High fanspeed/Noise Clevo P170HM

Ive got some noiseproblems with my Clevo P170HM.

All drivers and bios are updated.

Ive got bios v1.01.10

KBC/EC 1.00.09.

Updated the Vbios few month ago, cant remember wich version i got.

Some of the drivers are not the latest according to DriverMax, got its the latest to get from Clevo.com at least.

Fans are running high most of the time, 1 step from max so to say.

Fans are clean from dust. The webstore in sweden that i bought the computer from did put some better thermal grease (IC Diamond 7) on the cpu and gpu before shipping it.

I am using a laptopcooler, Zalman laptopcooler.

When i look at the Clevo P170HM review on this site, i see that they had like 28Celcius in Idle temp on both gpu and cpu, thats why im wondering why i got 45Celcius =P

Ive checked my temps while idle with Fanspeed and they are:

GPU 46Celcius (GPU fan on 30% idle according to cataclyst)

CPU: 40Celcius

Did a stresstest with Furmark on the GPU and ended up on 98Celcius the first test and 92Celcius the second test.

Duno if i used the correct settings on Furmark, just clicked stresstest button.

CPU i stresstested with OCCT, Max temp was 82Celcius.

When playing BF3, GPU goes up to 82Celcius and CPU to 78Celcius.

Thanks in advance!


















PC-Konsulten X-768 Laptop | Clevo HM67 - S-173-B | 17'' 1920x1080 | I7 2820QM 2,3-3,4 GHz 8 MB | 8 GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600 mHz | AMD Radeon 6990M 2 GB | Corsair SSD Force Series™ GT 120GB | Seagate Momentus® 7200.4 750GB |
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit | 3DMark 2011, X1123 , P3583 | Logitech G35 7.1 Headset | Logitech Mx518 mouse |

 

Hi Snorki, Welcome to NBR
All the temps you posted for your system are nothing to worry about. For the stress test you're running they are right where they should be. The 28C you mentioned on the review you saw is never seen in real world use. I havent heard of any gaming notebook even outside of Sager/Clevo get that low.

Since CCC says your fans are running at 30% it does surprise me they are so loud. What i noticed with my system is that the notebook cooler fan actually makes more sound then my notebook does at least on normal use. Unplug it to see it that does change the sound of things. Other then that try FN +1 to turn the fans max mode on/off.

 

Well im not a computer engineer or something myself, but i found the review and temps i was talking about here:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Deviltech-Fragbook-DTX-Clevo-P170HM-Notebook.45594.0.html

Load
Idle

28.4 °C 26.8 °C 24.5 °C
24.6 °C 24.5 °C 21.4 °C
20.3 °C 22.3 °C 20.1 °C



27.9 °C 27.7 °C 26.5 °C
21.0 °C 27.0 °C 26.6 °C
20.7 °C 26.3 °C 21.9 °C

Maximum: 28.4 °C
Average: 23.7 °C Maximum: 27.9 °C
Average: 25.1 °C

That is their temps when testing Idle.

''System Noise

In the past, Clevo Barebones have had to struggle with a high level of system noise. Even in idle mode, the fans would often spin for no reason accompanied by a loud hum which made an otherwise comfortable work environment hardly bearable. In light of our tests, the P170HM Barebone can't exactly be called whisper soft but at no time did we find the background noise it produces to be distractingly loud. When running simple applications like Office, surfing the internet or playing a film, the two fans are barely audible, during which time they either completely turn off or start to hum at a tolerable level (the noise level could stand to be a bit more constant, though).

Under heavy use, however, the notebook becomes clearly audible, quiet scenes in games are overshadowed by the noise of the fans. Under 100% CPU and GPU load (Furmark & Prime), the noise level doesn't rise too much higher, reaching a maximum of 43.9 dB(A), which from 15 cm away is not far too high for a gaming notebook. Note: the 220-watt power supply produced an irritating high-pitched whistling noise every now and then. It could just be that the particular power supply we received was a faulty specimen.''

The thing they say that ''quiet scenes in games are overshadowed by the noise of the fans'', that is how my notebook is acting in Idle.

