Alienware Area-51 ALX upgrade

the AAWC thermal controls are not adjusting the system fan according to CPU temp.  1179-1183 rpm no matter the temp.

lets see.

CPU gets hots.. CPU and motherboard know that.  They should tell the CPU fan to speed up.  The daughterboard captures this information and passes it on.  CPU radiator fan speeds up.

Somere where in this chain there is a failure.

I should be able to bypass the daughter board go right to the motherboard CPU fan 1 header with the radaitor fan.  they are both 4 pin standard pins as far as i can tell.

Windows as no affect over the hardware's performance while running the self-bootable Dell 32-bit Diagnostics. It has it's own OS and drivers. If all components are detected and pass individual "exercising" and testing ... you DO NOT have a hardware problem. That is the beauty of having this tool. This custom diag-tool only works on Area51-R1 and Aurora R1-R2.

Elfiwolfe wrote:

the AAWC thermal controls are not adjusting the system fan according to CPU temp.  1179-1183 rpm no matter the temp.

lets see.

CPU gets hots.. CPU and motherboard know that.  They should tell the CPU fan to speed up.  The daughterboard captures this information and passes it on.  CPU radiator fan speeds up.

Somere where in this chain there is a failure.

 

Just so you know ... the radiator fan doesn't speed up until the CPU gets kinda hot. However, it should hold the CPU's temp under about 75c. At least, that's how it works on my Aurora-R1, which is a similar MIO-Board, stock Asetek Liquid-Cooler, and general arrangement.

.. and I should check the physical layer first as well.

Ie wire from motherboard to ? then to GPUFAN board then to fan.

Fan runs so GPUfan board to fan is there.. just need to check the cable from motherboard to ?

Now you know why i'm having problems.  Hardware passes  but in windows 10 the daughterboard is not changing the radaitor fan speed.  I'm trying to figure out why.  As soon as this KB4019472 is installed i'm going to reboot from the build dvd and try the test again.

You said above "Liquid cooling passed" in Dell 32bit Diagnostics. That should test the pump, radiator fan, and ability of the system to cool the CPU under heavy loads.
 
Hard to understand how it could not be working in Windows, unless your drivers are screwy.  

I have less problems with the servers at work.

This appears to be a control issue.  but where is the control failing at?  physical layer between the motherboard CPU fan header and the fan?  MIO control. AAWC control of the MIO.

MIO can see the fan, and gets back the speed.

tech is micro pulse so if the MIO does not get info from the cpu header. the fan should go to max speed  but it does not (mistaken assumption?)

or does the mio assume if no pulse to go to stock speed?

The Asetek-designed main-processor (CPU) liquid-cooler, sensors, lights, and extra case fans are all controlled by the MIO-Board. The MIO-Board is a separate "machine" or micro-controller. It runs it's own programs independently ... sort-of like a mother-board your might find inside a router or a printer. This explains why users seem to think it has a "mind-of-its-own" because, well ... it does.

Again, you can test the MIO-Board (and all its attached components like Asetek liquid-cooler, fans, lights, etc.) from Dell 32bit Hardware Diagnostics (outside of Windows).
https://community.dell.com/thread/3125

If all components are detected and pass individual "exercising" and testing ... you DO NOT have a hardware problem. If it doesn't work in Windows, you have a driver or Windows problem. A careful clean-Windows install might fix it. There are a few tricks to help insure it turns-out working. It's been reported that disconnecting the MIO-Board's connection to motherboard (at USB-header) during initial Windows install, First-Time-Setup, and core drivers sometimes helps. Toward the very end of build-up, shut-down, reconnect MIO-Board, power-up and let it detect, dissipate flea, then clean-install the proper Alienware Command Center.

Since you have an Area51-R1, running Win10-64bit, did you must use AWCC v2.8.11.0 . According to mine and others testing, it must be this exact version. Must be installed in Windows-8 Compatibility Mode (this version just barely supports Win-8/64bit). Must set Thermal Controller to auto-start with Windows with it's options set to Manual Thermal Control, and manual Curves for fans shown.

Reboot and dissipate the flea-power every chance you get during clean-install of the AW-CC driver/app suite.

The radiator fan's PWM speed control is over SMB (SMBus ... similar to I2C) like any other PC fan control on any motherboard. In this case, that control just "passes through" the MIO-Board and smaller daughter board. This is because there are other fans and lights to control, which the MIO-Board does. So, these other signals stop at MIO-Board, while the radiator's fan control must just "pass-thru" to the fan itself. That is my understanding of how it works. For much more explanation than that, you will have to ask the Aliens that designed and built it years long ago.

Newer Alienware desktops use a totally different architecture. There is a very simple MIO-Board. Really, just a PCB of header connectors, with maybe just a single micro-controller. Most of the MIO-Board higher functions are then "virtualized" and run with the power of the main processor. Again, that is just my understanding. I didn't design or build it. Much of how this all works is confidential Dell/Alienware proprietary information.

Using the dell boot diag disk.

/bangs head on keyboard.

FIX: Was to unplug the cables and plug back in.  Dust or spot corrosion on the pin.

Unplugged and plugged fan cable into fan controller CPU fan header.

Unplugged and plugged mio fan cable on motherboard CPU fan header.

It was physical layer issue.

Good work. That is good news.

Yes, "re-seating" cards and connectors can really fix stuff ... it's a real thing. It's called a "bad connection".

Still easier to fix than swapping a board or part. I welcome those kind of easy fixes.