Laptop can't control fan speed after 16.04 upgrade

Question

While using 15.10, the fans on my ASUS ROG G501VW-BSI7N25 operated fine at various fan speeds. However, after upgrading to 16.04 it seems that it only has two options, minimum which is used for about 2 minutes after boot, then maximum until I shut the computer down. How can I fix my fan's speed control?

Solution 1

I had about the same problem but with the speed of my GPU's fan and all of them over all.I used this LMT program and it started running without any problems even when the laptop is on battery power!

Solution 2

I found the same issue with the fan when installing 16.04.1 in a new ASUS ROG G501VW. I was able to workaround it by adding "acpi_osi=!" to the kernel command line, as instructed here (I did not actually need any of the other parameters they mention).

More interestingly, flashing BIOS version 301 (can be found here) solved the issue with the fan completely, and I was able to remove "acpi_osi=!" option. My command line does not have any custom option any more.

Finally a couple more comments that can be useful when installing Ubuntu in this laptop:

• Do not insert the USB Ethernet adaptor that comes with the laptop while installing. That caused trouble in my case. It works fine after installation.
• For the moment nvidia propietary drivers are needed, otherwise you find surprises as not being able to shutdown and reboot the machine from Ubuntu. The drivers also allow to switch to Intel graphics to save power.
• 4k is great for the models that have it, although you will have to scale up things. Also, I found issues with emacs: scroll bar disappears unless you lower the resolution.

Comments

[Dante]

I had the same problem with 16.04. I installed Nvidia driver and it solved my problem. Also possible duplicate Fan noise in LG U460 in Ubuntu 16.04

[NotDisliked]

I installed the program, but I don't see what you tweaked to allow the fans to run without a problem.

[NotDisliked]

Scratch that, I rebooted and now the fans work as intended. Thanks so much!

[Krasi]

I have no idea what did the program changed on my laptop but its working much better in my case

[4xy]

This works for me, but don't forget to add hid devices to auto suspend black list github.com/rickysarraf/laptop-mode-tools/wiki/…

[Yash]

By adding acpi_osi=! to the grub file, my touchpad is not working.