Fan does not work on HP nw8240 running Dapper

It sounds like this is a bug. Can you detect the notebook getting excessively hot as time goes on?

Just by touch. I installed the CPU temperature applet for Gnome and it was over 120 F, so I immediately shut down and booted in to Windows to post this. HP states that the safe operating range is between 32 and 95 degress with unusability at 140 F.

Just installed a monitor app for Windows and is reporting that the temp is currently 32 F and my laptop has been running for quite some time with XP loaded.

Looks like Bug 41249 might be your problem.

32F is literally freezing. That Windows app must be wrong. Typically, on-board sensors are quite inaccurate and useless, but it seems rather obvious from your response that there is a genuine heat problem.

Duh, did not even think of that, just caught up in trying to fix this. Funny thing though, that is in the operating range according to HP :O

After looking at 41249 I will check my kernel version and boot with noacpi and see if that fixes the issue. If it does, hopefully the real fix will find its way in to the build so I can re-enable acpi eventually.

Kernel version is 2.6.15-25-386, and I booted using noacpi, I will see if the fans come on. Given the error of the Windows sensor applet, is the Gnome one equally unreliable?

I really have no idea. It is possible that the gnome applet is just as inaccurate, but it seems it was more realistic. At any rate, you can almost always tell whether or not your laptop has a heat problem just by touch.

I know I am a noob, but how do you know what TZ maps to what device? I loaded the sensor-applet form univers and I have varying readings for each TZ in /prox/acpi. All are over 100F except for TZ3.

Did that bug report help you?

Yes and no. I am booting with noacpi but the fans still do not come on. I am going to do some more testing with the fan speeds and see at what setting the fan can be heard because the sensor-applet that I installed is show relatively low temps. The laptop does still feel warm under Linux, but I have been doing a comparison to Windows and it does not appear to be any worse than what XP is like after a few hours of running. Anyway, like I said, I ama noob, and maybe there is no problem at all. The Gnome sensors scared the h@#$ out of me when I saw them in the red, but perhaps I am just barking up the wrong tree. I will keep testing.

Thanks for the help, and I apologize if I have wasted your time....

Upon looking around, it seems I was mistaken. 120 F is around the temperature that fans kick in for some laptops, so it seems possible that Linux is taking longer to kick in (isn't this a HW thing though?). Also, I believe the "operating conditions" refer to the environment, not the computer itself. IOW, the ambient air temperature in the room.

Don't worry about wasting my time, it seems you have legitimate concern. If you do find a solution or decide one isn't needed, please close the support request.

Thanks for trying to make Ubuntu that much better on laptops!