Patent ID: 9743552
Date: 2017-08-22
CPC Classifications: G05B,H05K

Claim:
1. A method for regulating airflow in an information handling system, comprising: determining a first fan importance factor of a first fan of the information handling system, the first fan importance factor being indicative of a relative importance of the first fan in cooling the information handling system as compared to a second fan; determining a second fan importance factor of the second fan of the information handling system, the second fan importance factor being indicative of a relative importance of the second fan in cooling the information handling system as compared to the first fan; detecting, by a fan control subsystem, a failure of the first fan; and regulating, by the fan control subsystem in response to detecting the failure of the first fan, airflow in the information handling system based on at least one of the first fan importance factor and the second fan importance factor; wherein: determining the first fan importance factor comprises computing the first fan importance factor dependent on a first thermal priority rating indicative of a priority of cooling a first thermal component of the information handling system that is cooled, at least in part, by the first fan; determining the second fan importance factor comprises computing the second fan importance factor dependent on a second thermal priority rating indicative of a priority of cooling a second thermal component of the information handling system that is cooled, at least in part, by the second fan.