ASUS UX32A Fan Goes On, Off, On, Off.

Received my notebook from Asus a minute ago. The report said that they had change the thermal fan.

As suspected the fan on and off problem still occur with light use. Every time the cores hit 50 degrees the fans turn on. The biggest reason for the cores to hit 50 degrees is the Asus smart gesture drivers. Every time you scroll through a website or a document using 2-finger scrolling the cores hit at least 50 degrees. And since two-finger scrolling is a feature everyone use all the time, not wonder why the fans turn on and off every 5 second.

I will try to install NBFC and some new mouse drivers and see how that works out. If it doesnt work I will call Asus tomorrow.

 

Did they update the bios to a newer version?

 

Nope, still BIOS 216

 

WOW!!!! It's sad that this thread started in SEPTEMBER.. It's February..6 months..half a year!
is ASUS doing? I sure as hell hope they came across this thread...if they did, shame on them. If they didn't, shame on them.

This is outright ridiculous. My Zenbook gives the same issue. Still not even a fix, heck even a message or update. I think ASUS has almost lost me as a customer. Laptops are no good if they only have looks and no performance.

 

Spoke with ASUS Sweden today and the guy I spoke with had not heard about this issue.
Told them about this thread. The only solution they had was RMA. Maybe they know about the problem but don't want to talk about it officially or they are just stupid..

 

Thanks for sharing your information. I think it is a good guess.

By the way people, do all of you have Intel Core i7?

 

I do.

I'm calling Asus tomorrow for a new computer or if i am lucky my money back. So disappointed about this notebook. After spending an entire evening right next to my friends Macbook air which was completely silent, had a much better touchpad and much better battery life, I must admit that the Zenbook is not worth 1300 euro.

Think I'm goanna go with the Samsung Series 9 or the Lenovo x1 carbon.

 

Hi,

I'm having the same problem too. Brand new UX32VD, bought today (though one of the screws is lose, so it might be returned unit), same problem. I tried some of the stuff here, but none helpled. So I'll be returning it either tomorow or on monday.

Does anyone know, if ux31a have the same problem? I might drop the dedicated graphics, upgradeable hdd and ram for silence.

It's really sad. While the touchpad is nothing to write home about, the notebook is really beautiful, and the screen is perfect. I have never seen prettier computer screen. But this crazy vacuum machine sound every ten seconds is not worth it.

 

Actually, it seems like both fans are controlled differently and it is possible to see only 1 fan working at a time (say if your Nvida GPU is off, but CPU is hot) and therefore you will only have one fan reporting speed.

That register of 0x97 seems to be some sort of a fan speed control register, whatever it is (I haven't really investigated).

You can read my thread on Fan Control investigation if you feel like it. http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/705656-fan-control-asus-prime-ux31-ux31a-ux32a-ux32vd.html

If you feel adventurous, you can install Linux (Ubuntu for example) and using acpi_call kernel modules you can control the fan using ACPI calls I mentioned in the above thread. If you want to write and read EC values on Linux you can use acer_ec.pl (google for it or get from above thread)

Embedded controller on UX32VD/UX21/UX31/UX32V/UX31A is ITE IT8572G (here is a photo: UX21 EC), but it seems like ASUS uses very similar one (atleast they behave in the same manner) across all laptops in past 4 years. I have an old Asus W7SG and it has ITE IT8511TE-BXS Embedded Controller which is idential to IT8510G. You can get datasheet right here. Now, using ACPI calls of:

Code:

\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.WRAM Arg0 Arg1 // write to EC memory
\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.RRAM Arg0 //read from EC memory

Where:
Arg0 - 2-byte EC memory address, 0x0 to 0xFFFF
Arg1 - 1-byte value, 0x0 - 0xFF

