Systems and methods for user modification of cooling device response in information handling systems

• US 9,952,636 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2016
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Montero, Adolfo S., Locke, Kevin B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Application Number:
  US15/205,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20160320814A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• Field of Search: 700275-278, 700300
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/43074 Control speed, acceleration so as to follow desired speed profile
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1902 characterised by the use of a variable reference value
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/20 Cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided that may be implemented for facilitating user modification of cooling device speed response to sensed temperature in information handling systems. The disclosed systems and methods may be implemented to allow an information handling system user to modify how one or more individual cooling device/s respond to device speed control values specified by stored device speed control information without requiring the user to change the identity or pre-defined device speed values of the device speed control information with which the information system is currently operating.

Claims

1. An information handling system, comprising:

a chassis enclosure;

one or more heat generating components contained within the chassis enclosure;

one or more temperature sensors configured to sense at least one of fluid temperature within the chassis enclosure, temperature of at least one of the heat generating components, or a combination thereof;

one or more variable speed cooling devices configured to provide different flow rates of cooling fluid within the chassis enclosure to cool the heat generating components;

persistent storage including device speed control information stored thereon, the device speed control information representing a pre-defined relationship between device speed control values and the sensed temperature reported by at least one of the temperature sensors; and

at least one processing device configured to receive values of sensed temperature from each of the temperature sensors, and to provide control signals to control device speed of each of the cooling devices;

where the processing device is configured to access the device speed control information stored on the persistent storage and to control device speed response of each of the cooling devices based on the pre-defined relationship between values of cooling device speed and the current sensed temperature defined by the device speed control information; and

where the processing device is further configured to receive user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by a user of the information handling system, and

to execute to modify the device speed response of each of the cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information based on the user-configurable device speed modifier information by applying the user-configurable device speed modifier information to the stored device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information at the current sensed temperature without changing the pre-defined relationship between values of cooling device speed and the current sensed temperature defined by the device speed control information.

2. The information handling system of claim 1, further comprising multiple variable speed cooling devices configured to provide respective flow rates of cooling fluid within the chassis enclosure to cool the heat generating components;

and where the processing device is further configured to;

receive user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user for one or more selected individual cooling devices, with no user-configurable device speed modifier information being entered for a remaining one or more non-selected individual cooling devices; and

modify only the device speed response of each of the selected one or more cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information based on the user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user for the selected cooling device by applying the separate user-configurable device speed modifier information to the stored device speed control values specified for the one or more selected cooling devices by the stored device speed control information at the current sensed temperature while at the same time not modifying the device speed response of each of the one or more non-selected cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information.

3. The information handling system of claim 1, where the cooling devices each comprise a cooling fan;

and where the stored device speed control information comprises at least one of a thermal table or a thermal curve.

4. The information handling system of claim 1, where the user-configurable device speed modifier information comprises a user-configurable device speed multiplier value entered by a user;

and where the processing device is configured to modify the device speed response of each of the cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information by multiplying the user-configurable device speed multiplier value with stored device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information at any given current sensed temperature value.

5. The information handling system of claim 1, further comprising multiple variable speed cooling devices configured to provide different flow rates of cooling fluid within the chassis enclosure to cool the heat generating components;

and where the processing device is further configured to;

receive different user-configurable device speed modifier information entered separately by the user for each individual cooling device; and

separately and differently modify the device speed response of each given one of the multiple cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information based on the different user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user for the given cooling device by applying the separate and different user-configurable device speed modifier information to the stored device speed control values specified for the given cooling device by the stored device speed control information at the current sensed temperature.

6. The information handling system of claim 1, where the processing device is further configured to provide a user interface for the user, the user interface comprising at least one text entry box configured to allow the user to enter the user-configurable device speed modifier information as numerical text.

7. The information handling system of claim 1, where the processing device is further configured to provide a graphical user interface (GUI) for the user, the GUI comprising at least one of a manipulable GUI slider bar, manipulable GUI curve, or a combination thereof.

8. The information handling system of claim 1, where the processing device comprises an out-of-band processing device;

and where out-of-band processing device is configured to receive the user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user of the information handling system during system boot of the information handling system.

