Do you have a noisy fan in your Elitebook 8560w? Please select CPU

I would like to know if everyone has fan problems, or only a selected few. I do realize that there are 3 different graphics cards as well, that can affect fan noise, but let's try voting anyway, and please comment on any fan problems of the 8560w, for many of us, fan noise can be a huge problem to live with.

Ups, I can't edit polls, can a moderator please change the last selection to No, i5-2520M ?

Thanks

 

I suppose that these days HP has to cover their own back and that means machines with the fan always on no matter whats in the bios

The 8640p fan is always on even after aggressive tweaking so I suppose this is the way it is now.

 

I have an XU086UT (i7-2630QM, AMD FirePro) and it sure seems like there are two separate fans for CPU and GPU.

It's hard to describe, but there's a fairly quiet fan noise that is somewhat inconsistent and has more low frequency components which is always present.

When taxing the CPU, I seem to hear *additional* fan noise and that fan seems much quieter and more consistent in the audible frequencies.

Like I said, not easy to describe. I haven't taken the covers off yet to verify if there really are two fans.

 

The dv6t is supposed to have two fans, one for the CPU and one for the GPU. I would imagine the EliteBooks are the same. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a GPU fan.

Also, I've thought about the whole noise issue. I wonder if the use of more metal in the EliteBook would affect things. Metal transfers vibration and noise better. Plastic dampens it somewhat. At least I've noticed that in hard drive enclosures.

Maybe someone could post a YouTube video to show the noise.

 

The Elitebooks with Intel graphics (No second GPU) has one fan or at least the model that I had did.

 

Well, after looking through the service manual it sure looks like there is only one fan. I don't have time to verify right now, but it's pretty unlikely that it actually has 2 fans.

 

Now, after listening carefully to the laptop and paying attention to where the components are, I think I have figured out what I am hearing.

The CPU fan appears to be running very quietly most of the time. I'm fairly certain that the majority of the noise is coming from the hard drive. Ugh.

I'm considering picking up an SSD so if I do that I'll come back and update whether or not I see a drop in idle noise.

 

I was mistaken. After looking at the service manual for the dv6t, I see it only has one fan.

 

There's only one fan, guys.

 

I ordered and installed an Intel 510 SATA III 120GB SSD. Got it up and running Saturday.

Most of the noise I was hearing was the hard drive, which is unfortunate because I have had several 2.5" laptop hard drives the last few years (long story) and none of them were as noisy as the 500GB WD drive that shipped with the XU086UT.

I still plan on using the drive once my upgrade bay adapter arrives (pn 655547-001 on order from HP Parts Store). It will probably be a little noisy but I'm not going to let a 500GB drive go to waste - I don't have any other use for it right now.

As for the fan, whisper quiet when the machine is idle. I can tell it's running if I listen for it, otherwise I don't notice it. Once I start doing something with the machine it can spin up a little, but I haven't truly taxed the machine yet. That won't come for another week or two at least.

 

I have an 8650p with i7-2620M + ATI graphics and I have to say that at idle, the fan is spinning, but is very quiet (I have SSD, the original HDD was for sure more noisy than the fan). I found that it is better to leave the fan Always ON in BIOS. When always on, it spins at very low speed all the time. When Always on is disabled in BIOS, the fan is stopped for some time, but then suddenly starts on second speed, for sure more noisy that the lowest speed. Such fan cycling is more disturbing than continuously running fan at lowest speed.

Also, I was able to underclock and undervolt the ATI card, but it had zero influence on the fan. It seems that the fan control takes into consideration not only actual temperature, but also load of CPU and GPU. Underclocked GPU is loaded more, so even the fan seemed to run more.

 

I have the 8560w with i7-2630QM CPU and the Quadro 2000 graphics chip. I have replaced the HDD with a SSD. The fan in my opinion is VERY noisy, especially compared to my quad core MacBook Pro 2011 which is totally quiet most of the time. The fan comes on just from web browsing. Overall I'm very happy with the machine, but very disappointed with the fan noise. And yes I have disabled "fan always on" in the BIOS but that setting is only effective the first few seconds before the CPU core temperature rises from just starting Outlook or Chrome.

 

I remember in the 2009 Pavilion dv4 I currently have, disabling "fan always on" resulted in greater fan noise, as the fan shut off completely, than kicked on at full force when the CPU exerted even the slightest effort. Seems like this applies to the business laptops 2 years later.

 

I have the very same experience with my 8560p. Fan always on in BIOS results in overall lower fan noise at idle.

 

I've been using a 5330m for a few days and after tweaking etc (see my thread elsewhere) the fan is pretty much always off...

Suppose that's more to do with the i3 cpu than anything else.

 

If you wish to reduce the fan noise you can temporary disable CPU Turbo Mode in Windows (no restart required):

Control Panel -> Power Options -> Change Plan Settings -> Change Advanced Power Settings -> scroll down to Processor Power Management -> Maximum Processor State -> set it to 99% instead of 100% -> Apply.

