Intel Core i5 11th-Gen - Constant Max Fan Speed Issues

[Pestermess]

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to figure out why my Framework laptop (i5 11th gen) constantly runs its fan at max speed, even during light tasks. Strangely, the fan sometimes kicks in even when the laptop is in sleep mode overnight.

The system is installed in the Cooler Master case sold by Framework, so airflow shouldn’t be an issue. I’ve also repasted the CPU with Arctic MX-6, and temps stay under 50°C most of the time (even after a 30-minute AIDA64 stress test).

I’m wondering if there’s something in the BIOS I can tweak to fix this, or if anyone has seen a similar issue. I’m fairly tech-savvy but not very familiar with older-style BIOS settings or deeper troubleshooting in this area.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Charlie_6]

@Pestermess

constantly runs its fan at max speed, even during light tasks

@Max_Klassen

Alright, I’m sorry to have made you wait, but I’ve just redone the ‘Mod’ and pictured every step of the way.

So, I had a problem with my Framework 13 with a Core i5 1240p.
Back then, running W11, the fan spun up at very mild work loads like watching YouTube and when charging with the lid closed. I repasted the CPU several times just to discover that the high fan speed and subsequent noise persists. Temps with very loud fan noise were in the mid 60s at worst.
I tried everything in software but to no avail. I couldn’t do anything about it.

I isolated the problem down to the power delivery circuit, which suffered from poor thermal transfer to the CPU Cooler through the thermal pads. It desperately tried to cool down through the PCB and then to the CPU.

Even in Frameworks official documentation of the CPU cooler for the 12th Gen CPUs, the thermal pads aren’t compressed evenly by the ICs.

What I’ve done to solve that problem is, I removed the thin pads entirely and left only the thicker pads, meant to reach down to the ICs. To bridge the air gap, I added some thermal paste in the manner Linus and Alex from LMG would have with thermal putty (K5 Pro) on a poor RTX4090.

To follow my steps, it’d be handy to begin with a clean slate, that means all the thermal paste of the CPU removed, and the thin thermal pads removed from the cooler or power delivery chips.

This is how the clean motherboard is supposed to look like.

That’s just the clean cooler with the thin and arguably useless thermal pads already removed.

Red ones go, blue ones stay.

Now to the thermal paste. It is just as easy as to dab a little onto the chips marked in red, the ones in blue are optional but won’t hurt to also cover. They just weren’t previously covered by a thermal pad, so I saw no need to add some for my laptop. It worked just fine anyway

With every IC covered with a dab of thermal paste, it should look a little something like this:

After remounting the CPU Cooler, you can button up your laptop and enjoy it with now 90% less fan noise.

I really do hope it helps you out. I can’t tell 100% for sure because my current experience is limited to a single unit.

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@Pestermess

Strangely, the fan sometimes kicks in even when the laptop is in sleep mode overnight.

@2disbetter

Welcome to the wonderful world of S0. Basically what you will want to do is either enable S3 support, OR make S0 network disconnected. There are posts on this forum talking about these points.

In essence, S0 is a low power idle state that allow some work to be done. S3 is suspend to RAM with the CPU effectively off and no work happening. S0 does permit a suspend then hibernate scheme based on drained battery percentage. However, you will never see this with the laptop plugged into a power source. S3 will suspend (using less power while doing it, compared to S0) but will suspend right until the battery is dead and the whole system runs out of power.

I just use S0 network disconnected, and if I know I am going to be a while, I just hibernate to keep things cool. YMMV.

[pkunk]

Welcome to the community @Pestermess.

I would open a ticket with support to see what help they can guide you on. Running the fans at max all the time is not right and could be something hardware or firmware related. Support is the best resource to help you pinpoint the issue.

Being as you already repasted the CPU and temps are under 50°C something else is going on that is driving the fans so hard. Let us know how it turns out.