m15 R7, fans go loud when lid is closed

Question

Hello! Got Alienware m15 R7 laptop. I understand when fans go loud in case of high load, this laptop is a rather powerful thing. In general it is quiet. The strange thing is that even when there is no load and I close the lid - fans immediately go loud for no visible reasons. I don't see any hard working processes appear on CPU or GPU. Then I open up the lid - and fans noise immediately goes down to 0. Close the lid - again fans think they are a part of a launching plane.

BIOS is updated to the latest version, but I don't see fans related settings. The general setting "quiet" instead of "balanced" made laptop just a little quieter, but not enough.

OS is Linux. Driver "nvidia". External monitor is connected (but the same thing without it).

Tried with disabled/enabled integrated GPU - no difference. Tried to disable a lot of CPU cores - no difference.

Other idea was that closed lid blocks fans holes between keyboard and monitor, and than it's harder for the hot air to go up. But if I manually block holes nothing happens. So it seems that lid's switch is activating something.

If I disable lid's switch in BIOS - problem disappears, but then built-in monitor is always turned on/enabled, even when I need the external monitor only. So this is not a solution.

What forces fans to become very active and loud when the lid is closed and how to fix that?

crimsom · Answer

Hi @kurhlaa welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum.

It seems that this Alienware M15 R7 issue has already been Solved: m15 R6, fan speed issue when lid closed - Dell Community. However, your diagnostic testing did not see this as a fix.

Have a look at Help with M15 R7! : r/Alienware (reddit.com). Windows 11 removed 'system cooling policy' as an option from the power plan, meaning you can't select 'passive cooling'. Try this fix.

kurhlaa · Answer

@crimsom , thank you for checking this issue.

About another M15 R6 case - I would say it is not solved, as he just accepted such behavior as normal. But my test shows, that manual blocking of air holes doesn't speed up fans, probably because internal temperature doesn't go up so fast immediately. It feels like lid's switch does something bad or not required.

About Windows 11 "features" mentioned on reddit - I use Arch Linux - do you advices for that?

kurhlaa · Answer

Any new info or updates about this issue?

Jbxxx · Answer

I use it for music, so this kills me. Will not buy any alienware. A complete disappointment. Support doesn't solve any problem. Everything is DIY.

crimsom · Answer

Hi&#xa0;@kurhlaa&#xa0;and&#xa0;@Jbxxx&#xa0;the&#xa0;Alienware m15 R7 laptop design includes ventilation vents that are covered (disabled) when the lid is closed. It seems that this laptop cannot be used when lid is closed.&#xa0; Dell Alienware m15 R7&#xa0;Drivers & Downloads&#xa0;does not provide drivers for the&#xa0;Arch Linux operating system. Consequently there will be Dell Warranty Support for just Windows 11.&#xa0; Supported Operating Systems​ | Dell Canada.&#xa0;&#xa0;

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m15 R7, fans go loud when lid is closed

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