The performance will still be more than enough for most of the tasks while it will greatly reduce the load temps. Just switch back to 100% if you need more power.

 

Confirmed, I have two 8560w with i7-2630QM, and both are noisy. I will see if I can tweak it somehow, but this is completely unacceptable, more about this in my upcoming review.

 

I have tried everything. "Fan always on" in BIOS on/off. All possible combinations in HP Power Manager. Setting max CPU to 99% and other values. Nothing works.

The 8560w with Quadro 2000 is one noise machine.

Definitely not recommended if you plan to bring it to meetings, or use it at home in a silent environment.

 

Is it only the Quadros that are noisy or also the FirePros?

If there is only one fan, I wonder if the GPU use is causing the noise, seeing as 1/2 of the people have a noisy fan, and 1/2 don't.

 

I have 8560P and it too behaves similarity to what you've described; a sudden loud noise from the fan even under very light load - chrome browser with one tab open or MS word (i7-2720, AMD Radeon). It doesn't bother me when using the laptop at campus but late at night in my room, it does stick out like a sore thumb, especially now that I've replaced the mechanical HDD with SSD.

Perhaps "undervolting" the fan would work? This method is often used by system builders who want to reduce noise emission from case/gpu fans by adding little adapter (12v - 5v for example) inbetween the power source and fan. I'm not sure if laptop fans come in standardized sizes like desktop fans but if it does, alternatively, we could replace the fan assembly with quieter one? My previous laptop 6450b was exceptionally quite under light load/idle with fan always on.

 

PhilipNyc, you have the same configuration as I have. Try to set PowerPlay in Catalyst to Maximize Battery Life. This helped me too.

 

As I wrote in my review, TPFanControl solves the problem, in a very quiet room you can hear the fan, but it's very quiet.

http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/donate.html

Yeah, it's made for Thinkpads, but it works, temperatures are ok.

 

I can't believe I missed it, because I would swear that I tried every tool available with no success. I have to try this one.

 

You will love it, from noisy to basically silent, let me know if you need help with the settings.

 

Thanks for your support wii.

I have installed TPFanControl, but it behaves somehow strange. When I set it to BIOS mode, the fan stops completelly. When I set it to Smart mode, tha fan spins at maximum speed. The same with Manual mode no matter what value (0-7) is set.

Also, no temperatures are shown.

Is there any way to set up the Smart mode? I assume this should regulate the fan according to the CPU temperature.

Good thing is that at least the fan can be controlled somehow. I've really searched and tried many tools, but finally gave up.

Thanks!

 

It shouldn't stop completely, just run quietly, I don't have the laptop here, but you need to configure the ini file, you can read about the settings in there, also make sure you have update Windows and Support Manager so everything is updated, that made a difference too.

 

You are right, it runs very slowly and silently. Can you see any temperatures in the window? Can you run the Smart mode?

 

No, I installed Real Temp for that:

Download Real Temp 3.60 | techPowerUp

No, smart mode doesn't work.

It's not perfect (made for Thinkpads), but it gets the job done, if you need to run something intensive, you can disable it, you keep an eye on the temperatures.

I will write to HP support about the BIOS update, which it really needs.

 

Hello,

I upgraded to HP Power Assistant 2.1.0.6 (available on the HP 8560w drivers page) and the fan now seems to at least throttles down after a bit of inactivity to a much lower fan setting (it's the same low fan speed as used by TPFanControl when set to "BIOS" setting).

** Updated ** Never mind, it still keeps going at the higher speed for hours. A BIOS update is probably what's needed. Hopefully HP will issue one.

 

I have to say that with my 8650 p, the lowest fan speed at idle is already silent enough. The problem is that at very light load, the fan speeds up pretty quickly.

 

petry, does TPFanControl work on the 8560p?

 

Yes, it works, although very limited: I can only set it to manual mode, enter different numbers and the fan speeds up or down according to the numbers. I can set any speed I want, but it then stays constant and doesn't vary with temperature or anything.

Anyway, thanks for the info, I believe it can be perfectly useable for office work. This is the only tool that was able to control the fan speed.

 

Hi .. to make fan sipn slower is that helps with battery consumption ?

 

noisy?

Yes, i7-2820QM with Quadro 2000M
not thrilled, but ok. May try TPFanControl and see how that affects things.
When typing and having the handheels left and right of the touchpad you even feel the vibrations of the fan.

hm.


EDIT: and with a DC display. I guess all three combined just generate some heat and that´s it

 

The first day I had my laptop I too was bothered by the fan noise. I have an i7-2820QM a m5950 and a SSD.

That day I updated the BIOS to F.03 and installed TPFanControl.
TPFanControl is certainly not working properly with 8560w, but it gives you some form of binary control: manual mode maxes the fan spin at maximum speed, smart and BIOS modes seemed to stop the fan completely (It revved so slow you could barely hear it).

