[arch-general] Laptop cooling fan does not work

[Martin Kühne]

I just set up some other distro on an IBM laptop, and I noticed that
when I set up the x86 variant, I had very considerable heat problems,
while when I swiched to x86_64, which was just after I acknowledged
that I had the lm flag in /proc/cpuinfo, the temperature issue went
away completely. Whether this would be the same with arch's kernels I
cannot say for certain, though. I also blew through the cooling fan in
the "accelerating" direction, which made the thing cough up some dust
at some point and appeared to run more smoothly afterwards.

It could be that, in the end, these things can be tied to a kernel config thing?
Usually, you might get the necessary hints from lspci and/or, as has
been suggested, detect-sensors.

To sum it up:
· check if your pacman's arch actually matches your cpu. if you have
lm in your /proc/cpuinfo, you should use the x86_64 kernel.
· check for hardware obstruction, dust, correct montage of fan or cooling grill

cheers!
mar77i