Question Why is my GPU fan insane?

[EngineeringStudent19]

Laptop: GL703GE
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20 GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GDDR5 @ 4.0 GB (128-bit)

So, this seems to be a constant issue among many users, but I wanted to see if someone can put together a reason for this with the information I provide.

I have downloaded the ASUS ROG Gaming Center, it is working, and I am able to see whats going on with my GPU and its fan.

I've seen the GPU at 0% usage, 33 degrees C, and 7,900 fan RPM.

Just a moment ago when I created my account, it was at 39 degrees Celsius and over 6,000 RPM.

At the moment I write this, it is at 43 degrees Celsius, and at a reasonable
and acceptable 2,000 RPM.

At no point during any of these data points was I gaming, or doing anything that would push the computer in any way, not even as much as watching a YouTube video.

My laptop IS over clocked, but that doesn't explain the behavior. I have "silent mode" selected but... honestly, I don't know what I expected.

If you need more information, just let me know. I'm really interested in what you guys think.

 

[EngineeringStudent19]

For posterity so others can see what I was actually dealing with...

 

[Karadjgne]

I seriously doubt that fan will actually hit 7300 or even 7900rpm. More than likely there's another gpu reporting software or some such running and some things are getting out of whack.

If you Google it, you are by no means the first to have issues with crazy fan speeds in an Asus laptop, there's multiple postings on Reddit and Asus ROG forums, including some with your same model.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Two drops of super glue where the connector and the socket come together, and it will never come apart again unless you want it to. Or a dab of hot glue from a hot glue gun if you have access to one. That tape will lose it's adhesion from the heat inside the chassis and if that is all that is holding it, it's likely to pull free again.

 

[EngineeringStudent19]

I seriously doubt that fan will actually hit 7300 or even 7900rpm. More than likely there's another gpu reporting software or some such running and some things are getting out of whack.

It's a laptop, there are only two fans on this and only one of them made the noise. It was very loud, I once told someone I could not hear them over the sound of my laptop fan. I was not being facetious.

During normal operation the system will spin the fans no greater than 5100 RPM at 80 C, and is honestly not really all that loud. I'm perfectly fine with this noise level. I'm pretty understanding of physical limitations.

Therefore, the turbine engine level of noise coming from the fan was indeed the case of the fan spinning well beyond its normal range of operation. Based off my observations, this 7,000+ RPM fan speed does in fact make sense.

I have read the entire string of comments at the ROG forums. The only person who mentioned having a fix was, and I mentioned this earlier, someone who sent their laptop into ASUS and they claimed it was an issue with the wire (was not elaborated on). Other attempts have been resetting CMOS, updating BIOS (ASUS confirmed mine was up to date), uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, all to no avail.

I've seen someone mention their issue was fixed via firmware update... Chances are the technicians first opened up the laptop, checked the connections and possibly moving the wire, then doing firmware updates after finding nothing wrong with the fans to say they've done something (which I wouldn't really blame them for).

Basically, anytime someone opened up the laptop to either replace motherboards, the CPU/GPU cooling apparatus, or any amount of disconnect+reconnect will have caused some rearrangement of that wire, potentially away from that component you see in the board.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Apparently you failed to even read the thread, or you'd know that they already solved the problem which was due to the connector not remaining fully seated and that applying a small amount of tape to secure the connector firmly in the socket resolved the issue.

 

[romulusa]

Apparently you failed to even read the thread, or you'd know that they already solved the problem which was due to the connector not remaining fully seated and that applying a small amount of tape to secure the connector firmly in the socket resolved the issue.

Ok. There is something massively wrong here. Putting a piece of tape or glue on a wire doesn't change anything. Basic electronics. Either the wire conducts or they doesn't. If it doesn't then that means there is an "open" or break in the wire. Pressure placed on a wire or set of wires from tape or from glue points more toward a cheap wire with an "open" or break in the flow of current.

Now I have been battling this same issue for a year on and off. Bought this expensive ASUS GL504GS. Fan started running really loud and fast about 3 months in. BTW no monitoring software has ever registered the RPMs. The bloatware ASUS Gaming Center doesn't show RPMs. The Bios does show RPMS but only shows the same speed all of the time. Around 898 RPMS. I know that is BS.

Now, I took it to the local ASUS repair shop. Luckily I live in Vietnam and the repairs are cheap. The first time back in April it was under warranty and they claimed to have replaced it. Worked find for a few months.
Acted up again in Sept, Oct, and well every month since.

In September when I took it to the shop they claimed to have updated the drivers and it worked fine for about 2 weeks. 3rd time fan was going crazy I took it to the shop and they claimed to have never found an issue. However I did check my browser history in the ADMIN profile and it looks like they enjoyed watching Vietnamese music videos on YouTube for about 8 hours the last 2 times I left it with them. That's nice. LOL.

So if its to be its up to me. I repaired micro electronics on F-14s and F-18s in the Navy, I surely can open up a consumer electronics device and get to the bottom of this issue....right?! maybe.

Opened it up. Both fans were filthy. Disconnected. Took apart. Cleaned thoroughly. Closed it up. Worked perfectly and quietly for 2 weeks. Noisy fan returned.

Minimized every type of bloatware, killed windows defender, pretty much anything the took up resources and got it running on bare bones. Fan problem remained.