Since TPFanControl was making the laptop too noisy I put it in BIOS mode and uninstalled it. After a reboot the fan ran perfectly. It's spinning slowly when I'm browsing (still audible, but almost silent) and it's spinning fast (and making a lot of noise) when I'm playing.

I don't know which was the magical ingredient (either TPFanControl or the BIOS update) but one of them made the fan behave.

Good luck fixing your issue with the fan.

 

Anybody else with BIOS F.03 and a silent fan? I haven't updated yet.

 

I did the same thing and the fan problem went away. Thanks!

Does rev up a bit when watching 1080p on youtube but otherwise for browsing and office.. just audible but not enough to bother me.

 

I have upgraded to F.03. I installed TPFanControl, switched to BIOS. Fan went silent. Then uninstalled, shut down computer, restarted. Fan noise is same as before.

I'm hoping HP will release an upgrade that keeps the fan at the lowest level at least up to 55 degrees Celcuius in the CPU or GPU Core. My MacBook Pro keeps the fan at lowest setting up to 70 degrees Celcius in the CPU Core.

Currently the fan will only stay at lowest (near silent) setting below 40 degrees in the CPU Core.

//Johan

 

Guyz i did the same but my fan never speed now !!

F.03 bios ,TPf to bios then unistal ...fan slow ..but always slow !!

Before i hd fan not runing to heavy running ...now it's always running (smooth) but never increase !!

How to roll back !!

 

Guys,

I just opened up my 8560w to replace the paste on this beast because the fan noise at idle was just....... pathetic for a laptop which is supposed to be high end. Also, removing the keyboard for this laptop is probably the most difficult part of stripping the laptop down, lol. I'd rather not use TPFanControl as I can only set fan setting 0 and fan setting 7, which isn't ideal for me; unfortunately there is no proper fan control software for the 8560w unlike for most thinkpads out there.

At least on my 8560w XU089UT unit, the thermal pasting HP have done on both the CPU and GPU is truly something to behold....... it's absolutely awful. I've opened up loads of laptops before to replace stock paste, and desktops, and this is the worst of them all....

The paste is rock solid and flaking off, and at least 2 mm thick across, whilst there is good contact between the heatsinks and the CPU & GPU respectively, any heat transfer is minimised by the rubbish paste job. Whilst the BIOS fan control is a bit too trigger-happy, I think the paste job seems to be the major contributor. Might also be the first steppings on the processors shipped out with these units.

I'm replacing the paste (MX-2) now, I definitely expect to see huge improvements in temps (and subsequently less fan noise!) and will post up what results I find later.

Edoit* The paste job is so bad that the paste is all over the resistors on the chips..!

 

For the CPU, on the AC, idle temps down by 5C (where idle = a few PDFs open in PDF-XChange Viewer, Word running and Firefox with around 10-15 tabs including YouTube), load temps down by 5-10C (load = Prime95 small FFTs).

GPU temps down by 3C idle and between 3-6C load (tried lots of different games for this one).

CPU temps measured using RealTemp and GPU Temps with GPU-Z. Fan noise has been reduced substantially and it's not loud enough to bother me anymore, so, success!

 

Sounds good, maybe you should explain exactly with pics how you do it?

 

Good job, Redwing! That's the way. First step is to repaste and if the improvement isn't enough you can then tweak the fan thresholds and add copper to the heatsinks. 10c drop of load temps is enough to stop worrying about overheating provided you're staying under 80C now during Prime95

 

Thanks Aikimox, but I don't think any hardcore modding will be required (I had a look at your 8740W mod, interesting stuff!). For the first time, the fan completely switches off when left to itself to completely idle for a few minutes!

@wii, I didn't take pics as my camera is being fixed (the infamous lens error restart camera on a Canon.. I used to be able to fix it just by bashing the side of the camera on a table but that stopped working a few weeks ago!), and I have a mobile phone from 2001.

The procedure is really straightforward as in the manual. It's just the keyboard removal... bloody hell, the guy who designed the keyboard-cover tethering system should be sacked

 

hey guys,

@Redwing: I have just the same problem with an Elitebook 8560 p and came across your solution. That really sounds great (though i'm not sure if I can do that on my own, warranty, lack of experience etc...).

My idle temps are between 42 and 50° - I guess that means they're too high? I'm not an expert. I compared the temps with my Asus B50A - I know, a totally different machine etc - but this baby somehow manages it to keep the core temps at 35° (!)

Would that be the 5° difference you accomplished by replacing the thermal paste?

thanks a lot!

 

I've just experienced the same behaviour after installing TPF.
No matter what i do now that TPF is un-installed the fan stays slow. i really stressed the CPU too. The FAN vent is super hot to the point of concern.
I running BIOS 0.22, upgrading from 0.03 after this behaviour started.

The fan was very tweaky before. It spent most of it's time on while i worked making music. but now the fan speed will not change at all.

Does anyone have any insight into how HP controls that fan?