Cooling element type determination and control

An apparatus comprising:

• a determination module configured to determine a quantity of a plurality of cooling elements providing cooling for a computing device, each of the plurality of cooling elements of a cooling element type of a plurality of cooling element types;
• a pulse width modulation (“PWM”) module configured to cause each of the plurality of cooling elements to operate at a same test PWM value, each cooling element of the plurality of cooling elements controlled using PWM;
• a current measurement module configured to measure a total current draw of the plurality of cooling elements while each of the plurality of cooling elements operates at the test PWM value;
• a comparison module configured to compare the total current draw to each of a predicted current draw at the test PWM value of a quantity of cooling elements of a particular cooling element type of the plurality of cooling element types, the quantity of cooling elements of each of the cooling element types matching the determined quantity of the plurality of cooling elements;
• and
• a type module configured to determine, based at least in part on the comparing, whether each of the plurality of cooling elements are of a same cooling element type or are of a mixture of cooling element types,
• wherein at least a portion of said modules comprises hardware circuits, a programmable hardware device and/or code, the code stored on non-transitory computer readable storage media.

A system, comprising:

• a plurality of cooling elements, each of the plurality of cooling elements of a cooling element type of a plurality of cooling element types;
• and
• a computing device for which the plurality of cooling elements provide cooling, the computing device comprising:
• a determination module configured to determine a quantity of a plurality of cooling elements providing cooling for a computing device, each of the plurality of cooling elements of a cooling element type of a plurality of cooling element types;
• a pulse width modulation (“PWM”) module configured to cause each of the plurality of cooling elements to operate at a same test PWM value, each cooling element of the plurality of cooling elements controlled using PWM;
• a current measurement module configured to measure a total current draw of the plurality of cooling elements while each of the plurality of cooling elements operates at the test PWM value;
• a comparison module configured to compare the total current draw to each of a predicted current draw at the test PWM value of a quantity of cooling elements of a particular cooling element type of the plurality of cooling element types, the quantity of cooling elements of each of the cooling element types matching the determined quantity of the plurality of cooling elements;
• and
• a type module configured to determine, based at least in part on the comparing, whether each of the plurality of cooling elements are of a same cooling element type or are of a mixture of cooling element types,
• wherein at least a portion of the modules comprises hardware circuits, a programmable hardware device and/or code, the code stored on non-transitory computer readable storage media.