not in heavy use. Though, even at 900 mine is pretty darn quite and rarely moves above that speed even under load.
 
davepk said:
I have my 2 x 2Ghz MP set to a 900RPM base speed with the lower threshold at 29C and upper threshold at 55C with the ambient temp at 24C.

This has worked great for the last several months and i havent touched the setting in that time.

If you work in an especially quite environment then you may want to lower the base speed to keep the machine dead quite when not in heavy use. Though, even at 900 mine is pretty darn quite and rarely moves above that speed even under load.
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll give that a try. Thanks.
 
FanControl with Leopard

Hey guys,

Did anyone get FanControlDeamon run with Leopard!

If I start the Deamon in the Terminal I get this error message a several times:

Break on __THE_PROCESS_HAS_FORKED_AND_YOU_CANNOT_USE_THIS_COREFOUNDATION_FUNCTIONALITY___YOU_MUST_EXEC__() to debug.
The process has forked and you cannot use this CoreFoundation functionality safely. You MUST exec().
 
mclane said:
Hey guys,

Did anyone get FanControlDeamon run with Leopard!

If I start the Deamon in the Terminal I get this error message a several times:

Break on __THE_PROCESS_HAS_FORKED_AND_YOU_CANNOT_USE_THIS_COREFOUNDATION_FUNCTIONALITY___YOU_MUST_EXEC__() to debug.
The process has forked and you cannot use this CoreFoundation functionality safely. You MUST exec().
Click to expand...

that disappointing...but i probably won't get my copy of leopard until monday...for some reason it wasn't delivered.
 
I suspect a recompile of the project will be needed at a minimum to get this to work in Leopard.

However, it may require more than that.

I'm holding off installing Leopard till i get a better idea of what apps work and dont work etc.

If any of you decide to rebuild the project let us know how it works out.
 
FanControlDeamon failed to run

Hi all.

One question:

- If you have a functional FanConrol Version, do you see the FanControlDeamon in the Activities Window?

I reinstalled Tiger and tried to install FanControl. I used my previous files which worked perfekt but I got the same errors while starting the deamon like under Leopard.

So I think the point is to get the deamon running. Do you have any idea what else I can try?
 
Here is the most recent build of FanControl for MacPro.

Thanks to Lobotomo for their recent release of Fan Control 1.2 along with the source code. http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/index.html

With it i was able to update my customized version of Fan Control and it now works with Leopard.

As before you should download and install Lobotomo Fan Control 1.2

Then use activity monitor to quit FanControlDaemon

Then replace the two files below with the new files contained in the zip.
/Library/PreferencePanes/Fan Control.prefPane
/Library/StartupItems/FanControlDaemon

Then open up terminal and issue the following command

sudo /Library/StartupItems/FanControlDaemon/FanControlDaemon start


It will ask you for your password, enter it. It wil restart the FanControl Deamon and at that point it should be working as before.

Bring up System Preferences and double check your fan settings.

I have mine set as follows...

Base Speed 900
Lower Threshold 29c
Upper Threshold 55c

This version has the Power Supply and Rear Exhaust fan operating at the base speed plus 200rpm.
 

Attachments

  • FanControl.zip
    78.9 KB · Views: 1,239
For those interested in the source code, here it is...
 

Attachments

  • Source Code.zip
    103.5 KB · Views: 314
Thanks very much!

Hey guys,

thanks a lot! That's what I needed! I tried SMCFanControl but that's nothing to this fancontrol!!
 
Just wanted to say thanks guys. I've been really concerned about the high temperatures of my new Intel Mac Pro. With the default Apple fan control profile I was seeing north bridge temperatures above 80 degrees C and PSU and memory module temperatures often in the high 70s, always with light CPU load. Under heavy CPU load the fans kicked in and although CPU temperatures rose markedly, the north bridge and RAM temperatures usually fell a little because of the improved air flow!

The fan control solution here works a treat. Now I seldom see temperatures above the mid-60s for any components and any load, except the CPU chip temperatures which do go a tad higher under sustained full-load use. I've managed to shed between 10 and 20 degrees from key components and this with surprisingly little increase in fan speed or noise levels! Any idea whether it is possible to monitor the GPU temperature? (I have the ATi X1900 graphics card.)

Thanks
 
I have to agree. I thought my fan must have been broken, could never hear it and my ram and heatsink upto 80 deg C. Now around 55C.
Thanks:)
 
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