FW16 heat and fan control

https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/1asfch9/comment/lc31zjy/?context=3

I’ve had the laptop for one to two months. The build quality is good, it is also a very thin laptop, with a spectacular screen and easy to change parts and update.

But the amount of heat it gives off is unforgivable, even burning the bottom part.

It is incredible that framework has not released software to control voting, tdp or fans despite all the complaints and requests.

5 Likes

@jared_kidd mentioned (in this thread) getting a leg burn from the laptop getting so hot. I honestly think this issue is serious enough to warrant immediate RMA and replacement, if not a product a recall. I haven’t personally checked if mine gets this hot, which is something I should do, but I don’t use it on my lap. So I don’t know if there are only some machines which are defective in this way, or if it’s just the “normal” FW16 behaviour, but in any case I don’t think it’s acceptable for a laptop to get too hot to touch.

It is a problem that happens on all laptops. In addition, the bottom and top heat up, becoming excessively hot.

I @jared_kidd is right, you may need to art your leg from the heat it generates.

While that is a normal issue on all laptops, especially gaming ones (which the framework 16 is trying to be), it shouldn’t be hot enough to literally burn you. For me, it feels like the temperature is high, but not at the level of burning, but I also don’t use it on my lap, so I don’t know how the underside is.

WARNING: Discussion of bare middle-aged legs ahead.

Baby and dog wouldn’t let me sleep this morning, so I got up early and decided to try and run a game on my 16 for the first time. No pants yet, so it was direct 7700s-on-skin contact. Played a couple rounds of Apex Legends plugged in on max graphics settings. Fans got loud, but I suffered no burns. In fact, I found the heat quite pleasant given how cold my wife has been keeping the house lately. I think if you’re actually getting burned, there is a problem with your thermals and you should contact support.

10 Likes

I can confirm that. Running Star Citizen alpha here, and it is getting warm, but not excessively hot. Something’s off on your thermals.

4 Likes

No. There are many users who have already raised this topic here or on reddit.

A lot of heat is generated, which causes the laptop to “burn out.” Not only at the bottom, which can be “scorching” when you play, but in the keyboard or trackpad area because part of the heat is dissipated through that area.

If this has a solution by adjusting tdp, fans or frequency, I don’t know. But they happen to many users.

In that, as some mentioned, the heat dissipation seems to not work right and they should contact support.
Also - please compare the difference between users with “heat” issues, and the many that don’t. The ones having the thermal issues are the ones phrasing it on reddit and here. Those who don’t have issues, just keep quiet.

2 Likes

There are also reviews that talk about the heat and noisy fans. I’ve had two and they all have the same problem. There are YouTubers who also say it.

It is evident that it is normal for it to get hot but not that much.

Let’s see if one day they listen to the community and release a program to control voltages, TDP or fans.

No? There are also “many” users who have already said they have no such heat problem, and many more who have said nothing. There are a lot more people who bought this laptop than the few people participating in this forum and on Reddit, and exponentially more than the handful who have this complaint.

Please define.

Please define.

This is not how you solve a problem of isolated manufacturing defects. If the heat dissipation system is not working properly, the solution is to repair the system, not try and compensate for it by adjusting settings. “The community” is not asking for software fixes to hardware problems. There is no outrage. Please be careful about thinking you are getting a representative view of the world based on a small slice of social media.

3 Likes

There are many users in this same forum and in others who have asked for software to control the fans, the TDP or the frequencies.

And there are reviews and reviews here in this forum and others that talk about the heat on the surface and base of the laptop as well as the noise of the fans.

For example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/1asfch9/official_request_to_the_framework_team/

https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/1c613pg/new_framework_pc_gets_really_hot/

https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/17o27se/framework_getting_very_hot_when_hardly_doing/

1 Like

None of this is evidence of an issue. At best you’ve illustrated that a handful of people find the heat subjectively uncomfortable. Probably less than one pallet’s worth of people, especially given one of those threads is about the 13, not the 16. Of course, don’t forget to subtract yourself from that number as you have been vocal about this basically since the reviews came out before launch, and I believe I can tell which redditor you are :wink:. Furthermore, in those same threads, there are just as many people disputing the claims because, again, they are all completely subjective.

