Laptop fans go BERSERK at idle

[Shoopman]

My gf has an older model Asus ROG Strix 2 (gtx 1060, intel i7 8750H) and recently we've been having a problem with the fans going absolutely apeshit when the computer is at idle. I'm talking sitting on a desk on the other side of the room, not being touched by anyone idle. The fans will start to spin up, which is extremely annoying, and then they will continue on like this, spinning fast at varying frequencies, until the computer is shut down.

 

Fan profile is set to silent, but that does not seem to stop it from ramping up all the way. The other profiles actually make no difference at all.

 

Temps are fine, sitting at around 45-53C, which should be fine for a laptop. The CPU does not want to downclock no matter what I do however, which may be why the fans are spinning because the Asus ROG software is complete garbage.

 

Task manager looks ok, but the System task is always at the top using 1-7% CPU but is using "Very High" power.

 

Any ideas?

[Radium_Angel]

Dust the system out, raise the laptop up in the back so better airflow can get to it.

Set Windows Power profile to "max battery" (low power setting, I don't recall what it is actually called)

 

[Shoopman]

21 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Dust the system out, raise the laptop up in the back so better airflow can get to it.

Set Windows Power profile to "max battery" (low power setting, I don't recall what it is actually called)

 

I actually deep cleaned the entire laptop about 2 months ago. Took the back off, tore off the heat pipes and re-pasted the CPU and GPU. Cleaned out the fans as best I could and removed all the trapped hair/dust. It's running cooler than ever before and it still sounds like a rocket at idle.

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, Shoopman said:

I actually deep cleaned the entire laptop about 2 months ago. Took the back off, tore off the heat pipes and re-pasted the CPU and GPU. Cleaned out the fans as best I could and removed all the trapped hair/dust. It's running cooler than ever before and it still sounds like a rocket at idle.

Hmmm...ok

So, can you use something like Speedfan to override the cooling profile?

[Shoopman]

On 2/27/2021 at 3:55 PM, Radium_Angel said:

Hmmm...ok

So, can you use something like Speedfan to override the cooling profile?

No, Speedfan doesn't work on laptops unfortunately.

 

Also I figured out that it was the GPU fan that is going crazy, which is even more confusing. My tin foil hat theory is that either the GPU temp or the GPU fan speed is experiencing some sort of underflow glitch, which is setting the fan as high as it can go when it should be off completely. I messed around with Asus's awful "gaming center" software but it did nothing. I ended up uninstalling it altogether to see if it helped, which it did not. I disabled some startup services and it seemed to have helped, but last time I took a crack at this problem the fans eventually stopped then came back just as strong on the next day. 

 

The BIOS is locked down tighter that Fort Knox (thanks Asus), so that's another avenue blocked.

 

In case it wasn't obvious, the GPU is under zero load while the fans spin out of control. The fans go through a cycle and eventually will stop, but then will ramp up to full speed again a second later.

 

About to throw this thing out the window its so annoying.

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, Shoopman said:

No, Speedfan doesn't work on laptops unfortunately.

 

Also I figured out that it was the GPU fan that is going crazy, which is even more confusing. My tin foil hat theory is that either the GPU temp or the GPU fan speed is experiencing some sort of underflow glitch, which is setting the fan as high as it can go when it should be off completely. I messed around with Asus's awful "gaming center" software but it did nothing. I ended up uninstalling it altogether to see if it helped, which it did not. I disabled some startup services and it seemed to have helped, but last time I took a crack at this problem the fans eventually stopped then came back just as strong on the next day. 

 

The BIOS is locked down tighter that Fort Knox (thanks Asus), so that's another avenue blocked.

 

In case it wasn't obvious, the GPU is under zero load while the fans spin out of control. The fans go through a cycle and eventually will stop, but then will ramp up to full speed again a second later.

 

About to throw this thing out the window its so annoying.

I"m sure this isn't the case, but do you have a crypto-mining malware sneaking about on your system?

Does this occur under Safe Mode?

 

[Shoopman]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I"m sure this isn't the case, but do you have a crypto-mining malware sneaking about on your system?

Does this occur under Safe Mode?

 

I really hope not lmao. I havent tried safe mode yet, I will once my anger has subsided. Currently in the process of backing things up so we can do a fresh windows install. If that doesn't fix it, it has to be a hardware problem. Probably broke something when I opened it up, but the problem didn't start until last week.

[Radium_Angel]

7 minutes ago, Shoopman said:

I really hope not lmao. I havent tried safe mode yet, I will once my anger has subsided. Currently in the process of backing things up so we can do a fresh windows install. If that doesn't fix it, it has to be a hardware problem. Probably broke something when I opened it up, but the problem didn't start until last week.

I understand. The other option, is run a LiveUSB of some Linux Distro (Linux Mint is very Windows-like)

If the GPU fan goes stupid under Linux, then yeah, it's a hardware issue.

If not, then it's something in Windows.