9. A method for modifying cooling device response in an information handling system, comprising:

providing an information handling system comprising;

a chassis enclosure,

one or more heat generating components contained within the chassis enclosure,

one or more variable speed cooling devices configured to provide different flow rates of cooling fluid within the chassis enclosure to cool the heat generating components,

at least one processing device, and

persistent storage including device speed control information stored thereon, the device speed control information representing a pre-defined relationship between device speed control values and the sensed temperature reported by at least one of the temperature sensors;

sensing at least one of fluid temperature within the chassis enclosure, temperature of at least one of the heat generating components, or a combination thereof; and

using the at least one processing device to;

access the device speed control information stored on the persistent storage,

control device speed response of each of the cooling devices based on the pre-defined relationship between values of cooling device speed and the current sensed temperature defined by the device speed control information,

receive user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by a user of the information handling system, and

execute to modify the device speed response of each of the cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information based on the user-configurable device speed modifier information by applying the user-configurable device speed modifier information to the stored device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information at the current sensed temperature without changing the pre-defined relationship between values of cooling device speed and the current sensed temperature defined by the device speed control information.

10. The method of claim 9, where the information handling system further comprises multiple variable speed cooling devices configured to provide respective flow rates of cooling fluid within the chassis enclosure to cool the heat generating components;

and where the method further comprises using the processing device to;

receive user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user for one or more selected individual cooling devices, with no user-configurable device speed modifier information being entered for a remaining one or more non-selected individual cooling devices; and

modify only the device speed response of each of the selected one or more cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information based on the user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user for the selected cooling device by applying the separate user-configurable device speed modifier information to the stored device speed control values specified for the one or more selected cooling devices by the stored device speed control information at the current sensed temperature while at the same time not modifying the device speed response of each of the one or more non-selected cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information.

11. The method of claim 9, where the cooling devices each comprise a cooling fan;

and where the stored device speed control information comprises at least one of a thermal table or a thermal curve.

12. The method of claim 9, where the user-configurable device speed modifier information comprises a user-configurable device speed multiplier value entered by a user;

and where the method further comprises using the processing device to modify the device speed response of each of the cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information by multiplying the user-configurable device speed multiplier value with stored device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information at any given current sensed temperature value.

13. The method of claim 9, where the information handling system further comprises multiple variable speed cooling devices configured to provide different flow rates of cooling fluid within the chassis enclosure to cool the heat generating components;

and where the method further comprises using the processing device to;

receive different user-configurable device speed modifier information entered separately by the user for each individual cooling device; and

separately and differently modify the device speed response of each given one of the multiple cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information based on the different user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user for the given cooling device by applying the separate and different user-configurable device speed modifier information to the stored device speed control values specified for the given cooling device by the stored device speed control information at the current sensed temperature.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising using the processing device to:

receive values of sensed temperature from a given single temperature sensor; and

separately and differently modify the device speed response of each given one of the multiple cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information based on the different user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user for the given cooling device by applying the separate and different user-configurable device speed modifier information to the stored device speed control values specified for the given cooling device by the stored device speed control information at the current sensed temperature received from the given single temperature sensor.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising using the processing device to:

receive values of sensed temperature from multiple temperature sensors; and

separately and differently modify the device speed response of each given one of the multiple cooling devices to the device speed control values specified by the stored device speed control information based on the different user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user for the given cooling device by applying the separate and different user-configurable device speed modifier information to the stored device speed control values specified for the given cooling device by the stored device speed control information at the current sensed temperature received from the multiple temperature sensors;

where device speed response of each of the multiple cooling devices is modified based on a value of current sensed temperature received from a different temperature sensor.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising using the processing device to:

provide a user interface for the user, the user interface comprising at least one text entry box configured to allow the user to enter the user-configurable device speed modifier information as numerical text; and

receive the user-configurable device speed modifier information entered into the text entry box by the user.

17. The method of claim 9, further comprising using the processing device to:

provide a graphical user interface (GUI) for the user, the GUI comprising at least one of a manipulable GUI slider bar, manipulable GUI curve, or a combination thereof; and

receive the user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user manipulating the GUI slider bar GUI slider bar, manipulable GUI curve, or a combination thereof.

18. The method of claim 9, where the stored device speed control information comprises a thermal curve;

and where the method further comprises using the processing device to;

provide a graphical user interface (GUI) for the user, the GUI comprising a manipulable GUI curve that corresponds to the thermal curve; and

receive the user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user manipulating the manipulable GUI curve that corresponds to the thermal curve.

19. The method of claim 9, where the processing device comprises an out-of-band processing device;

and further comprising using the out-of-band processing device to receive the user-configurable device speed modifier information entered by the user of the information handling system during system boot of the information handling system.

20. The method of claim 9, where the information handling system further comprises multiple cooling devices that are each previously designated to be controlled by the processing device based on a different respective stored device speed control information;

and where the method further comprises using the processing device to;

compare the stored device speed control information for each of the multiple cooling devices;

select at least one of the multiple cooling devices that has been previously designated to be controlled based on the device speed control information having the highest device speed control value representing highest device speed of all the different respective stored device speed control information; and

then apply the user-configured device speed value multiplier to modify the response of only the selected cooling device.