You can read the actual memory/configuration of Embedded Controller and compare it with the datasheet to find out how the EC is configured. For example, say I want to find out which mode the Fan1 is in. I look at the datasheet on page 225 under "7.11.4.8 Fan 1 Configuration Register (FAN1CNF)" you can see it is at offet of 0x10 with the base address of 0x1800 (from page 221), therefore we need to read the memory at 0x1800 + 0x10 = 0x1810. Lets do the ACPI call:

Code:

\_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.RRAM 0x1810

which returns 0x0 and according to the datasheet (page 225) it means that the fan is in Smart Auto, on PWM Channel0 and SpinUp time of 00sec. Now, there is a method to control the fan mode using ACPI call (described in my thread linked above, specifically \_SB.PCI0.LPCB.EC0.SFNV) and it writes/reads to the EC at address of 0x521 (Fan1) and 0x522 (Fan2). Now, actually changing those values DOES NOT change the fan mode at address of 0x1810, and upon further investigation it seems like the fans are NOT controlled by the built-in logic of the EC, but are controlled by some sort of EC firmware which is loaded in EC RAM (address of 0x521 according to page 9 would be in Scratch RAM, which is 0x0 to 0x800), which is why ACPI writes to 0x521 for Fan1, instead of to 0x1810 as you would expect based on the datasheet.

Anyway, it was a small little fun project for me to figure out how this all works in hardware.

I think the easiest, dumbest and most fail-safe way to control the fan would be to use the QMOD ACPI method to limit the maximum speed. For example, if the CPU/GPU temperature is below 60C, set max fan speed to 0x0. If it is >60C, then set is to 0x50, >65 = 0x60, >70 = 0xff (maximum speed). Or something like that. The most perfect way would be to change the fan on temperature values in the BIOS (modify the actual BIOS).

 

The tools out don't seem to work on the zenbooks, I can mod the bios's to allow us into that area with the fan controls, But I need updated tools.

 

So you could make modified bios? Is that actually possible? The bios isn't digitally signed or anything?

Or can that values be modified from running computer?

 

You're absolutely right, what I've tried to explain is that there are 2 different on/off issues:
- The fans on/off(around 47C) at minimum speed(imho not an issue).
- The fans start ramping up until the maximum speed is reached, then the fans are no more regulated.

I personally think that the second behaviour is related to some hardware fault that you can verify if one of the fan speed is not reported after a cold boot. In this case I was not able to control the fan anymore even if a I set it manually using NoteBookFanControl(obtaining alwasy a maximum speed) and I don't expect that something will change using your approach.

Let me say that, in the very end, the fan are controlled by the PWM generated by the EC so if there is an hadware fault, they cannot work as expected. The only advantage I can see is that by modifying directly those register It could be possible to circumvent the EC firmware giving you a more advanced control.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your information I will surely look into it.

 

What are you using to read the fan state? No software (other than NBFC, which reads only one fan) ever gave me fan speed.

EDIT: also, playing with NBFC, it seems that my fan has only about three speeds: zero, medium and max. It doesn't seem to be able to run on low power, but being unable to read it's state, I can't be sure of that.

 

I found a way to modify my Asus UX32VD bios and bypass the encryption.

So far I have update my Intel 4000HD BIOS to the latest version, I will open up the bios thermal section I posted earlier and make sure it works.

I can then post a guide for people to mod there own.

That way they can update what they would like

 

It seems that you missed my previous post: link

 

I see, thanks. My issue is exactly how you described it.

I wonder if it actually has to be a hardware fault. It probably is, but the problem is that some feedback loop in firmware decides that the only possible settings for fan are "zero" and "max" on receiving no fan input. And the "no fan input" seems to be the hardware fault.

However, would it be possible to found the correct output levels, like the pwm size (pulse width or something) or fan voltage, and and hardcode it to firmware? Because it seems the problem is not really tha faulty HW giving no fan output, but firmware tyring to be too clever.

That might however require knowledge noone outside asus have. And seeing how many people areaffected by this bug, noone inside asus too

The fight fan in always 0 0 on my machine, is this the "when the nvidia card is active, one fan is always 0" you talked about?

