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130 Posts
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538757
E5440 Fan Speed and Noise
Every other machine has a thread complaining about fan noise so I thought I'd create one for the E5440 too :emotion-1:
I've had my E5440 for about 3 months and generally happy with it. Most annoying aspect however is fan control and noise in casual use.
I've used some software to track temps and the fan speed. I can see by default the fan is completely off while temps rise over ~12 minutes. Then the fan cuts in at 3000rpm and drones on for ~12 minutes. All temperatures fall back to their baseline after ~6 minutes but the fan keeps going for no obvious reason.
Fan off:
Fan on:
Considering this machine has a 4th generation i5 rated at only 15W I didn't expect the fan to be running half the time at a minimum of 3000rpm! Especially when the CPU is idling.
My old 2008 HP machine has an old Core 2 Duo chip rated at a huge 65W and yet in casual use the fan spins constantly and quietly at ~1000rpm and rarely ramps up at all.
It seems that the calibration for casual use is off. The HP method of keeping the fan spinning slowly at all times is much more desirable than alternating between 12 minutes silence and 12 minutes of droning noise.
Note: I updated to the latest BIOS A07 last week with no notiable improvement in fan control. The BIOS seems to have no fan control options.
I was hoping to use SpeedFan software to control the fan myself but although it can monitor fan speed it can't gain control.
DComm
7 Posts
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February 21st, 2015 20:00
I'm now curious as to how the sensors might be able to be replaced or modified, allowing for a lower temperature report to BIOS.
DComm
7 Posts
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February 21st, 2015 21:00
Or a lower fan speed report, for that matter.
CurbedLarry
130 Posts
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February 22nd, 2015 07:00
Done some testing on battery power alone and there's huge reduction in fan use.
Graph below shows the fan switches off almost immediately as soon as the CPU temperate is below ~55C and the cores are below 40C. Doesn't seem to care what the GPU temp is.
This means it's happy to run the CPU package hotter to stop the fan burning battery power. All my Windows power options are identical for battery or plugged in so clearly the BIOS is completely ignoring my request for a "passive/quiet" cooling policy when plugged in.
All we want is on-battery fan control to be available when plugged in! I'm pretty sure this is why so many Dell customers are annoyed by noise.
Bennorsson
11 Posts
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February 24th, 2015 07:00
There are two new BIOS updates from january and february. Let's see if those make a difference. Doubt it, though.
www.dell.com/.../DriversDetails
CurbedLarry
130 Posts
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February 24th, 2015 12:00
Don't bother trying, I already installed these when they came out and they contain nothing relevant. A big power management fix will come in a July BIOS release.
I'm starting to think it's a problem with just Windows 7, where the cooling scheme is stuck on "Active". Shawn B of Dell is hopefully passing my data back to the engineers for consideration in that next BIOS update.
Fingers crossed we might finally get some real cooling profiles that work with different temperature thresholds!
RBBen
74 Posts
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February 26th, 2015 03:00
Hi CurbedLarry,
I'm also annoyed by the fan on the E6440. on AC it's almost always on even when I'm not doing anything that is CPU/GPU intensive. It's similar when its on battery also... I'm in Canada and the ambient temperature is around 20C (68F) at this time of the year.
on Windows you have a few profiles in Dell Power Manager under the advanced tab but there is no such thing on Linux so I'm stuck with the default profile...
I've requested technical documentation to Dell so the situation can be improved on Linux but I doubt that Dell will share anything with us..
with all the issues that I've had with Dell (keyboard debouncing issue, trackpad/trackpoint issue and now USB3 running as USB2...)I don't want to spend time on collecting information to demonstrate to Dell that their default thermal/fan profile is annoying and unnecessary aggressive.
CurbedLarry
130 Posts
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February 26th, 2015 11:00
If you're running Linux you should be able to use "i8kutils" or whatever it's called.
Just don't ask me how to install or use it, but these might help:
http://keenformatics.blogspot.com.tr/2013/06/how-to-solve-dell-laptops-fan-issues-in.html
https://launchpad.net/i8kutils
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/gutsy/man1/i8kmon.1.html
RBBen
74 Posts
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February 26th, 2015 14:00
doesn't work the bios monitor the fan speed...
CurbedLarry
130 Posts
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February 27th, 2015 11:00
Some people reporting a workaround here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/i8kutils/+bug/410596/comments/12
The developer has been on this forum in the past:
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/f/4613/t/19579258
Disappointing Dell has taken a "we know best" attitude to engineering their machines, even though they target power users and Linux users.
Fan control is a classic case where they think one set of fan control rules/speeds will suit everybody using machines in loud/quiet/hot/cold/damp/dry environments, under light/heavy use, when the lid is open/closed, docked/undocked, off mains or battery... Incredibly naive.
RBBen
74 Posts
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March 1st, 2015 07:00
Thanks for the link, looks like its unsafe to use though..=/
This is completely ridiculous...
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0: +41.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0: +38.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1: +41.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
i8k-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
Right Fan: 2607 RPM
CPU: +41.0°C
temp2: +41.0°C
temp3: +36.0°C
the fan have been running for about 10 minutes now and im not doing anything cpu intensive...
RBBen
74 Posts
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March 1st, 2015 08:00
SSD.
It wouldn't surprise me if Dell decided to design one or two thermal/fan profiles and apply it to other notebooks as well to save time and money...
I mean, how did they come up with sucha poor solution otherwise?
I have a E6440 so the cooling system might be bigger (Intel M processors vs ULV),
Right Fan: 2590 RPM
Yea, I think that this is the low speed. Seems like theres only two speed for the fan lol.
CurbedLarry
130 Posts
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March 1st, 2015 08:00
My machine was driving me nuts again last night, similar temps ~40C but the fan just went on and on and on... Only leaving it completely idle for 10 minutes stopped it.
I'm wondering if the temperature thresholds were calibrated for machines with an SSD? Does yours have an old school hard disc like mine?
Does your fan really run at 2,600rpm under Linux? That's an improvement on the whining 3,000rpm I get under Windows 7.
RBBen
74 Posts
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March 1st, 2015 09:00
Dell is not very good at making computers ;)
Anyway, I'll wait to see if they're going to share any doc. if they don't ill try to get them to open a bug report so they can fix their ugly fan issues :)
CurbedLarry
130 Posts
0
March 1st, 2015 09:00
I don't know how they can implement such a dumb fan control system and not care if customers are happy with it or want to see if it can be improved based on real world experiences.
I guess they would only care if they got a lot of machines returned due to overheating. They're assuming that if machines work and don't catch fire then they must be perfect.
Annoyingly the tech website reviews for Dell machines haven't picked up on it either. I guess they don't sit in front of the machine all day, every day, long enough to be annoyed by it. If they were marking machines down for loud and annoying fans then Dell might sit up and take notice.
RBBen
74 Posts
0
March 2nd, 2015 01:00
Okay this is so weird. I rebooted and now the fan seems to be less aggressive at attempting to dissipate heat
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0: +49.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0: +44.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1: +47.0°C (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
i8k-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
Right Fan: 0 RPM
It started again at 51C