Laptop Acting Weird After Fresh Windows Install

BabyPCMR · September 27, 2018

I have a HP Envy x360 13 with a ryzen 5 2500u, 8gb of ddr4 - Product number 13M-AG0001DX

Everything was normal until I stupidly decided to do a fresh install of Windows 10.
Now the fans ram up for no reason what so ever, I could just have one chrome tab open. And the CPU isn't getting hot either, it stays at 45C and the fans just start up very loudly and abruptly. I have downloaded all the appropriate drivers, even updated the BIOS to the latest version. I have messed with all the power management features, I just don't understand what else to do at this point, I'm just very frustrated.

Thank you for reading, I hope someone knows enough to kindly help me out. I don't know where else to turn.

genexis_x · September 28, 2018

Unfortunately, bad firmware is common in Ryzen laptops since the ecosystem is still immature. This is why they have inconsistent CPU performance and poor battery life (mainly due to fans running).

deferentlemur · September 28, 2018

Since it is a fresh install, how long has this activity been occurring? The reason I ask is that Windows does a lot of background work all by itself. Things like updates, antivirus scans, disk defrag and indexing, etc. I have had systems that were sitting at idle and suddenly the fans start going crazy. Inspection of the task manager revealed Windows services doing maintenance stuff. Chrome even has its own background malware scanner now.

You could try going to Control Panel > Power Options > Edit Plan Settings > Change advanced power settings, scroll down to Processor power management > Maximum processor state, and change it to something like 10 percent. This will limit the max processor speed commanded by Windows. That way, no matter what background services are going on, the processor shouldn't heat up. This will identify a Windows versus firmware problem. Don't leave the setting there permanently, it's just for troubleshooting.

If the above steps do not reduce the CPU speed to maybe 800 MHz or so (visible in task manager > Performance tab), then there is likely a driver issue. You could try manually removing the drivers in device manager, and either letting Windows install its own validated drivers or get them straight from the AMD website.

Another quirk I have encountered in the past, and may or may not apply, is that things can get weird after a BIOS update. I have always been able to fix this by going into BIOS and restoring the default settings, or whatever option yours presents to you to return to the default state. After doing that and a restart that always fixed it for me.