Question Why is my GPU fan insane?

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Oct 8, 2019
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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.
 

spicelol

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Well not expert but

I think it's your overclocking problem because the gpu doesn't have enough cooling inside laptop box/case

try reverting overclock settings to default (don't really remember the name)

plus you put it in silent mode it means that it tries to keep low rpms but since you overcolcked it. It heats faster. And it need to be cooled down so it goes high rpm to cool it off

Hope you understood not an expert not gonna feel bad if you won't trust me or stuff like that

Good luck :)
 
Oct 8, 2019
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It heats faster. And it need to be cooled down so it goes high rpm to cool it off

So, higher clock speeds are causing rapid heat increases, and the software controlling the fan is responding to that rate of increase by spinning up the fans to counter it. Basically, its probably using an exponential function and assuming the temperature of the GPU to get over 100 degrees Celsius, and countering that.

I don't see any reason why the software couldn't be smart enough to do that. I hadn't considered that viewpoint.

I'm not familiar with overclocking, I had professionals do it for me. Is there any advice for handling this?
 

spicelol

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So, higher clock speeds are causing rapid heat increases, and the software controlling the fan is responding to that rate of increase by spinning up the fans to counter it. Basically, its probably using an exponential function and assuming the temperature of the GPU to get over 100 degrees Celsius, and countering that.

I don't see any reason why the software couldn't be smart enough to do that. I hadn't considered that viewpoint.

I'm not familiar with overclocking, I had professionals do it for me. Is there any advice for handling this?
As I said not expert


Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk
 
Oct 8, 2019
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So, I've attempted using the following programs to gain control over my laptops fans... in any way, shape, fashion, or form.

MSI Afterburner
GPU Tweak II
Speedfans

The only thing that even registers that I have fans is the ASUS ROG program, everything else seems to think I don't have fans in my laptop.

I spent a lot of money on this laptop and all it does is embarrass me in public. I would love to go to the library, get away from all my distractions, and do homework, but I am just a distraction there.
 
My laptop IS over clocked, but that doesn't explain the behavior.

Yes, it does, 150%, fully explain the behavior. Laptops are not meant to be overclocked. Neither the hardware nor the enclosure are designed to have ANY amount of tolerance for a dynamic change in thermal metrics. They are precisely designed to operate within the exact parameters that each and every component left the factory calibrated for. Anything you do that upsets that balance, whether it's overclocking the GPU or graphics card, making voltage changes, running it in extremely warm high ambient room temperatures, operating the machine on your lap or on the bed where your pants or blankets might block airflow through the very minimal cooling vents, even for short periods of time, can all upset the cooling calibration.

Anything it wasn't meant to do, and even some things it was meant to do, when done under conditions it was not meant to be operated in, can not only have a dramatic effect on the internal temperatures of EVERYTHING inside the case, unlike a desktop where one component is a lot less likely to have an immediate effect on another components thermal condition, but can easily and quickly cause permanent damage to components when the conditions overcome the cooling designs ability to remain within spec.

Even bone stock laptops that are used for extended gaming, and no matter what kind of laptop it is, called "gaming" or not, gaming on them is a poor idea, tend to eventually exhibit thermal problems. There is simply not enough room inside these enclosures to provide adequate cooling even for the hardware that it comes with and is configured for, in many cases, under sustained extended conditions, much less when you throw that entire delicate balance off by doing something like overclocking hardware that was already at the edge of the limit in terms of what the cooling system could reliable keep in check.

And if there is an actual problem, such as a faulty fan OR a fan or motherboard that have burnt out some portion of the system such as wiring or a diode used for thermal monitoring, the problem could be more immediate or even instantaneous. If this unit is under warranty I would absolutely RMA it now, not later.
 
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Oct 8, 2019
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Yes, it does, 150%, fully explain the behavior. Laptops are not meant to be overclocked. Neither the hardware nor the enclosure are designed to have ANY amount of tolerance for a dynamic change in thermal metrics. They are precisely designed to operate within the exact parameters that each and every component left the factory calibrated for. Anything you do that upsets that balance, whether it's overclocking the GPU or graphics card, making voltage changes, running it in extremely warm high ambient room temperatures, operating the machine on your lap or on the bed where your pants or blankets might block airflow through the very minimal cooling vents, even for short periods of time, can all upset the cooling calibration.

