FW 13 DYI AMD Issues: Overheating and Fan Noise on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

I recently purchased a new Framework 13 (AMD) laptop, and unfortunately, my experience has been filled with issues right from day one. Here’s a breakdown of the main problems I’ve faced:

The CPU frequently reaches temperatures of up to 100°C, and the fans get so loud that they’re audible even while I’m wearing headphones. I’m running Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS, and this seems to be a widespread issue. I’ve even heard the fan noise in official Framework videos on YouTube, so I know I’m not alone in this.

Beyond these two main problems, there have been other frustrating things that have compounded my disappointment with this purchase but those are irrelevant.

Despite all of these issues, I see many people justifying their purchase of a Framework laptop. I understand the appeal of a modular, repairable device, but having to deal with these problems from day one is far from what I expected.

I’m seriously considering returning my Framework 13. This isn’t the experience I hoped for, and I’m left feeling very disappointed. The device costs more than 1.8k EUR…

Has anyone else experienced similar issues, and if so, how did you manage to fix them?

Hello there, thanks for your response.

Yes, I bought the DIY edition of the Framework 13. The bezel issue has been resolved now. After spending about an hour trying to make it fit, I eventually gave up. However, it seems that over time (maybe due to the pressure from being close), it finally stuck in place. So, the bezel problem isn’t as terrible now, but it was frustrating as a first impression with the DIY edition.

Regarding the CPU temperature, I haven’t done anything intensive with the laptop. I’m a developer by profession, but I haven’t been using the laptop for any professional work yet. So far, I’ve mostly just used it to browse the web. The fan noise and temperature spikes happened while I was watching some videos online. For monitoring, I’ve been using htop and sensors to check CPU activity and temperature.

I’m not really a hardware expert, but I wouldn’t expect such a powerful CPU to get so hot just from watching videos. That said, this issue seems to happen randomly. For example, right now, as I type this, the laptop is cool and the fans are quiet.

Which browser are you using and have you setup it to use VA-API?

Atleast Firefox by default has it disabled (this can depend on your OS - not sure if Ubuntu enables it by default for AMD). I don’t know if Chrome based browsers currently have working VA-API support - haven’t really followed up on it, but it has been real hit and miss previously (might work on some version and broken after a update etc)

I have the 7840U version and running CachyOS (Arch) and my fans are mostly quiet. Although I haven’t really stressed the system, only when building few AUR packages I can hear the fans starting to ramp up.

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I am using Firefox, VA-API is enabled.
Also I have noticed this only while the laptop is attached to my monitor which I also use as a power source.
Considering those CPU issues appear randomly i have little information about it, but will keep the post updated once i gather more info and provide some outputs from the tools i am using.

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here is the full output of upower:

power supply: yes
updated: So 15 Sep 2024 16:36:31 CEST (27 seconds ago)
has history: no
has statistics: no
battery
present: yes
state: charging
warning-level: none
energy: 48,6072 Wh
energy-full: 60,4804 Wh
energy-rate: 20,3872 W
charge-cycles: N/A
time to full: 34,9 minutes
percentage: 80%
icon-name: ‘battery-full-charging-symbolic’

monitor is DELL P3221D if that’s relevant, connection is made through usbc

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In my experience laptop fans tend to be noisier when charging. All that additional heat inside the chassis.

I have a FW13 AMD and the fans are usually pretty quiet but do pulse on sometimes. I would like a quicker ramp to a quiet speed and a slower ramp to a loud one. I have not yet made any adjustments to the fan curve.

There is a lot of power on tap from the CPU but if I am compiling something with all cores max load the fans might start going. Are you running on balanced power plan still?

In Firefox does hardware decoding show a user config thst is forcing enabled? You can also use amdgpu_top to confirm gpu usage when playing video.

With max load any laptop with this CPU is probably going to be loud. What kind of cpu usage have you been seeing 100c at? Could be poor thermal paste or not ideal cooler alignment if it’s jumping up to 100c really easy.

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When using another AMD laptop, the Lenovo Flex 5 14", I notice that when plugged in, due to it switching to the high performance turbo mode, the laptop gets quite hot pretty fast.
The turbo boost mode lets the laptop turbo quite aggressively until hitting either thermal or power limits.

