I have a HP 8530 elite book laptop under SL 6x, IA-32 (32 bit kernel and 
environment).  The unit typically runs hotter than I would like

working directory is /proc/acpi/thermal_zone

[root@localhost thermal_zone]# cat */*
<setting not supported>
<polling disabled>
state:                   ok
temperature:             29 C
critical (S5):           112 C
passive:                 60 C: tc1=1 tc2=2 tsp=300 devices=CPU0 CPU1
<setting not supported>
<polling disabled>
state:                   ok
temperature:             16 C
critical (S5):           112 C
passive:                 98 C: tc1=1 tc2=2 tsp=300 devices=CPU0 CPU1
<setting not supported>
<polling disabled>
state:                   ok
temperature:             65 C
critical (S5):           112 C
passive:                 98 C: tc1=1 tc2=2 tsp=300 devices=CPU0 CPU1
<setting not supported>
<polling disabled>
state:                   ok
temperature:             52 C
critical (S5):           105 C
passive:                 100 C: tc1=1 tc2=2 tsp=300 devices=CPU0 CPU1
<setting not supported>
<polling disabled>
state:                   ok
temperature:             30 C
critical (S5):           115 C
active[0]:               86 C: devices=FANG
<setting not supported>
<polling disabled>
state:                   ok
temperature:             42 C
critical (S5):           90 C
passive:                 85 C: tc1=1 tc2=2 tsp=300 devices=CPU0 CPU1

Note that critical temperatures mostly are above 100 C.

For fan control, I have found:

working directory is /proc/acpi/fan/FANG

[root@localhost FANG]# echo -n 0 > /proc/acpi/fan/FANG/state
[root@localhost FANG]# cat state
status:                  on
root@localhost FANG]# echo -n 3 > /proc/acpi/fan/FANG/state
[root@localhost FANG]# cat state
status:                  off

The above are reproducible, with 0 being on and 3 being off.

Is there anyone affiliated with or knowledgeable about HP internals who 
can explain the above empirical observations?

Is there a way to change the thermal set points?  If this decreases fan 
life, it is a relatively simple hardware repair to replace the 
(overpriced) fan.  A lower temperature motherboard lasts longer, and is 
much more expensive and complicated to replace (typically, replace the 
laptop).

Yasha Karant