Anything it wasn't meant to do, and even some things it was meant to do, when done under conditions it was not meant to be operated in, can not only have a dramatic effect on the internal temperatures of EVERYTHING inside the case, unlike a desktop where one component is a lot less likely to have an immediate effect on another components thermal condition, but can easily and quickly cause permanent damage to components when the conditions overcome the cooling designs ability to remain within spec.

Even bone stock laptops that are used for extended gaming, and no matter what kind of laptop it is, called "gaming" or not, gaming on them is a poor idea, tend to eventually exhibit thermal problems. There is simply not enough room inside these enclosures to provide adequate cooling even for the hardware that it comes with and is configured for, in many cases, under sustained extended conditions, much less when you throw that entire delicate balance off by doing something like overclocking hardware that was already at the edge of the limit in terms of what the cooling system could reliable keep in check.

And if there is an actual problem, such as a faulty fan OR a fan or motherboard that have burnt out some portion of the system such as wiring or a diode used for thermal monitoring, the problem could be more immediate or even instantaneous. If this unit is under warranty I would absolutely RMA it now, not later.

For the record, there's nothing here I disagree with from the scientific viewpoint. But I disagree under my cirumstances - one of the things I've done recently was to choose the global option to default to the integrated graphics unit, the GPU [fan] is still wild, so no amount of overclocking (or the reverse) has caused this issue. I am out of warranty, so that's a no go. I opened it up and inspected it and I don't see anything weird (as much as one could tell without going deeper anyway). No discoloration of wires, connections are properly seated, etc.

Now, here's something weird, and I wonder if anybody else has seen something similar, and I'm still in the process of testing this.

I have had my laptop running for several hours without this issue at this point.

I stopped using Microsoft Edge. That's it.

I have a game running in the background now (its not crazy), with the intent of making sure the GPU is actually under a load. Even at 80 degrees Celsius, the fan is running at 3000 RPM with a stable temperature. I did a google search, it seems like people have been having GPU load issues with Microsoft programs, oddly enough, that is actually a thing.

Now, I'm not saying this makes any sense, especially since my GPU loads were still low despite using Edge, it's purely an issue with why it's decision to spin up the fans unnecessarily. Will update in a couple of days to see what happens.

UPDATE: I just realized I had "SILENT" still selected, so it was only doing what was necessary to keep it under 80 degrees Celsius.

I switched to "BALANCED" and now it's spun up to a reasonable 4200 RPMs and keeping the GPU down under 70 degress Celsius.

I switched to "OVERBOOST" and the fan spun up to, what appears to be a max of, 5,100 RPMs, temperatures staying a little bit cooler. But the sound really isn't bad.

Which brings up a whole other issue - IF Microsoft Edge is the issue here, it's very strange that not only is it causing an unnecessary spin up of the fans, but several thousand RPMs greater than design as well, as if it were some kind of emergency that my CPU and GPU are about 38 degrees Celsius.

This just keeps getting weirder and weirder... Why can't I ever have normal computer issues?
 
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LOL. That's the same question ALL of us ask, pretty much every time one of us has an issue because they NEVER seem to be "normal" issues. I'm not even sure what a "normal" issue is on a PC anymore. Heh.

Normal to me, these days, is anything weird and unexplainable because it's practically ever issue we see nowadays. Gone are the days where it was simply a matter of unsupported hardware or disagreements with I/O addressing.

I haven't heard of anybody else having issues with Edge causing abnormal fan behaviors, but it's not that surprising to me and it is likely some kind of driver related issue.

At least your investigations did result in you figuring out the fan RPM issues, which is a good thing since keeping stuff cool is definitely a bigger consideration than whether or not the noise is irritating.
 
Oct 8, 2019
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"...is a good thing since keeping stuff cool is definitely a bigger consideration than whether or not the noise is irritating."

The irritating part has been the fact that I have no heat issues whatsoever. Only wildly unnecessary fan speeds. :(
 
Generally when fan speeds won't reduce in laptops it's because there has been a CPU or motherboard thermal fatigue issue and those are generally not reversible. In some cases it can be due to a faulty fan or thermal diode. Fan can obviously be replaced. Thermal diode means replacing the hardware.
 
Oct 8, 2019
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Thanks Darkbreeze!