EDIT: I have 14 days (13 now) to return the unit and get money back ... I'm wonderig if I should do just that. But I love everything else about the notebook, damn it.

Is this thing happening to UX31A too? I might go with less ram to get quiet.

 

It's quite hard to give you an answer. I don't have the knowledge to re-preogram the EC. Probably, following the suggestions of prikolchik it is possible to change something in the EC but we have to try.

In my notebook, when the nvidia card is activated (you can check the activity icon in the system tray) one of the fan is stopped (probably by the EC). I'm quite sure that this is not an hardware fault but a behaviour coded in the EC firmware. On the contrary, if you see a zero speed fan when the nvidia card is not active and the speed level is not zero, I suspect that you have the same fault as mine.

After the RMA I'm quite happy with this notebook, but I've heard about some people that have returned it two or three times before getting a functional notebook, so it is hard to say wich is the best way to proceed.

 

Called Asus in Denmark today, and they said they could take it in for a RMA repair again. So I made a new RMA application with a description saying that the fans go on and off all the time, and the main problem is the fans turning on every time the cpu hits 50 degrees.

20 minutes later I received a rejection for my RMA application from Asus. The reason for the rejection was this:

"Your RMA application have been rejected because,
Please note that the thresholds for the fan to start speeding up for extra cooling is at 50c, this why you sometimes hear the fan going up and down in speed.
sending you notebook in for service will unfortunately not change how the fan is behaving."

It seriously can't be right that it is normal to hear noticeable fans every 5th second from a notebook which cost 1400 euro? It's supposed to Asus flagship Ultrabook. Im speechless. Never buying an Asus again.

 

That's exactly why I'm considering getting my money back. Fortunately I can do that (we have a law for that). You could probably push them a little, open new one and explain how notebook alternating between "silent" and "vacuum machine" in ten seconds is not normal (but on asus it is).

Also, I wonder if this issue happens to many people and some of them are not sensitive to it, or do only some notebooks have it?

Also, I think there should be little more outrage.

On the RW util, viewing the EC, I get some numbers on the address 93 and 94 (the one you called "left fan speed"), 7D 02 now for example. But now the notebook is working ok, no start-stop fan stuff, and the fan is running, but only a little how it should be. The "fan mode is", address 97 is 02.

The "right fan speed", address 95 and 96 are both 0. That means I either haven't activated the dedicated GPU, of something else isn't working. But whatever I do, the GPU doesn't seem to do anything, and the tray icon doesn't change. Strange.

 

I do not know how to modify the BIOS, I simply suggested that it could be a possibility.

I understand what you are saying, but I have not personally experienced the case when it just so happens that fans are no longer regulated and are either OFF or MAX.

I do, however, experience this bug when I try to control the fan speed. For example, if I use QMOD ACPI method to limit the fan speed it will be working just fine, but at some point the EC firmware messes up and if I reset fan speed limit (255 or 0xFF is max and is the default) then the fan will either be OFF or MAX. The bug stays there even if I reboot the computer. The only way to fix it is to do a complete shutdown (it lets EC memory reset once there is no power supplied).

I must note that if you try to manually control the fan (set the actual fan speed manually using SFNV method in ACPI) then the fan speed WILL NOT be reported in EC. It is a feature, apparently.

I have written a post on how to do it right here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...rime-ux31-ux31a-ux32a-ux32vd.html#post9073954

And that is how you get the fan speed

 

Awesome, thanks! It's some time I did work with hardware on this level, and somehow I forgot about endianness of intel architecture. Oh well.

So, either your hypothesis is right, and the fan problem is somehow because of some bad software messing it up, or m4tto's hypothesis is right and it's faulty hardware. I will probably test this with Live USB Fedora, that shoudn't do anything with ACPI (but I don\t want to install it if I'm going to return the unit). If it happens randomly without the computer seeing windows for a day, it might be hardware.

