TWI396859B - An electronic device and a method for detecting a cooling fan of the electronic device - Google Patents

Description

Electronic device and method for detecting a cooling fan of an electronic device

The invention relates to a detection method, in particular to a method for detecting a heat dissipation fan of an electronic device.

Today's portable electronic devices (such as notebook computers) are becoming more and more powerful, and the temperature generated by their internal circuits is getting higher and higher. Therefore, how to make a portable electronic device have a good heat dissipation environment will be a Important topic.

In a portable electronic device, a cooling fan is generally used as a main component for providing a heat dissipation function, and a main heat source (for example, a central processing unit (CPU)) in the portable electronic device is guided by a cooling fan to guide air. The generated high temperature is taken away for the purpose of heat dissipation.

As the use time of the cooling fan increases, the dust in the air accumulates on the cooling fan, and the effect of the heat dissipation of the portable electronic device is greatly reduced after being used for a period of time. Therefore, the most direct method is to remove the cooling fan from the portable electronic device and clean it up and reassemble it for further use. However, during the assembly process, the user may not install the cooling fan correctly, and if the user does not know that the cooling fan is not installed, the portable electronic device is turned on, resulting in a portable type. The electronic device cannot dissipate heat and burn out or crash.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of detecting whether a cooling fan of an electronic device is properly installed.

Therefore, the method for detecting the presence of the heat dissipation fan of the electronic device is applied to an embedded controller (EC) of the electronic device, and the embedded controller and the temperature sensor of the electronic device (thermal The sensor is configured to control the operation of a cooling fan, and the cooling fan is configured to dissipate heat from a chip unit of the electronic device. The detecting method comprises the following steps:

(A) causing the embedded controller to receive a temperature signal emitted by the temperature sensor to sense the temperature of the wafer unit;

(B) causing the embedded controller to determine whether the speed of the cooling fan is zero when the temperature signal is greater than or equal to a first preset temperature value, and if yes, performing step (C);

(C) Cause the embedded controller to issue a warning message to inform the user that the cooling fan has not been installed. In this way, it is possible to avoid the problem that the user does not properly install the cooling fan and cause the entire system to burn out or crash.

Preferably, the detecting method of the present invention further comprises a step (D) of: controlling the embedded controller to control a basic input/output system of the electronic device when determining that the temperature signal is greater than or equal to a second preset temperature value ( Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), which causes the electronic device to enter a non-operational mode. Further, the non-operation mode is one of a sleep mode, a standby mode, and a shutdown mode.

The function of the invention is to determine whether the cooling fan is installed or not by detecting the rotation speed of the cooling fan, thereby preventing the whole system from being damaged or burned.

The above and other technical contents, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

1 and FIG. 2, FIG. 1 is a preferred embodiment of a method for detecting a heat dissipating fan 1 of an electronic device 100, which is applied to an electronic device 100 having a heat dissipating fan 1. In this embodiment, the electronic device 100 is a notebook computer and includes a chip unit 2, a cooling fan 1, a thermal sensor 3 and an embedded controller (EC) 4, and the detection of the embodiment The method is carried out in the embedded controller 4, which mainly detects whether the cooling fan 1 is correctly installed according to the rotation speed of the cooling fan 1, so as to prevent the wafer unit 2 from being in operation, because the cooling fan 1 is not correct. The installation causes the temperature of the wafer unit 2 to be too high, causing the electronic device 100 to crash or burn out.

Referring to FIG. 2, the chip unit 2 is a variety of circuit chips, for example, a north-south bridge chip, a VGA chip, etc., and the present embodiment is a central processing unit 2, which is an operation core of the electronic device 100, and a central processing unit. 2 The high temperature generated during operation is the largest heat source inside the electronic device 100. Therefore, the heat dissipation fan 1 is installed above (or in the periphery of) the central processing unit 2 for dissipating heat to the central processing unit 2, and is worth It is to be noted that the cooling fan 1 of the embodiment is a modular cooling fan that can be disassembled and assembled by the user, but is not limited thereto. The temperature sensor 3 has a temperature detecting circuit 31, a speed detecting circuit 32, and a fan driving circuit 33. The temperature detecting circuit 31 is coupled to the central processing unit 2 for detecting the temperature of the central processing unit 2; The speed detecting circuit 32 is coupled to the heat dissipating fan 1 for detecting the rotational speed of the cooling fan 1; the fan driving circuit 33 is coupled to the cooling fan 1 for driving the cooling fan 1 to be controlled by the embedded controller 4. The embedded controller 4 is coupled to the temperature sensor 3 and has a memory unit 41, a comparison circuit 42 and a control circuit 43. The memory unit 41 stores a thermal table.

Next, the process of detecting and controlling the heat dissipation fan 1 in the electronic device 100 of the present embodiment will be described in detail below.

