Deutsche Version
Dell Inspiron 8x00 DOS fan control utility
IMPORTANT NOTE:
By using this software you are drastically changing the behaviour of your machine. This may cause
severe damage to your computer, which will DEFINITELY NOT be covered by the warranty. SO YOU'RE USING THIS AT
YOUR VERY OWN RISK !
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT NOTE:
Don't turn off the fans when they were turned on by the machine's BIOS due to overheating. THIS WILL
DEFINITELY DAMAGE YOUR COMPUTER ! Though you have full fan control, you should only use this utility to
turn the fans on. ONLY TURN THE FANS OFF WHEN YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING !
I8KFAN.EXE (released 8. Sep. 2001) was the original command line utility for the Dell Inspiron 8x00 notebook. It's running under DOS and Windows 9x/ME and can be used to get complete control over both fans on the rear of the notebook. For an extended Windows GUI version look here.
You can download it here including the full source code (GPL). If you want to compile it yourself, you need the DiceRTE environment (until now only available in german).
On startup the program is expecting two arguments, which indicate the desired speed for the fans:
I8KFAN <inner fan speed> <outer fan speed>
You can insert the following values for the speed:
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | Turn the fan off |
| 1 | Set speed to slow |
| 2 | Set speed to high |
| - | Don't change the fan speed |
Examples:
I8KFAN 2 -Set speed of inner fan to high, don't change outer fan.
I8KFAN 1 1Set speed of both fans to slow.
I8KFAN - 0Turn off outer fan, don't change inner fan.
The fan control is based on the fan test of the Dell diagnostics software. I got that code by disassembling the Dell diagnostics software, because Dell was not willing to publish information on how to get control over the fans to prevent overheating. So the program uses "unofficial" Dell SMBIOS functions to control the fans.
© 2006 Christian Diefer
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Last Update: 22. May 2006