Now interestingly enough, I don't appear to have the second fan. Even if I run something on the 620 (and in this case it was CUDA Folding@home, so it's improbable it lies to me and uses integrated graphics), 95 and 06 are always 0, I tried it with CUDA folding at home, which quickly makes the computer get to 90 degrees and maximum speed on fan1 (which appears to be 0x186, i.e. about 5600 RPM) and makes the keyboard impossible to use. I would open the computer and look if I even have the second fan and if it's working, but I didn't buy that damned Torx yet.

 

Ok i have modded my UXVD32 to access the thermal config.

Looks like the mod works!

Proof:

 

This is AMAZING! Can you please write a good guide on how to modify the BIOS? I am VERY interested! Even if does not affect the fan, we still get access to all the cool Advanced options!

The keyboard is impossible to use because the computer gets too hot and throttling kicks in which probably puts the GPU and CPU speed to the minimum.

It certainly does sound like there is some problem with your fan. It is possible that they forgot to plug it into the motherboard at the factory! Which BIOS version are you on?

 

Ok, i will write up a guide.

It's not hard to do. It's just a multiple step thing and not for the average user.

Give me some time to compile the info needed for people to do this.

The one thing I need to figure out is if the bios dumps are per machine or universal using the method I did.

If they are machine specific, people will have to do all the work themselves.
If they are universal I can mod all the bios's for everyone with the right dumps.


I can enable a ton of things for everyone, ram settings, SATA settings, cpu settings ect..

 

here is thread for new discussion on bios editing.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/707826-asus-zenbook-bios-firmware-modding-thread.html

 

What an answer from Asus. That just sucks!!!!!! It is irritating. I sit again in a quiet room and cannot concentrate because fans start and stop, start and stop, upto 60% and back. Why not use them all the time at 10-30%? And I notice my fans produce more noise than they did before.

I simply don't understand how difficult this should be, my previous Asus u31jg 13"3 i5 did not have that problem. Fans were working quiet, never had this strange behavior. Although it was not looking as good as ux32vd and less greater screen, but at it did not cost 1200 EUR. For price like that these kind of problems should never occur.

Other people please share your experience with RMA, anybody else who got fixed this issue or not after RMA?

 

Ok, so on my computer the fan stopped doing the zero-vacuum machine-zero-vacuum machine and it just runs on about 3000 RPM when the cores reach about 48 or 50 degrees.

Can someone with working model tell me if this is intender behavior, and it's as quiet as it gets, or is this still buggy behavior? Does someone have UX32VD that can run it's fan on 1000 RPM or something?

Thanks in advance.

 

There's a new version of Notebook Fancontrol if anyone's interested, this time with some good-looking updates and fixes
[Vorstellung] NoteBook FanControl (NBFC) - ComputerBase Forum

 

Looks very promising!

Might I ask what this Thermals page in the BIOS actually allows the user to do? It looks like you can specify the "red alert" temperature values, but what about the much more important bottom and intermediate values? If you want to have the fans off until 55C, for instance, and then ramp them up via a couple of temperature points above that, can you do so with these BIOS settings?

 

Hi cl-jeffrey,

So, what did the headquarters said, did you get any response?

 

Is this, thread still actual? I got mine ux32vd and I don't know what to do, this fan noise is so annoying. Does there exists any final solution that solves this problem. I flashed my BIOS to the 213 version but it, didn't help. As far as I know this isn't a os problem so I think it doesn't matter that I'm using windows 8.
And it seams also that this problem does not exist on every device, so if someone found a solution that fixes this I would really appreciate to hear it.

 

NBFC (Notebook Fan Control) do deal with the problem quit nice. I did however disable it in the end, because it wasn't running 100% stable in my opinion. I wanted the fans to kick in at around 57-60 degrees, but sometimes they would first kick in at 65 degrees. So I disabled it, because I feared that the heat would mess up the notebook in the end.