Took apart. Analyzed GPU and CPU. Notice thermal paste was a little dry and might not have been making perfect contact. Did a deep clean. Removed all thermal paste. Reapplied new thermal paste. Noticed that some components were NOT making contact with heat sink and thermal paste. This might be a design flaw. Basically the entire fan/heat-sink unit was slightly bowed which caused it not to make perfect contact with the CPU. Jerry-rigged some foam and electrical tape in the right places to create a buffer that applies more pressure to the heat-sink when the cover is placed back on top thereby applying pressure to the GPU and making perfect contact. Worked perfectly for 2 weeks.
Fan noise came back. Open it back up. Just disconnected the fan wire and reconnected.
Worked perfectly for 2 weeks.

Fan noise back.

I've tried changing OS. Remove WIN10. Reinstalled. Removed all bloatware. Dual booth Linux Ubuntu Studios. No change. OS isn't the problem here.

You might be on to something with the that stupid wire...shoot.

Help anyone? Ideas?

 

[Karadjgne]

You posted that pic, which clearly stated the fan was at 7300rpm. That's wrong. None of those fans can physically hit that rpm regardless of anything else, so whether or not it sounded like a turbine engine and makes sense, there's something else.

My best guess would be harmonics. It happens all the time in car audio when speakers are out of phase. What you get is sound waves at particular frequencies where one wave form is positive and another is negative, so cancel each other out. This applies to any sound, whether generated by a speaker, or by a fan.

Funny thing about sound is the waveforms bounce. The affect of harmonics can either reinforce or dissipate frequencies. It's commonly found in cpu cooler towers running dual fans, everything is perfectly quiet, then add 100rpm and it gets very noisy, add another 100rpm and all goes quiet again. It's why Noctua spends years in R&D with fan blade designs, just to avoid things like that.

So I seriously doubt that fan is actually hitting 7300rpm, it takes a considerable amount of power to do so, a Delta server fan hitting 8000rpm takes in excess of 3Amps, and is built like a brick * house, no way a tiny laptop fan built from cheapest plastic and tiny bearings can handle the power required or the speeds without flying apart.

What I can believe is that the fan hit 5200rpm, and the blades are flexing sufficiently to affect sound levels in excess of normal operational parameters.

As to the plug coming loose, wire issues, could try hot-glue. Pc manufacturers have been doing it for years on wiring, connectors, components inside psus etc.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok. There is something massively wrong here. Putting a piece of tape or glue on a wire doesn't change anything. Basic electronics. Either the wire conducts or they doesn't. If it doesn't then that means there is an "open" or break in the wire. Pressure placed on a wire or set of wires from tape or from glue points more toward a cheap wire with an "open" or break in the flow of current.

Now I have been battling this same issue for a year on and off. Bought this expensive ASUS GL504GS. Fan started running really loud and fast about 3 months in. BTW no monitoring software has ever registered the RPMs. The bloatware ASUS Gaming Center doesn't show RPMs. The Bios does show RPMS but only shows the same speed all of the time. Around 898 RPMS. I know that is BS.

Now, I took it to the local ASUS repair shop. Luckily I live in Vietnam and the repairs are cheap. The first time back in April it was under warranty and they claimed to have replaced it. Worked find for a few months.
Acted up again in Sept, Oct, and well every month since.

In September when I took it to the shop they claimed to have updated the drivers and it worked fine for about 2 weeks. 3rd time fan was going crazy I took it to the shop and they claimed to have never found an issue. However I did check my browser history in the ADMIN profile and it looks like they enjoyed watching Vietnamese music videos on YouTube for about 8 hours the last 2 times I left it with them. That's nice. LOL.

So if its to be its up to me. I repaired micro electronics on F-14s and F-18s in the Navy, I surely can open up a consumer electronics device and get to the bottom of this issue....right?! maybe.

Opened it up. Both fans were filthy. Disconnected. Took apart. Cleaned thoroughly. Closed it up. Worked perfectly and quietly for 2 weeks. Noisy fan returned.

Minimized every type of bloatware, killed windows defender, pretty much anything the took up resources and got it running on bare bones. Fan problem remained.

Took apart. Analyzed GPU and CPU. Notice thermal paste was a little dry and might not have been making perfect contact. Did a deep clean. Removed all thermal paste. Reapplied new thermal paste. Noticed that some components were NOT making contact with heat sink and thermal paste. This might be a design flaw. Basically the entire fan/heat-sink unit was slightly bowed which caused it not to make perfect contact with the CPU. Jerry-rigged some foam and electrical tape in the right places to create a buffer that applies more pressure to the heat-sink when the cover is placed back on top thereby applying pressure to the GPU and making perfect contact. Worked perfectly for 2 weeks.
Fan noise came back. Open it back up. Just disconnected the fan wire and reconnected.
Worked perfectly for 2 weeks.

Fan noise back.

I've tried changing OS. Remove WIN10. Reinstalled. Removed all bloatware. Dual booth Linux Ubuntu Studios. No change. OS isn't the problem here.

You might be on to something with the that stupid wire...shoot.

Help anyone? Ideas?

Do you actually NOT understand that the connection was coming apart due to vibration? Or that this thread was already solved? Jesus, you people make me twitch.

If you have a problem, start your own thread. Somebody else's thread is not the place to try and find answers to your own problem. It's called thread hijacking and we HIGHLY frown on it.