The CPU is under 15% load, the laptop body feels barely warm in the warmest places but the fans are running at about 50% (by sound estimation) constantly. Really loud but also unceasing. It’s very distracting and annoying.
How can I get the fans to chill out and not overdrive themselves for no benefit. Cooling works better in a higher temperature differencial so having fans rev this hard when the CPU is barely warm is just a waste. Not to mention the deminishing returns of running fans at 50% vs running them at 25%.
Due to the design of the fan system, I can’t even mitigate the noise by having the laptop elevated or the screen more open since the fan noise is made internally with the body of the laptop - not hair rushing past the table for example. I’m not an expert but my understanding is that this kind of fan noise also means the air isn’t flowing efficiently through the laptop - thus more power usage and noise for less cooling.
So i guess you need to give us some more context here.
11th or 12th gen?
What operating system are you using?
What are you doing to get to 15% load (whatever 15% load means anyways)
What programs do you have installed, that could potentially have a demanding background process running
Is your laptop sitting on a table, on your lap, on your blanket in bed?
What are the actual temperatures of the cpu?
The design is what almost every other laptop uses. Sucking in air from the bottom, dissipating it to the back.
Actually both should improve your situation. Elevating it makes it easier to suck fresh air from the bottom and opening the screen more will make sure the hot air can get away better, since the vents are at an angle. Closing the screen is blocking the vents.
Still i guess you have another issue here, that we need to find.
Agreed more information would be helpful. With that said unless you power limit the CPU with RAPL/TLP/PPD / battery saver mode or change the fan curve yourself as far as I can tell this is just normal for the Framework laptop or perhaps all laptops now? Comparing to my previous machines this one is loud doing anything unless power limited even a 30s 200MB download from idle.
12th Gen
Windows
15% average utilization based on Task Manager’s performance tracking features
Closing a certain app put the CPU usage down to 8% and the fans turned way down but having fans cranked so high on such low sustained utilization numbers isn’t ideal.
Laptop is on a table with the screen at 140 degrees open
I don’t know if I can get temp numbers without 3rd party apps
I think you are right you would need to install software, here are two good options. HWINFO has much more information (so much it could be quite daunting) both will show you temperatures and clock speeds CPU utilization which are important metrics, e.g. 15% of 1GHz vs 15% of 3GHz is significantly different.
Same issue, the fan noise is really annoying even with 10-15% of load. For load more than 30% a headset with noise cancellation is required.
Is there any real solution how to completely handle the noise issue? TBH I have never met such noise from other modern laptops.
I’ve had my 12th gen laptop 13 (Intel i7-1260P, 32 GB RAM, Windows 11, BIOS v3.05, 2x USB-C cards, 1x USB-A, 1x HDMI 1st gen) for less than 2 years. Since first switching it on, it has always been quite noisy when the fan is running, and the fan runs at high duty whenever total cpu activity exceeds ~15-20%. It is noticeably noisier than any other laptop I’ve used, and attracts (the wrong sort of) attention in quiet environments with other laptop users. Battery life isn’t amazing but I’m aware this has always been a bit of an issue for 12th gen units, and the fan often running high would not help this. The 1st gen HDMI card is known to drain power and has not had the hardware or firmware fix applied.
Should I be
(a) contacting Framework to discuss inspection/diagnosis under warranty, or
(b) looking to upgrade hardware and identify firmware/software solutions?
I’m aware I need to update the BIOS to 3.08, although judging by posts on this forum, I probably shouldn’t expect any improvements relevant for my concerns. I’m also aware the HDMI card has inefficient power draw and the later cards have improved this, although the improvement is perhaps not seismic.
If there are hardware upgrades or software controls I could install, what would these be, within the limitation of sticking with the existing motherboard?
I’m not really expecting the fan not to be spinning at all, it’s really the high duty at which it’s operating and the consequent high noise levels, even without intensive activity on the machine that would be expected to cause higher temperatures (which typically coincide with elevated CPU load), that is the problem.
Screenshot attached of activity and temp when fans run up high - baseline CPU temp when idling is around 60 deg (1-second average). With a little activity (for example, switching windows, taking a few screenshots), this quickly reaches 70-90 deg. [I can’t monitor the machine temp such as shown in the previous post by Johannes_Theilmann, as it is not available in Libre on my machine]. If these temperatures are ‘hot’, then I guess the next question is, why is the machine running so ‘hot’, given that it is not under great demand, and is not in a hot environment (I’d estimate indoor ambient temp here is ~19deg). I don’t think this machine would ever be as low as 54 deg (CPU temp), after running for more than a few minutes.