 

Ok thanks, I'm using this tool since yesterday too, but isn't there still no solution provided by asus itself? The tool is nice but as far as I have seen, it just handles the problem with this low fan starting threshold. If the fan gets turned on, it is rotating with 100% (at least it is very loud) even if the tool says that it is rotating only with 28%?
So your living now with this annoying fan jojo problem?
And another question, I read from a problem with the processor clock, that should be solved by deinstalling the mousepad driver? In my case the processors clock is alway jumping arround fom 1,9 to 2,4 GHz even if I'm not doing anything, shouldn't the clock go down to 0,7 GHz? Maybe this behaviour is also responsible for the high processor temprature?

 

ONe thing I noticed. The fan start when I run chrome (not sure about other browser). So I tried closing chrome. And the problem is gone!
Not sure if that related but there maybe some software problem as well.

 

It's the graphics acceleration in Chrome. Works the GPU just enough to kick the fan in.

 

Which browser uses less usage? Chrome or Firefox or IE?

 

You can turn off graphics acceleration in chrome via a command line option. Just google it.

 

I'm pretty shure that the fan behaviour hasn't to do anything with the browser. Yes chrome needs some resources, but the fan always turns on when the cpu gets more 50 degree, and this behaviour is bios controlled.. And even if fancontroll says that the fan is turning only with less than 100% in my case and opinion, the fan is to loud for that (so I think that it is turning with 100% nevertheless). With fancontroll I can set up the threshold when the fan begins to work, after reaching this threshold the fan turns on agein and makes a lot of noise. So someone has some exerience in how high the threshold can be set without provoking some longterm demage because of a to hot cpu? So at least the everydaywork can be done without noisy fan in the background?

 

The cpu tolerates quite a bit, like 90+. High temperatures will lower the life expectancy of the computer though, other components might fail faster. My philosophy is that if it breaks after four years instead of eight, well the computer is almost obsolete then anyway so why not push it? My idle temp is like 60 now using the NBFC and no fan on until it passes it. So screw it all, I'm happy.

 

So does NBFC work well with the UX32VD now? Does it completely prevent the initial run-up of the fan (as opposed to before, where the fan would kick in full blast before being overridden by NBFC)?

If NBFC crashes, does the fan fall back on the usual control?


Thanks,

Trishia.

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk 2

 

F*** Asus, still can't believe they haven't solved this stupid problem.

This does it. Never buying another Asus.

 

NBFC seems to be working pretty well with my UX32VD completely overriding BIOS trip points. There have been no crashes (at least in versions 0.13.2.54.beta and 0.14.4.60.beta I'm currently using). The only strange thing I've noticed is that when my Steam client was synching the fans ramped up to some really high RPM and the CPU started to throttle thus I was unable to check how many RPM there were exactly–maybe something about 8000–and I immediately reset the notebook. No idea what was the cause–the temp getting higher or the NBFC (0.14.4.60.beta) working incorrectly. Now I disabe NBFC prior to running Steam or other CPU/GPU-intensive apps.

 

New BIOS 218 for UX31A. Someone noticing any difference ?

 

Because they're incompetent! I have so many problems with my new Zenbok that it’s not funny anymore. I have contacted ASUS on several occasions; they just can’t solve those problems. I had an issue with the running fan also. The BIOS (V.213) for my Zenbook sucks and an upgrade will not help solve the problem. What I did was, I stopped all ASUS Smartgesture (responsible for track pad) processes. It not only solved my fan issues, but it appears that it helped with the HDD annoying clicking (Hitachi 320GB). I have ASUS UX32a with Windows 7 64bit installed. My other problems: Windows 7 would not start or repair from the USB flash drive (USB 3.0 issue), HDD clicking (helpfully solved), some BIOS features are not accessible and seem different that BIOS features on ASUS help website, keyboard backlight sometimes goes off, HDMI output overscans and can’t be properly viewed on older HD LCD TVs. Honestly, I would not buy another ASUS. I had three laptops before, with some problems, but nothing like that. ASUS, you wouldn’t have to spend millions of $ on promoting your products if you hired better engineers and knowledgeable support.