If you are having issues, then try turning turbo boost off. My average temps without turbo boost enabled (on battery) are around 50C while once turbo mode is up it jumps up to the high 80s.
When the laptop is plugged in, the OS automatically changes to the high power profile (with turbo boost enabled) which is likely why the laptop may get hot quite quickly.

Another possibility is a faulty cooling system, so if you want to, you can file a support ticket to check with Framework whether your cooler is faulty. Framework Support is quite busy so it might take some time before you get a reply.

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Just keep in mind it’s very normal for laptops with these cpu to hit 100c and then throttle back. They are using as much thermal headroom as possible to allow as much performance as possible.

Maybe try to see if your perf numbers match notebookcheck benchmarks for your model.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Framework-Laptop-13-5-Ryzen-7-7840U-review-So-much-better-than-the-Intel-version.756613.0.html

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I received my 13 last week. After a bit of distro hopping, I did a clean install of Ubuntu 24.04.1 yesterday. While I’d experienced a few surprisingly loud bursts of fan noise over the past week running Fedora 40 and Arch, tonight I installed Steam and decided to take Counterstrike for a spin.

With my FW 13 lid closed, connected to an external display at 3440 x 1440 and 75 Hz and no other apps running, after the shaders compiled and the game launched, my FW sounded like a jet engine. After 20 minutes of play, the bottom of the device was literally too hot to touch.

Granted, I’m coming from a MacBook Air in all it’s glorious silence and heat management, but surely this cannot be normal?

If you create X watts of heat you have to dissipate X watts of heat. If you can’t dissipate X watts of heat you have to create less heat. The Macbook Air is going to burst high wattage and then throttle down to under 35w total system load over extended workloads. The FW13 may be able to dissipate more heat with more noise as the different variants top out between 50-65w total system power at full load.

The bottom of the case is likely to get hot on either device with 100% load in my opinion. It may take longer if one device heat is isolated from the bottom of the case versus. Eventually one will see heat soak across the entire chassis.

Now I am now sure how big of a difference the 7640U and the M3 are in performance per watt at max load. If you look at the M3 air vs larger Macbook Pros you will see that the Air throttle down hard and the Pros sustain the performance over extended periods. The Air does not include a cooling fan and the processor can reach temperatures as high as 114c.

One can look at previous devices like the ill fated Macbook 12". Large swaths of them have stopped functioning, do not detect soldered on SSD, have weird issues due to the BGA on the passively cooled CPU/SoC. Some people hope to save theirs from the same fate by putting a thermal pad on the top of the passive heatsink connecting it to the bottom chassis.

Obviously how well the cooling system can take heat from and dissipate it out into air is going to modulate how loud the system is. It could be better or worse than other peoples FW13 depending on how good of a fit the cooler is to the die.

The other issue may be that by closing the lid you lose additional air normally sucked through the keyboard (not 100% sure but usual in such designs). When I look at the hinge/bezel area where the fan exhausts it seems to me that the closed lid has a way smaller path than when the screen is open. It’s like a narrow slit on on the bottom with a 90 degree path for hot air to exhaust. When the display is open it’s able to escape at a shallow angle under the screen towards the surface it’s placed on and in front of the screen. I suspect that given the same load, over an extended period, it’s going to be quieter with the lid open than the lid closed.

That being said if one would like to reduce performance to benefit from lower fan noise one could do so. Most of the time when playing games on laptops I make sure I put framerate cap on matching the refresh rate.

While I appreciate the extended contemplation, that’s not what I’m asking. My question is whether this is considered nominal for the device.

Probably with the lid closed. There is like zero exhaust.

even if it is. normal i don’t think it should be for a machine that I’ve paid almost 2k eur.
Anyway I decided to return my laptop and that also is a very painful process if you are in Europe.
However i still want the company to succeed and grow so that we can have all what they promise but they are just not there yet i think.
Maybe if the prices were lower I don’t know, but that’s another topic.
Not sure if i should close this or not, since my original issue is resolved (by returning the laptop) but other might still experience the issues so i would prefet this to stay open.

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Maybe with the fan heating is beacuse of Ubuntu 24.10.1. I was using Ubuntu 24.10 and it was pretty quiet, looks like FW might need to do some updating maybe?