Controlling PWM fan on Lenovo TS140 mobo

Just moved my Lenovo TS140 motherboard into a larger case for more HDD space, and bought a 120mm PWM fan to replace the 92mm that comes with TS140(the new case has 120mm mounting only). The new fan is significantly louder due to running at almost full speed when it’s definitely not needed. Is there a way to control the fan speed? I tried googling around, and most people suggest lm-sensor, but I can’t find any information that resembles what people are seeing. Might be some proprietary Lenovo stuff? Any suggestions?

@hxdai I’m afraid I have been remiss in my duties so here is the obligatory and in your case very belated “Welcome to the Rockstor community”. Sorry but we all seem to have missed this greeting so better late than never.

All I can chip in here is that lm-sensors does first have to be configured before it can offer up it’s various services, one of which being the fan control on some but not all motherboards. I don’t have any specifics to this hardware though. I believe later versions have a build in interactive script that one runs after first install and then it’s able to, in a good few cases anyway, offer up usefully labelled info and where compatible hardware is found some ability to control the fans.

What have you tried so far?

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Thanks Philip.

I agree that lm-sensors needs to be configured, what I tried was to have lm-sensor scan my hardware and see what it recognizes. After following its course, it reports finding a couple of CPU temp sensors(i3-4130), and a “virtual device” which I can’t tell what it is. I’ll post output from lm-sensors when I got home.

I also came up with this theory regarding fan running full-speed: Different fans have different RPM ranges, and my guess is that the BIOS has code built for OEM fan(“run it at 2000RPM when temperature is between 30-40c”). I looked up the RPM range of OEM fan and my replacement fan, turns out the OEM fan has a RPM range of 1800-3800 RPM, while the replacement fan has a max RPM of 1100 RPM. Therefore, the BIOS will try ramping up the fan to 2000 RPM by increasing PWM control, but the feedback reading never goes above 110 0RPM, BIOS keeps trying until the fan hits 100% running.

This is what I get when having lm_sensor scan my system, using all default setting(i.e. hit “enter” all the way):

[root@hxdai-server ~]# sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +27.8°C  (crit = +105.0°C)
temp2:        +29.8°C  (crit = +105.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +32.0°C  (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:         +29.0°C  (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:         +32.0°C  (high = +80.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)