 

Hey, does any of you guys has the problem of fan going on after a fresh start (the fan goes on for like 3 to 5 minutes and then the laptop works fine). It doesn't start right away though. It starts may be after 3 to 4 minutes after starting the laptop. I have the laptop for more than a half year and never had problems with it until now. Actually, I always thought that this is the most quiet laptop I ever had and I wasn't aware of the fan problem.

The problem explained above showed last week. Since then, I tried updating to the latest BIOS, but however no difference. Before that I haven't made anything else, except replacing the original HDD+SSD with a 240GB SSD(but that is not the problem for sure).

 

I was having the fan cycling issue after it went to sleep/hibernate. After I flashed to 218, this issue dissapeared.

I should note that the temps on the cpu have gone up, so pluses and minuses. before this temps were at 35-55 C ish, now they are regularly 45-60 C. Conclusion is that while the cycling for no reason has stopped, the fan is not reacting to temperature rises well after bios flash.

Anyone find similar results/knows how to correct it?

PS. I should mention that I am using Elan software for trackpad and it works very well.

 

Here my experience , hope it will help
First situation :
I bought my pc , in the first week no fan noise
Second :
i installed a game on my pc (AC3) fan goes 100% when i'm running the game but no fan noise (on off ) when i'm not running the game (Week 2)
Third:
i checked my temperature while i was doing light tasks : temperature goes from 43 ° to 60 ° when i scroll with asus smart gesture(conclusion : fan goes on off ) ( Week 3&4)
4th:
I updated asus smart gesture and remove intel DPTF... : NO FIX
5th:
I updtaed the bios to 218 : NO FIX exactly the same situation (week 5)
6th:
I changed my touchpad driver to elan tech
now my temperature : 43-47 battery saving / 50-57 performance
my fan is always on(14%) OR always off (not on & off )
7th:
i installed NBFC
my temparture : 45-50 battery saving/ 53-58 performance
now my fan are always off (but in the past with asus smart gesture my fan goes on off even with NBFC (45-65)

SORRY for my bad englsh .
NOTICE that asus smart gesture is smarter and smoother than ELANTECH touchpad driver
EDIT : my fan problem was that fan goes on off , but it was only noticable in a quiet room (14.5% - 0% NOT 100%-0% )
EDIT 2 : the problem is back ... U_U p
please do something , i've bought this pc for my university works , i cant work with that noise

 

Hi , i have a question about NBFC ,
my pc runs cool with NBFC but the average temp is 55 instead of 50 .
does that affect my pc lifetime ?
I have UX31a touch

 

I'm on bios version 218 and the fan noise is still a problem. I replaced my initial ux31a because of light bleed. That one was quiet at least. This new one's fan is now always spinning and driving me crazy! Is it possible the tim on the cpu is bad? This is the second UX31a I bought. I returned the first because the light bleed along the corners of screen was too much. But that one was quiet at least. The new one idles anywhere from 48 degrees to 67 degrees and the fan goes on and off on and off. I bet the thermal interface material on the CPU is no good. It's a new system with fresh install. All I did was update the bios to 218 and maybe update a few drivers and install antivirus. Seems like another quality control issue. I don't have time for this.

 

Hi,

I never wrote something on a forum but it really frustrates me.

I had a Asus ux32VD , windows 7 64bit for 3 months and out of the blue, the fan began. It's really annoying.
i installed NBFC but I think it's necessary that we have a solution from Asus itself.

But the problem began when I updated my BIOS, so is it maybe a solution to downgrade a lower version of the BIOS? And if so, does anyone know which version? It began when I installed version 204.

And if this doesn't help: Has anyone already started a petition?

I hope somebody can help me with a (not too difficult solution) because I don't know anything about computers.

Thank you so much, Margot