Reducing HP Elitebook fan noise

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timmmay

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#279660 30-Oct-2020 16:37

Is there any practical way to reduce the noise of the Elitebook G7 fan? My work computer is brand new and the fan noise is getting pretty annoying, compared with the surface laptop 2 that was much much quieter doing similar work. I rarely if ever heard the Surface fan, but I wasn't doing as much CPU intensive work when I had it. When it did spin up it was much, much quieter. I changed from a Surface to Elitebook because the Surface WiFi was a bit rubbish, but I used USB ethernet most of the time anyway.

The HP fan spins up whenever I do more than very light web browsing. Doing things like building docker containers or even a basic build the fan spins up almost immediately, and fan speed changing constantly which is worse than staying on high and at a set speed.

I find it's slightly better with the laptop open than closed - I don't use the screen, I use an external monitor. I have it sitting on top of my home PC, a hard surface, so airflow is probably pretty good.

Is there any way to configure it to be quieter? Is there likely something wrong with it, or is this normal for the probook? My next approach will be to buy a 5+m long USB-C extension cable and put it in another room.

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#2594072 30-Oct-2020 17:06

I use an Elitebook G6, and so does my workmate in the same office. My fan hardly ever runs, while his runs practically constantly in the same way you describe your does.

We have pretty much the same desktop setup, using USB-C docks and not opening the lappy lid.

I keep reminding him to get it fixed under warranty, but he has mild hearing loss from too many gigs and barely notices it.

I suggest a warranty call for excessive fan noise that suggests either excess heat or a faulty heat sensor.

ashtonaut

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#2594086 30-Oct-2020 17:57

I’ve had success in this situation (different brand laptop) using Notebook Fan Control:

https://github.com/hirschmann/nbfc

SATTV

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#2594093 30-Oct-2020 18:45

There is a setting in the BIOS to use the fan when connected to power, you might like to turn this off and see if it helps you.

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timmmay

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#2594119 30-Oct-2020 20:22

BlueShift:

I use an Elitebook G6, and so does my workmate in the same office. My fan hardly ever runs, while his runs practically constantly in the same way you describe your does.

We have pretty much the same desktop setup, using USB-C docks and not opening the lappy lid.

I keep reminding him to get it fixed under warranty, but he has mild hearing loss from too many gigs and barely notices it.

I suggest a warranty call for excessive fan noise that suggests either excess heat or a faulty heat sensor.

I just ran hardware diagnostics and it passed. My gut feel is it's not hardware or a fault, but overactive fan settings. Worth considering though.

timmmay

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#2594120 30-Oct-2020 20:23

SATTV:

There is a setting in the BIOS to use the fan when connected to power, you might like to turn this off and see if it helps you.

Thanks for the idea. Not sure this laptop is supported but I'll look around. I did put a CPU temp app on the laptop and it the fan seems a bit over-active, ramping up earlier than it really needs to.

timmmay

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#2594121 30-Oct-2020 20:24

SATTV:

There is a setting in the BIOS to use the fan when connected to power, you might like to turn this off and see if it helps you.

Thanks John. I'll poke around but not entirely sure what you mean. Is there a setting for turning the fan on all the time when plugged in that I should turn off? It's not on all the time, only when it gets hot.

ashtonaut

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#2594146 30-Oct-2020 20:53

timmmay:
SATTV:

There is a setting in the BIOS to use the fan when connected to power, you might like to turn this off and see if it helps you.

Thanks for the idea. Not sure this laptop is supported but I'll look around. I did put a CPU temp app on the laptop and it the fan seems a bit over-active, ramping up earlier than it really needs to.

This was exactly my issue - fan was overly aggressive. NBFC tamed it right down and I’ve had zero issues since. I used a config profile for a similar model and it worked fine.

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timmmay

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#2594160 30-Oct-2020 21:04

I'll give it a shot thanks @ashtonaut

I ran HP diagnostics and it found two failures before it wouldn't do any more tests.

battery check - primary - replace (42)
Charging port test (failed)

The fan / temperature tests came back fine. I assume it pegs the CPU at 100%, the fan spun up eventually but not near as early as I expected. I guess the problem then is the driver spinning the fan up too early.

I had HP support out a few weeks ago for a probook that turns out to be a software problem. I didn't much like the surface laptops but so far the HPs seem much more problematic, not great for a $3K laptop.

