Fan Speed question

My M17X R3 GPU (GTX 580M) so I replaced it with a GTX 680M and everything went perfectly. I replaced everything including the thermal pads
When Idle my GPU is sitting at 51C and the GPU fan is pretty much off. When I play a game (Wildstar for example, set at Ultra) or run 3DMark tests, my GPU never goes beyond 68C which I think is very good.

Anyway, while playing the game I notice that the GPU fan will bounce back and forth from high RPM to low RPM over and over again.... Runs at high for like 5 seconds, then low for 5 seconds, then high for 5 seconds, etc.

As I said the card is never going above 68C according to both GPU-Z and HWInfo. No stuttering, no crashing, everything is fine.

Note: My BIOS is the unlocked A12, my video card BIOS is Dell_680m_-_80.04.33.00.32_'OCedition'_revised_00 and NVidia driver is 337.88. Right now I am running at defaults, nothing is overclocked.

I know the Alienware uses tables in BIOS to control the fans. Could it be that the tables are for the 580m and not 680m? Its almost as if the machine does not know (or is on the border) of what fan RPM to use.

Any help?

 

Anyone have an idea?

 

Why not try to control your fans using Hwinfo64? You can set a fan profile easily.. x rpm for X temperature/temperature range.

 

I'm confused as to what temprature to use. The machine has EC, and apparently that means I can't control the two fans individually, which I guess is not a problem. But what should I base the fan RPM on? Does it use both monitors?

For example
Sensor #0: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M : NVIDIA Internal

Temperature 1 source: GPU Temperature OR GPU Temperature (HW)
... Not sure which one to use

Sensor 2:
CPU(#0): Intel Core i7-2670QM, then it has Intel Core i7-2670QM again, then Intel Core i7-2670QM: DTS
... Not sure which one to use

Temperature 2 source: CPU package, OR CPU IA CORES, OR CPU GT CORES
... Not sure which one to use

And do I assume the fan RPM table will be the same for both fans?

 

Use CPU package temperature only..

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Don't select the GPU as one of the sources?

 

No point.... How to explain this to you but this really sets the rpm for the GPU fan.. The CPU fan runs at a slower speed but this is a limitation of the fan control... So even if you set 3800rpm lets say for the CPU it will run at 3200 or so and the GPU will run at 3800..

 

Thanks, I just thought it would make sense to monitor the GPU temp and set fanspeed based on that, then just ignore the CPU temp. I know only one fan speed can be set due to hardware, but if you monitor more than one temp source wouldn't it set the fan to whatever one had the highest temp?

 

I don't know about that but it is pointless.. The CPU is usually the one that is hottest for me so I use that..

My CPU reaches 90C btw and GPU is usually 70C so you get my idea

 

Thanks, everything is working now except whenever I use HWiNFO64 under Windows 7/64, it works but never stops. In other words I cannot shut the process down, not even with process explorer. Plus when you shutdown the machine, it hangs right near the end (when the screen is black) and the only way to shutdown is by using the power button. If I do not run HWiNFO, this problem does not occur (but then the fans arent right lol).

I swear I will never buy another Dell, nothing but a money pit.

 

You have to have the process continually working otherwise your fans can't be managed... Why the hell do u want to close the process?

 

Did you read what I wrote?

I said I cant shut down my machine, HWiNFO causes the machine to LOCKUP during shutdown forcing me to power down. That happens just when the screen goes black and the machine is about to shutdown, but it never does, it just hangs until you press power. I checked the process list and sure enough the HWINFO process is hanging. I did a search and I am not the only one with this issue.

Question is WHY is it hanging during system shutdown, seems like HWINFO has some issues.

If I turn off EC mode, the problem does not occur.

PS: If you google hung processes in Windows 7 you will find 10000 cases of people who are unable to kill a hung process. It does not matter if you are an admin or not, what app you use, or whatever, there is no way to kill them without a shutdown+power down. In all cases a shutdown does not complete without powering down. I did not have this issue until I ran HWINFO, to verify it I tried to delete the process after exiting HWINFO and it failed. But Like I said, turning EC mode off worked

 

How to use dts sensor on cpu?

 

Although it does not affect all Dell/Alienware laptops in exactly the same way every time, Compal EC mode being enabled frequently causes problems, including OS hang at shutdown. This is a known issue that has been around for quite some time. The Compal EC is where the problem is, not a limitation with HWiNFO64. That is why you get the pop-up warning about it. Enabling it doesn't really provide a lot benefit anyway. Manual fan controls still work, but fan speed controls are limited to just a few RPM presets with Compal EC disabled.

 

yeah I'm happy that I've never had this issue... I'm having my motherboard replaced tomorrow so hopefully this doesn't happen to me... Damm the creative audio... It doesn't work half the time and requires multiple restarts (3-5) before it works so they're replacing my motherboard

 

Yah that was the cause of my shutdown problem, if I enable EC the machine runs fine but will crash on shutdown 100% if I run something that uses the NVIDIA card (like a game). CEC is off and I am good now.

I will never own another Alienware laptoop, and now that this one is running I will unload it before something else breaks like the 580m did.

 

The 580M broke because it is a POS.. Don't blame Alienware... You will have such issues when u try to put in a GPU not designed for the machine.. Try seeing what can be done with the EC disabled..

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What do you mean don't blame Alienware? It is an Alienware machine that contained the 580M's, and it is crap. Dell knows the 580m has a high failure rate and yet they refuse to do anything about it. So I had to fork out an additional $400 to buy a USED 680M just to make the machine usable again. Dell won't even sell replacement video cards for less than $1200. I call a spade a spade.

PS: The 680M was not designed for the 17 R3 either, and yet it works like a charm. I've been in IT as a software engineer (device drivers and also worked on Photoshop) for 30 years, I have never seen such poor workmanship. In any case, like I said EC disabled works, there is no point in discussing it any longer.