So, as an update to my laptop, if I start up Microsoft Edge, my GPU fan will go wild. If I restart my computer, and never open Microsoft Edge, my GPU fan behaves exactly how I want and expect it to, despite the loads I put on it gaming or not.

I'm just swearing off Microsoft programs at this point unless I absolutely need to have them open.
 
Oct 8, 2019
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Darkbreeze - I haven't heard of that, will have to check it out.

Rubix - I hear you there. Microsoft Office applications in general have some kind desire to connect to the internet, Outlook will probably have to remain closed :(
 
Oct 8, 2019
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Alright, so I had a conversation with a guy at BestBuy when I was there looking for other computer stuff...

He brought up a couple of interesting things. Obviously there's an issue with the fans themselves, him thinking there's a frayed wire, something not seated correctly (like I've checked before), among other things, particularly that the temperature sensor is "just a wire" to which he's right... that's literally all it ever is.

So, I popped this thing back open tonight. Looking through: no frayed wires, no evidence I'm missing a thermal pad, nothing appears burnt/darkened and then I saw it... I'm mechanical, not electrical, so forgive me...

BUT, I see the wire leading from the GPU fan to where it connects on the motherboard... More importantly, the wire in between is laying over a kind of chip looking thing (cringe)... Like, no way this is causing an issue right?

Well, I push the wire to [my] left and, paying attention the absolute smallest details here, its as if all the uncovered wires [outside the protector leading to the male end] seemed to fall right into place, where before it looked like it had bedhead. Spent a little bit of time holding it over to that side until it stayed mostly there when I let go, then carefully put my laptop back together.

GPU fan is working. It isn't going crazy. I'm going to be gentle with this for a bit, not tilting or hauling it around. If it behaves over this next week, I'll buy some electrical tape, go in one more time, then tape it down. I'll also update this for posterity, maybe even include some pictures of what I'm talking about.
 
So this laptop had been apart previously? I'm glad you figured out the problem, but I'm thinking that would have had to be human caused, whether because you or somebody else had had it apart or because maybe it was blown out with too much force and slipped the connector out of it's socket. Unlike desktop hardware, laptop connectors are often easily dislodged, so too much direct airflow could, theoretically, dislodge one of them partially from their "home". That's all I can think of.

If it had always been that way, since it left the factory, then it would always have acted like that.
 
Oct 8, 2019
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I am now 2 days into it. This was definitely the fix.

So, I hear you about the "human caused" part of it, but I actually don't believe it is. This began 3 months after I got it, this actually matches a lot of stories I found, and the only person who got it fixed said they sent it in and there's a wire that was "bad." There was no evidence that this wire had been held down at any point in time by anything. Now, I did have custom work done with this before being sent to me, but I don't recall them needing to go as far as opening it all the way up like I did.

Here's what I'm thinking, and why I want to find some way to add pictures to this forum, is that this is a manufacturer problem. I believe that over time, if I don't tape this wire down, repeatedly pulling this in and out of my bag for school would lead to the wire moving right back to where it was. Not over a few days, or even a few weeks, but probably within another couple of months I will have this same problem.

If I'm right, then there's no way for them to ever know this was a design flaw.
 
Posting images is simple. Just upload the image to a hosting site like imgur, then click on your uploaded image and select the direct layouts code next to the image and copy that. Then come here and paste the code into the box that pops up when you click the picture button on the formatting toolbar above each post that is in between the smiley face and the two chain links. Poof. Images on forum.
 
Oct 8, 2019
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BTW, thanks for sticking around Darkbreeze, and for the help. I really hope this helps others...

This is an overview of the back of my laptop, the GPU fan is on the left and I've highlighted in red the area that you need to look at:

szdYi3q.jpg


Below is the close-up view of the wire. Unfortunately, I didn't know this was going to be the actual fix, so I didn't take a picture of it before I had fiddled with it, but originally it was laying much further to the right.

QkFTwvY.jpg


All I had to do to fix this originally was hold the wire over to the left (as seen below), it was a bit more aggressive than this, until it took the hint and wanted to stay in that general area. After doing this, and of course reassembling, my fan was sane, and has remained so.

While taking these pictures I've decided to go in and use some electrical tape to try and hold it in the area a little better for the long-term in case it wanted to "walk over" over time.

23wuwcm.jpg


I hope this helps someone.
Keywords: GL703, GL503
 
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