The cooling fan 1 of the present embodiment can be disassembled and cleaned by the user. After the user finishes cleaning and installs the cooling fan 1 to the electronic device 100 and powers on, as shown in FIG. 1 , first, the embedded controller 4 The control circuit 43 performs step 10 to determine whether the rotational speed of the cooling fan 1 is zero. If the control circuit 43 determines that the rotational speed of the cooling fan 1 is zero or the rotational speed of the cooling fan 1 cannot be determined, it means that the user may not have the cooling fan 1 Installed, at this time, the control circuit 43 will send a notification message, as in step 20.

In this embodiment, the control circuit 43 determines whether the cooling fan 1 is installed according to the rotation speed of the cooling fan 1 detected by the rotation detecting circuit 32. That is, the rotation detecting circuit 32 detects the cooling fan. The speed of 1 is transmitted to the control circuit 43. If the control circuit 43 receives the value of the rotation speed of zero or does not receive the rotation speed value at all, it means that the cooling fan 1 is not operating at all after the electronic device 100 is turned on, therefore, It is inferred that the cooling fan 1 is not installed (or has been installed but is broken).

In addition, in step 10, the control circuit 43 sends the notification message to a built-in or external display unit (not shown), so that the display unit displays an error message to inform the user that the cooling fan 1 is not installed, and Reboot after a while. Of course, the control circuit 43 can also send the notification message to a built-in or external audio unit (not shown), so that the audio unit can make a sound, and can also reach the user.

In addition, after the electronic device 100 is turned on, the central processing unit 2 starts to operate and generates thermal energy, and the temperature detecting circuit 31 starts to detect the temperature of the central processing unit 2, and converts the sensed temperature into a temperature signal. Therefore, when the rotation speed detecting circuit 32 detects that the rotation speed of the cooling fan 1 is not zero, the control circuit 43 determines that the cooling fan 1 has been correctly installed, the electronic device proceeds to step 30, and the comparison circuit 42 receives the temperature detecting circuit 31. After the temperature signal is sent, and after receiving the temperature signal, step 40 is performed to compare whether the temperature signal is greater than or equal to a first preset temperature value. In this embodiment, the first preset temperature value is 70 degrees.

Referring to FIG. 3, the memory unit 41 stores a temperature control table describing the temperatures of the plurality of central processing units 2 and the rotational speeds of the cooling fans 1 at various temperatures. Therefore, when the comparison circuit 42 compares the temperature signal to be smaller than the first preset temperature value, the control circuit 43 performs step 50 to control the operation of the heat dissipation fan 1 by the temperature control table in the memory unit 41, that is, the control circuit 43 controls according to the temperature. The table selects the rotational speed suitable for the temperature of the central processing unit 2 at that time, and controls the fan drive circuit 33 to drive the cooling fan 1 to operate at this rotational speed.

It is particularly emphasized that the content of the temperature control table in FIG. 3 is only an embodiment, and the content thereof may be changed according to different electronic devices 100 or the central processing unit 2, and the first preset temperature value is preset by the designer. A good preset value whose value can be changed in software mode.

Since the user can remove the cooling fan 1 after cleaning or replacing the electronic device 100, after the cleaning is completed, the user may also have a problem that the cooling fan 1 is not properly installed. Therefore, when the temperature of the central processing unit 2 is equal to or exceeds 70 degrees, the control circuit 43 performs step 60 to determine whether the rotational speed of the cooling fan 1 is zero to confirm whether the cooling fan 1 is correctly installed. If the rotational speed of the cooling fan 1 is not zero, that is, the cooling fan 1 is normally operated, the control circuit 43 repeatedly performs step 50 to continuously control the operation of the cooling fan 1 with the temperature control table. It should be noted that, in steps 10 and 60, the control circuit 43 determines whether the speed of the cooling fan 1 is zero, which is determined according to the rotation speed of the cooling fan 1 detected by the rotation detecting circuit 32. Do not add more details.

If the control circuit 43 determines that the rotational speed of the cooling fan 1 is zero, the control circuit 43 sends a warning message to alert the user that the cooling fan 1 is not properly installed, as in step 70. In this embodiment, the control circuit 43 sends an alert message to an On-Screen Display (OSD) (not shown), so that the display unit that controls the built-in or external display displays that the cooling fan does not exist. The words "warning" are used to remind the user to reinstall the cooling fan 1.

In addition, while the screen display shows the warning display on the screen, the comparison circuit 42 performs step 80 to compare whether the temperature of the central processing unit 2 is greater than or equal to a second preset according to the temperature signal sent by the temperature detecting circuit 31. Temperature value. In this embodiment, the second preset temperature value is 90 degrees, but is not limited thereto.

When the user does not pay attention to the wording of the warning or the system is abnormal, so that the temperature of the central processing unit 2 continues to rise to the second preset temperature value, the control circuit 43 sends a Q-event signal to the basic of the electronic device 100. A basic input/output system (BIOS) (not shown) causes the basic input/output system to send an SCI (System Control Interrupt) signal to the operating system to control the electronic device 100 to enter a non-operational mode. As step 90. In this embodiment, the non-operation mode is one of a sleep mode, a standby mode, and a shutdown mode to prevent the central processing unit 2 from being burnt out due to excessive temperature.

