Question Laptop fan spins without needing it

Naoto

Commendable
Jun 21, 2021
10
0
1,510
Hi guys. So, i've encountered this issue lately, my laptop fan unexpectedly spin (in a very loudly way) when there's not an heavy workload, sometimes the spin is intermittently, like a 1 sec spin and then stop i can tell you that in those circumstances every monitoring software, Task Manager included, shows 5%-10%(max) of CPU usage and the CPU Package Temp is like 45°~ (C°), there's not a real need of that type of spinning, fan just throws off cold air, but there's more. If i'm playing some videogame and simultaneously watching a YouTube video i can hear the fan spinning but less loudly then the case above, let's say that it's what you can expect for that workload and what my laptop typically used to behave.

This is what i've done for troubleshooting:
  • Asked my technician friend to see if there was dust here and there inside the laptop. Everything was fine.
  • Reinstalled Windows 10 and then installed drivers directly from the manufacture house. Nothing is changed.
  • See if with a Linux distro something would have changed. Nope, the issue is even worsen.
  • Downgraded the BIOS. Again, no results.
Now i'm out of options, i'm waiting a response from a lab to know if they can analyze the laptop. Can you help me to figuring out what's going on?

I'm leaving down here some info about my machine and what software i used for monitoring.

Laptop Model: ASUS VivoBook S15 S530FN
CPU: QuadCore Intel Core i7-8565U, 4100 MHz (41 x 100)
Integrated Graphics: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 (1GB)
Dedicated Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2GB)
RAM: 16GB

Monitoring Software: HWiNFO, HWMonitor, SpeedFan (can't get trusty values), AIDA64 Extreme.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Also look in Resource Monitor.

Determine what resources are being used, to what extent, and by what when the fan spins.

Could be some app running in the background that is trying to update, backup, or just "phone home".

Look for something running that you do not expect to be running or do not recognize. Research (google) to learn more about any such software.
 

Naoto

Commendable
Jun 21, 2021
10
0
1,510
Also look in Resource Monitor.

Determine what resources are being used, to what extent, and by what when the fan spins.

Could be some app running in the background that is trying to update, backup, or just "phone home".

Look for something running that you do not expect to be running or do not recognize. Research (google) to learn more about any such software.

Thanks for your reply. There isn't a specific a process that draws so much resources, as i said: CPU usage (at whole) is at lowest (5%-10%), same thing for the RAM (40%~ , 'cause i have a few programs in the background), these results are an average of span of time, moments where fan is spinning in an anomaly way.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Perhaps some error is being captured. Either prior to or at the time the fan spins.

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer. Reliability History is much more user friendly and uses a timeline format.

In either tool, right clicking any given error/event will provide more detailed information. That information may or may not be directly helpful.
 

Naoto

Commendable
Jun 21, 2021
10
0
1,510
Perhaps some error is being captured. Either prior to or at the time the fan spins.

Look in Reliability History and Event Viewer. Reliability History is much more user friendly and uses a timeline format.

In either tool, right clicking any given error/event will provide more detailed information. That information may or may not be directly helpful.
Didn't think of use the event viewers, thanks a lot for the suggestion! Unfortunately i can't see any relevant error or warning. As my fan was spinning loudly, i didn't see any error captured by those instruments.
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
About all I can think of, for now, is maybe a faulty temperature sensor.

Indicates "hot", fan takes off, cools a degree or so, then says "all okay" and fan stops.

Temperature goes up one degree again and the cycle repeats.

Try keeping the laptop very cool somewhere to see if the cycle can be at least temporarily broken.

Perhaps point a small fan at the laptop. Key is to narrow down the circumstances.
 

Naoto

Commendable
Jun 21, 2021
10
0
1,510
About all I can think of, for now, is maybe a faulty temperature sensor.

Indicates "hot", fan takes off, cools a degree or so, then says "all okay" and fan stops.

Temperature goes up one degree again and the cycle repeats.

Try keeping the laptop very cool somewhere to see if the cycle can be at least temporarily broken.

Perhaps point a small fan at the laptop. Key is to narrow down the circumstances.
Even my technician friend said to me that it could possibly be a faulty temperature sensor. As i'm writing to you in this very moment, fan is loudly spinning in a continuous way, needless to say that no process is drawing a considerable amount of resources. What i'm scared of is that if it's for real the faulty sensor causing this problem, resolving this issue will probably cost a new motherboard. I don't know if this component is implemented on the modo or is part of the fan module.
 

Naoto

Commendable
Jun 21, 2021
10
0
1,510
I read somewhere that a laptop can have multiple temp sensors. Since all monitoring software showed me (pretty much) expected values for the CPUs based on what i was doing, it's reasonable to consider a miscommunication from the fan?
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Not sure how far you wish go hands on with some repair.

I did find the following:

S15 Service Manual

(Verify that the manual is indeed applicable.)

I googled "asus vivobook s15 s530fn service manual" and found a number of links but some were not at all viable/useful.

Anyway, no harm in reading service manuals etc. to get a sense of what the problem may be.

Hopefully some information or diagnostics will narrow down the cause of the problem.

Do be careful about any downloads. Some things show up no matter what search criteria you use.
 

Naoto

Commendable
Jun 21, 2021
10
0
1,510
Not sure how far you wish go hands on with some repair.

I did find the following:

S15 Service Manual

(Verify that the manual is indeed applicable.)

I googled "asus vivobook s15 s530fn service manual" and found a number of links but some were not at all viable/useful.

Anyway, no harm in reading service manuals etc. to get a sense of what the problem may be.

Hopefully some information or diagnostics will narrow down the cause of the problem.

Do be careful about any downloads. Some things show up no matter what search criteria you use.
Manufacture house already provide a download section where you can get the user manual, but it's useless in my case, it's not a detailed technical document on how the laptop is structured inside. Thanks for help though.
 

Naoto

Commendable
Jun 21, 2021
10
0
1,510
I'd like to share these results about a stress test i made recently with AIDA64, maybe it can give some more info about my problem. So, as Ralston18 was saying, this issue may be caused by a faulty sensor, but i'm not 100% sure that it's the case, at least not a CPU core sensor fault, let me show you why i think so.

These are some components temps before the stress test (lasted 5 minutes):

Screen 1

These are the temps after the stress test:

Screen 2

As you can see, CPU cores temps are pretty much similar in every column value, so if it was a faulty core sensor i'd probably have some value astray from the others. Another proof about my theory is given by the screen below. In the upper graph you can see CPU cores temps have a same progress during the test:

Screen 3

(NB the white dotted line in the upper graph that goes straight up and then down represents fan rpm)

Another mentionable fact is that before the stress test, fan was working intermittently and loudly, while during the test ventilation was comparable quiet, and persisted in this way for some hours.
 
Last edited: