Optiplex 5050 can start with fan states at 3 3 (if bios is set to full fan speed) but setting them to 3 3 drops it to 2 2.

[cgoudie]

I have set the dell bios to force the fan to full speed:

sensors |grep Fan
Processor Fan: 2690 RPM
Motherboard Fan: 4462 RPM

When I run i8kctl fan:
3 3

However if I run i8kctl fan 3 3
2 2

And the fan speed takes a drop:
sensors |grep Fan
Processor Fan: 1967 RPM
Motherboard Fan: 3083 RPM

[Wer-Wolf]

This seem to be a problem in the dell-smm-hwmon kernel driver:
By default, the maximum speed level is 2, but your maximum speed level is 3.
The driver wont allow for setting a speed level above the maximum speed level.
To solve this, load the dell-smm-hwmon module with the parameter "fan_max=3".
Pls tell me if it worked.

[Wer-Wolf]

Just a question: What happens if you load the driver with fan_max=4?

1. sudo modprobe -r dell-smm-hwmon
2. sudo modprobe dell-smm-hwmon fan_max=4