Conversely, if the comparison circuit 42 compares the temperature of the central processing unit 2 to the second preset temperature value, the electronic device repeats step 50, and the control circuit 43 continues to control the operation of the cooling fan 1 with the temperature control table.

In summary, the present invention detects the rotation speed of the cooling fan 1 through the rotation speed detecting circuit 32 in the temperature sensor 3 to determine whether the cooling fan 1 is correctly installed, thereby preventing the user from installing the cooling fan 1 The completion of the loss caused the system to burn out or crash. In addition, the method of the present invention can be directly burned into the embedded controller 4 during the manufacturing process of the electronic device 100, or can be stored in a computer program product, such as a CD, and when the electronic device 100 is loaded into the computer. After the program in the program product is executed, the method of the present invention, that is, steps 10 to 90 can be completed.

The above is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the invention is not limited thereto, that is, the simple equivalent changes and modifications made by the scope of the invention and the description of the invention are All remain within the scope of the invention patent.

100. . . Electronic device

1. . . Cooling fan

2. . . Central processing unit (wafer unit)

3. . . Temperature sensor

31. . . Temperature detection circuit

32. . . Speed detection circuit

33. . . Fan drive circuit

4. . . Embedded controller

41. . . Memory unit

42. . . Comparison circuit

43. . . Control circuit

1 is a flow chart illustrating a preferred embodiment of a method of detecting a heat dissipation fan of an electronic device of the present invention;

2 is a circuit block diagram illustrating an electronic device to which the detecting method of the present invention is applied; and

Fig. 3 is a temperature control table stored in the memory unit of the embodiment.

10~90. . . step

Claims (11)

A method for detecting a cooling fan of an electronic device is applied to an embedded controller of the electronic device, the embedded controller cooperates with a temperature sensor of the electronic device to control the operation of the cooling fan, so that the The heat dissipating fan dissipates heat from a chip unit of the electronic device. The detecting method includes the following steps: (A) causing the embedded controller to receive a temperature signal sent by the temperature sensor to sense the temperature of the wafer unit (B) when the embedded controller compares the temperature signal to be greater than or equal to a first preset temperature value, determining whether the speed of the cooling fan is zero, and if yes, performing step (C); and (C) The embedded controller issues a warning message. The method for detecting the presence of a cooling fan according to the first aspect of the patent application, wherein, in the step (B), if the embedded controller determines that the rotation speed of the cooling fan is not zero, the embedded control is The device controls the operation of the cooling fan with a temperature control table. The method for detecting the presence of a cooling fan of an electronic device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a step (D): causing the embedded controller to determine that the temperature signal is greater than or equal to a second preset At the temperature value, a basic input/output system of the electronic device is controlled to cause the electronic device to enter a non-operational mode. The method for detecting the presence of a cooling fan of an electronic device according to the third aspect of the invention, wherein the non-operation mode is one of a sleep mode, a standby mode, and a shutdown mode. The method for detecting the presence of a cooling fan of the electronic device according to claim 4 of the patent application, further comprising a step (E) before the step (A): causing the embedded controller to determine whether the speed of the cooling fan is Zero, if yes, let the embedded controller send a notification message, otherwise perform step (A). A computer program product for storing a method for detecting a cooling fan of an electronic device. When the computer loads the program and executes the method, the method described in item 1 of the claim can be completed. An electronic device includes: a chip unit; a heat dissipating fan for dissipating heat to the chip unit; a temperature sensor coupled to the heat dissipating fan and having a temperature detecting circuit, the temperature detecting circuit detecting The temperature of the chip unit is sent to a temperature signal; and an embedded controller is coupled to the heat dissipation fan and has a comparison circuit and a control circuit, wherein the comparison circuit compares the temperature signal to be greater than or equal to a first pre- When the temperature value is set, the control circuit determines whether the speed of the cooling fan is zero, and if so, sends a warning message. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the temperature sensor further has a fan driving circuit for driving the cooling fan to operate, and the control circuit determines that the rotation speed of the cooling fan is not zero. The control circuit controls the fan drive circuit to drive the heat dissipation fan to operate according to a temperature control table. According to the electronic device of claim 8, wherein the temperature sensor further has a rotation speed detecting circuit for detecting the rotation speed of the cooling fan, and the control circuit is detected by the rotation speed detecting circuit. The rotation speed of the cooling fan is measured, and it is determined whether the rotation speed of the cooling fan is zero. The electronic device according to any one of claims 7 to 9, further comprising a basic input/output system, wherein the comparing circuit compares the temperature signal to a second preset temperature value, the control The circuit controls the basic input/output system to cause the electronic device to enter a non-operational mode. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the non-operation mode is one of a sleep mode, a standby mode, and a shutdown mode.