Lias

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#2595616 31-Oct-2020 20:16

timmmay:

I'll give it a shot thanks @ashtonaut

I ran HP diagnostics and it found two failures before it wouldn't do any more tests.

battery check - primary - replace (42)
Charging port test (failed)
The fan / temperature tests came back fine. I assume it pegs the CPU at 100%, the fan spun up eventually but not near as early as I expected. I guess the problem then is the driver spinning the fan up too early.

I had HP support out a few weeks ago for a probook that turns out to be a software problem. I didn't much like the surface laptops but so far the HPs seem much more problematic, not great for a $3K laptop.

Ironically I'm trying to pursuade my boss to throw out our Surfaces and replace them with nice quality HP's.

The surfaces are probably fine for people who don't actually want to do any work, and want a shiny status symbol (e.g. the people who normally buy Apple), but their performance is just.. terrible... I can hand on heart say that overall, my 8 year old personal Probook runs better than any of the 3 modern surface devices I've tried.

Give me an Elitebook or Zbook any day.

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yann

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#2595624 31-Oct-2020 20:43

I have a HP Elitebook G7 for work, mainly run with cover down and plugged into a HP thunderbolt dock (2 x monitors). I don't think I've heard my fan fire up on the laptop, though the dock does occasionally have some fan noise. I don't remember hearing any if much noise when using it off dock, as it is mainly just Outlook or Office apps whilst in meetings. I can try some tests to see when the fans spin up, but don't really recall being aware of fan noise.

Yann

timmmay

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#2595695 31-Oct-2020 22:11

Lias:

Ironically I'm trying to pursuade my boss to throw out our Surfaces and replace them with nice quality HP's.

The surfaces are probably fine for people who don't actually want to do any work, and want a shiny status symbol (e.g. the people who normally buy Apple), but their performance is just.. terrible... I can hand on heart say that overall, my 8 year old personal Probook runs better than any of the 3 modern surface devices I've tried.

Give me an Elitebook or Zbook any day.

It took a bit of effort to get changed over. I didn't love the Surface, and in generally I like the Elitebook better, but this fan noise is driving me a bit crazy. The Surface performance is fine, the fans are really quiet even when I'm running VMs doing CPU intensive stuff, but the WiFi is a bit rubbish and it only has one port.

I actually wanted a Probook, with an ethernet port. Instead I got an Elitebook which requires the USB-C dock to get Ethernet. I could use WiFi but Ethernet is generally more reliable.

timmmay

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#2595696 31-Oct-2020 22:13

yann:

I have a HP Elitebook G7 for work, mainly run with cover down and plugged into a HP thunderbolt dock (2 x monitors). I don't think I've heard my fan fire up on the laptop, though the dock does occasionally have some fan noise. I don't remember hearing any if much noise when using it off dock, as it is mainly just Outlook or Office apps whilst in meetings. I can try some tests to see when the fans spin up, but don't really recall being aware of fan noise.

Interested to hear what happens when you do something a bit CPU intensive - this website can generate CPU load easily.

A guy at work got one at the same time and he's said something similar, but he's not doing CPU intensive stuff at all. I'm doing some development type work, 50% CPU for 10 - 20 seconds is all, that spins up the fans pretty quickly.

I'm starting to think the one I have may be faulty, as well as the actual faults diagnostics found. The heat test came back fine though.

yann

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#2595700 31-Oct-2020 22:30

I'll look to try some of the tests and let you know what fan noise is like.

Connectivity wise, I'm connected via ethernet whilst on the HP dock, but I do have one of the little HP USB-C to RJ45 Adapters that I keep with my portable power supply. Looking at the adapter, the model number is RTL8153-03. I don't actually use the notebook much away from the dock, but when I do, I generally just use wifi since it is just occasional.

timmmay

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#2595702 31-Oct-2020 22:39

My dock is USB-C connected and is a box it's about 5 cm high and 15 cm square, which I have hidden behind my desk. I use it for wired ethernet and display port as that's what my monitor wants. I didn't even know the dock had a fan, it's just a laptop fan that's bugging me.

Any computer with the CPU really busy is going to need cooling, it's just that this fan spins up earlier than I think it should and it's annoyingly loud compared with the surface.

RunningMan

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#2595792 1-Nov-2020 07:43

Been through this before. Sat it under the desk on top of some drawers. Bit inconvenient to plug and unplug the dock cable, but concealed the noise OK.

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