No, my notebookcooler doesnt sound even close as much as the laptop does =P

Lol, extreme fan-noise when setting the fans to max with FN +1 xD

I still think my fans are to loud, it just doesnt make sense with the reviews ive read and other ppl saying that theyre fans are rly silent when in idle. My fans are clearly audible and rly annoying to listen to it =P
Ive had desktopcomputers and other gamingnotebook before and this one takes the price in making most noise =(

Only time i get to enjoy does ''silent fans'' is when i pres FN+1, directly after i turn back from max speed on to max speed off, i allmost cannot hear the fans, guess they are spinning at rly low speed for a second until going back to usual airplane sound =P

I wish there was an option to change the fanspeed, at least in the BIOS =/

I dont think that the cataclyst fan checker work tbh, it seems to allways be at 30% speed, even if gpu fan is at max or completely shut off.

I checked of much the cpu and gpu dropped in temp when i set fans to max with FN+1, GPU didnt drop any at all in temp, CPU went down from 41 to 39 Celcius.

Maybe i should get one of does tools and check the decibel.

 

The fans are always going to be making some amount of noise when the machine is on, but the noise shouldn't be more than relatively quiet background noise if you're at idle.

 

Yeah i want the quiet background noise =)

Gonne try replacing the thermal paste with new one and see if that works =P

 

It should make it cooler indeed, but be careful not to apply too much as it'll turn into a double negative by trying to not do something, one ends up doing exactly the thing they were trying not to do, that is applying too much and making it even worse good luck

 

So i opened up the computer and took some photos of how it looks like.

Does it look ok or did they mess up with applying the grease? =P I think they used far to much grease.

From what i saw, some areas on the gpu chip was totally clean of the grease, not even a thin layer but toally clean.

 

GPU



GPU



GPU



CPU



CPU



CPU

 

ok I'm getting a little confused here...

you used furmark to test your temps on load and maybe hwmonitor to test your idle temps

comparing the results found in Review Deviltech Fragbook DTX (Clevo P170HM) Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

which used Voltcraft IR-360 to test the temps outside the laptop and testing different parts of the keyboard and palmrest and bottom parts of the laptop, you should have compared your temps to this

idle
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/e89e88ee01.gif
on load
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/442a3d6398.gif

which roughly has the same results as your temps given +/- based on ambient temps.
also your GPU is a 6990m which I'm guessing would run a bit higher than a 470m used on the review.

(the images I posted came from the same review btw)

also the pasting job done on both your gpu/cpu was a bit excessive but wouldn't hurt your temps, could say it was a good pasting job actually compared to other consumer based laptops I've seen floating around here.

 

This. Not the best paste job, but certainly not terrible. Get rid of that dust in the fins and you should be a bit better off. Clean the surfaces well and use a nice paste. Follow one of the guides floating around the forum if you don't know how.

 

Agreed, the paste job actually looks pretty decent. The problem with pastes that advocate the pea method (like IC Diamond) is that they either don't have enough applied or there is extra on the edges when applied to a non-square die. It looks like that application used just enough to guarantee coverage across the die.

 

Well i tryed to repaste it now. Failed at first attempt, put to little paste on there.

Did a second attempt now, and i dunno rly =P

Idle Temps now are pending betveen 46-50Celcius on GPU and on CPU betveen 37Celcius and 41 Celcius.

 

If those pictures are from after repasting, you'll probably need to clean the die off and do it again. Removing the heatsink after applying the paste and putting the heatsink back on will greatly reduce the overall effectiveness. It will still work, but your temperatures won't be optimal due to air being introduced between the heatsink and die.

Those new temperatures look pretty good though.

 

Ah ok =) Are there any decent pasting guides on here? That shows how to apply paste on Clevo P170HM.

 

There are no specific guides for your laptop that I am aware of but there are plenty of guides out there.
Maximum PC | How-To: Properly Apply Thermal Paste and Install a CPU This guide seems to have it right.

Be sure that you clean off all of the old thermal paste, I have found that this stuff Newegg.com - Arctic Silver ACN-60ML (2-PC-SET) Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier - Thermal Compound / Grease does an excellent job of removing the thermal paste. Rubbing alcohol is another alternative.

 

Yeah i am using Actic Clean allready =)

Does the therma paste has to cover the whole cpu/gpu chip, or just the middle of it? Because as u see on my pictures above, i managed to cover most of the chip, but a few parts on the edges of the chip remains uncovered with thermal paste. Maybe the paste while move out there when time goes, i dunno.

Cant rly rub the cooler against the chip to much =P Bit lack of space to do that, but i guess its fine just to press the cooler down on the grease and cooler without rubbing it.

 

It should cover the entire GPU die. Any spots that are missed won't transfer heat properly from the die to the heatsink.