Have tried using the Fan Control software getfancontrol.com, but it doesn’t detect any fan speed control to use - this is probably not surprising as it’s built on Libre, and Libre also does not detect any fan control sensor.
I think I may have the solution you’re looking for.
I had a very similar situation with my FW13 12th Gen i5 laptop running W11.
The excessive fan speed and also heat generation on the bottom of the laptop occurred when I plugged in my laptop to charge with literally any charger, be it the OEM FW 60W or the Anker 737 120W charger with two identical Anker C-C cables rated for 100W throughput (one charger at a time ofc). On any surface, and with no load on the system, the fan would just kick in relentlessly until I unplugged the charger from the device.
I opened the device looking for the problem and unmounted the CPU cooler assembly and looked for the chips responsible for the charging and power management around the CPU and promptly found them left to the CPU. What I noticed is that the thermal pads for the power management chips were making poor contact to the chips, likely causing them to heat up with literally any load going through them, I thought.
I then removed the thinner one on the right bank of components (IDK what they are called, sorry) and, laid down a healthy Gallup of thermal paste on them and one more on the left bank, but left on the thermal pad on that one because I thought that it’d be a gap too pig to bridge with thermal paste alone.
FF to reassembly and testing. Turns out I was right on the money.
I first threw on Cinebench R23 to drain the battery, since the battery was charged to 99% before testing and checked the package power. Off the wall the CPU now drew 25-32W on the battery alone, ALOT more than before (~19-25W).
When the battery was depleted to 19% charge I went to plug in the 120W Anker 737 charger and to my delight I heard nothing coming from the laptop. No noise from the fan anymore.
What I yet have to try is how it’ll behave when charging with the lid closed, because that caused the same issue, rampant fan noise and dump heat buildup on the bottom of the laptop.
I hope this information helps you fix the issue with your laptop.
(I put the leftover thermal pad under the SSD)
The fan is very loud and constant when I plug in my new Framework 13 to charge.
If I unplug it, the fan noise reduces, but I can still hear it running. I am not running demanding applications and expected the laptop to be almost silent.
If I prop it up by 1cm at the back so air can flow more easily, then the temperature drops slightly but I can still hear the fan.
CPU temperature, power connected, on desk: 78°C
CPU temperature, power disconnected, on desk: 67°C
CPU temperature, power disconnected, propped up: 62°C
My last Framework 13 (i5-1340P) did not have this problem. Neither did my Dell XPS 13.
More info:
Ultra 5 125H (4.5GHz, 4+8 cores)
Ubuntu 24.04
Only Firefox is running, with 6 tabs open
Hardly any other programs installed (it’s a brand new laptop)
At my desk the eGPU is always plugged in and provides power to the laptop. Turbo ON
Little to no load, fans are full send. Average 55C with the help of a laptop cooler.
Moderate load (like a VM), fans are full send and occasional spike to 90-100C.
At my desk w/ eGPU & Turbo Off
Little to Moderate load, fans are mild speed/noise, Average 45-55C with the help of a laptop cooler. Occasionally heating up to 75-80C.
Mostly an issue when compiling source. Disabling Turbo significantly helps with the temps but obviously increases compile time.
When disconnected from power it is less noisy and I’m much less inclined to disable Turbo depending on what I’m doing but I don’t have any stats on it.
I wanted to share my experience addressing fan noise and cooling issues with the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1280P.
Initially, I noticed that the fan would idle at around 3000 RPM, which was quite loud. To address this, I installed fw-fancrtl and set the profile to laziest. This adjustment brought the idle fan speed down to around 1600 RPM, which is practically silent and a huge improvement.
Recently, however, I noticed that the fan started to whistle under load. I decided to clean the cooler, which involved unscrewing three small Philips screws to access it. I found a significant amount of dirt inside, which I cleaned out thoroughly. I also replaced the thermal paste with new paste (I used Thermalright TF7).
The results have been great! My system now runs about 5°C cooler on average (idle around 40°C), and the whistling noise under load is completely gone. Overall, I’m really happy with the improvement.
If you’re facing similar issues, I highly recommend giving your cooler a cleaning and refreshing the thermal paste. It made a noticeable difference for me!