But we were not talking about people’s individual heat tolerances. We were talking about a user experiencing actual burns and whether or not that is a widespread issue worthy of a recall. Yes, the laptop can get hot and noisy and be within spec, but rising to the level of burns is certainly not within spec and is an issue to raise with support, not grab our pitchforks and demand sweeping action because the vast majority of customers are not getting burned by our laptops, not even the people you’re pointing to as evidence of an issue.

If it is getting too hot for you, you can already limit TDP. I believe you will need to look to the EC. I’m not sure, but I have seen it detailed elsewhere in this forum. The default battery power profile is plenty to keep it cool and quiet, so just copy those settings to all cases. Framework releasing a nice GUI app for easy, detailed customization is unlikely given how busy their small team is, and suggesting they owe it to us because some of us find the product a little not to our liking while pushing it to its limits is…not correct.

2 Likes

No, the energy profile does not allow controlling the tdp. This has already been discussed here or in other forums. Unlike the rest of the high-end equipment, we do not have an application to control the TDP, fans, voltages…

Split this discussion out into a new topic.

Also…we’re watching and prepared to close this if it degenerates into a useless back and forth, which it’s dangerously close to becoming.

Constructive ideas and no defeatism or generalizations please.

5 Likes

I’m referring to the code of the embedded controller (EC) will allow you to limit CPU and GPU power. Modifying it is fairly low-level stuff so I don’t think this is what you’re looking for, but nonetheless it is entirely possible.

Destroya acknowledged the request for an app at least in one of the Reddit threads, but they are a small team with a lot of big things to work on. They are very much listening to their community. I’ll leave it at that. :v:

5 Likes

Thank you @Fraoch.

One direct way to limit the sheer amount of heat being generated if that is the OP (original poster’s) biggest issue is modifying a few settings in the BIOS. Turn off the enhancements and/or limit the number of cores able to be activated.

Do not forget that if reducing the heat coming from the device itself; a good practice is not setting it on some meaty legs of the operator. Blocking the ventilation on the bottom of the machine (with pants, or bare skin) certainly will impact the machines overall ability to push heat out.

2 Likes

The only issue with heat that I have with the FW16 w/ dGPU, is that there are intakes on 2 sides (top and bottom) and exhausts on 3 sides (left rear, right rear, and most of the rear body). As someone who is coming primarily from W-series ThinkPads, I’m used to setting my laptop on the floor on it’s side (with the monitor open acting as a kickstand) with the side exhaust pointed skyward if I’m using it in a chair and need to get up for a moment. With intakes and exhausts on 5 sides, setting it down on anything other than a smooth, flat surface potentially blocks 1 or more vents. So I bought a small lapdesk for use in a chair/bed and just keep it nearby.

After typing all of this, I’m realizing it’s limited relatedness to the topic at hand, but since it’s tangently related, I’m still posting it.

imo I think the fan curves just need improvement on the FW16.
I would imagine that the discrepancy between reports has to do with the given workload.
If I do something really demanding then the fans really ramp up and imo I can keep the laptop on my lap without big usses.
However when I play for example Frostpunk on mine, the fans don’t really ramp up at all on the stock fan curve and the heat does build up quite a bit and after an hour or so I am a very sweaty guy and need to put the laptop away for a bit.

For my own specific use cases I would perceive the laptop as cooler if they tweaked the low-medium heat fan curves a bit higher.

By comparison after I installed fw-fanctrl (linux only sadly) and set the strategy to medium there’s a significant improvement when playing Frostpunk for me.
Though I tend to just set it on the noisy strategy to help keep me cool as well during these hot weeks in europe.

Edit: I accidentally hit reply on your post takaides, instead of on the one at the bottom. Sorry about that :sweat_smile:

It is very easy, by allowing us to adjust aspects such as tdp, frequencies or ventilation curves by creating our own profiles, we will have resolved one of the most critical aspects of the reviews.

For example, when we are working we can turn on the fans to minimum will avoid any type of heating of the surface and we will still not really hear the fans.

Framework 16 is a good device, with a great construction, very fine, absolutely modular and repairable very easily. The engineering team did a great job but in terms of their own software they must improve and look at other brands that have that software).

He adds that one of the things I love is the screen, it is fantastic.

But it is a shame that having done the most difficult thing (creating a modular machine that works) they have forgotten something easily solvable.

2 Likes