 

Ok, then i guess thats why its hard to not get any excessive thermal paste outside the die =P

 

Don't you think that fans in IDLE are too loud ? There is big difference between P170EM and P170HM when fans are in IDLE. EM is much more quiter. I repasted my P170HM using IC DIAMOND 24 carat thermalpaste on CPU and GPU. My temps are like:

For CPU in IDLE: 39-40C
FOR GPU in IDLE: 41C

And fans are still audible :/ I'm in close with technical support and they want to provide for me modified EC/KBC firmware with new fan table. Do you have any proposition for proper fan table?
I think a good solution to resolve problems with fans is to copy latest fan table from P170EM and put it in into P170HM BIOS or EC firmware. If it is not possible (for example because P170HM don't support Optimus and GPU is always on,but theoretically my i7-2720QM have Intel HD 3000 but it's not used) then the best option will be that fans for CPU and GPU should be off till they don't reach around 48-49C, when they reach this temperature fans should start spinning a bit on 1st level till they don't reach 53-55C, and etc... fan speed on each level can be copied from latest EC for P170EM getting on attention first phase of spinning when fans are should be off

What you think guys?

 

It's just plain unacceptable. The CPU fan spins too fast for no cooling benefit at Idle in a P170HM.

Do you have both systems side-by-side to compare and draw this conclusion? If you could use the latest version of HWinfo to get a readout of the actual fan RPMs (CPU and GPU for both models) that would be really useful.

I use an external cooler and I'll Idle at 38°C for both CPU and and GPU and still have my CPU fan going non-stop for no reason.

The fan table requirements is unique to every individual, environmental conditions and hardware configuration. There is no broad solution to the problem.

If they set the fan to go off at 48°C, the controller will be unstable and oscillate which is even more annoying than having constant fan speed. However, I personally would like the threshold to be set at such a temperature (50°C) because I use an external cooling most of the time. In fact it's powerful enough to render the internal fans absolutely redundant and it is practically inaudible (a few Noctuas in series in a sound insulated duct under my desk). So I would like the set the fan tables myself, or a least a "high-performance + passive cooling" option in hotkey that could set a strict fan kick-in thresholds at 50°C (or any temperature that I need).

Besides that, the only acceptable solution that Clevo could come up with is to simply allow the users to set the fan tables themselves for their particular use case, in BIOS or in Hotkey!

This issue is just #@$% riduculous...

 

Thx arg8 for usefull informations. Yes I have posibility to test both P170HM and P170EM and I can compare actual fan RPMS. When I was using both on my desk for sure P170EM was much more quiter than P170HM. When I look inside fans are same parts so only software (fan table in EC firmware) is not adjusted properly like in P170EM. We need get on attention that P170HM don't support optimus and maybe for this reason Clevo decided to run fans constantly on higher level than usual. But working at night it's very annoying, I'm not too sensitive just fans are working to loud in IDLE even when temperatures are very very low for CPU and GPU.

 

With HWinfo you can plot graphs of sensor data. It would be really interesting if you could take a snapsot showing graphs stacked on top of each other:

- Total CPU usage
- CPU package Power
- CPU package temperature (under Intel CPU #0 section)
- Core Max temperature (under CPU #0 Digital Thermal Sensor)
- CPU temperature (under Clevo EC section)
- CPU fan rpm (under Clevo EC section)

- GPU Core Load
- GPU Temperature (under the nVideia GPU or AMD GPU #0 section)
- GPU Fan rpm (under Clevo EC section)

Another stack showing the Core clocks would give in idea of the performance mode your running:
- Core #0 Clock
- Core #1 Clock
- Core #2 Clock
- Core #3 Clock

For the tests Configure sensors to sample at 100ms intervals. Sensing Clevo EC sensor can be pretty CPU intensive so kind of interferes with measurements by adding ~5-10% CPU usage overhead (& heat). So maybe run the tests half-way with Clevo EC disabled at first and then turn-on Clevo EC monitoring for the second half of the time strip. Do auto-scale of the graphs at the end before taking a snapshot. Also take note of your ambient temperature. One glitch is that your fans may have to be running when you launch the sensors monitoring for HWinfo to detect and show the fan rpms.

E.g.: (P170HM @~25°C Ambient)

 

Hello!

I've just bought a p170hm myself and i find it quite noisy!
All my temps are good except the pch which is 70degrees Celsius at idle!
And it is more noisy on the left vent (which is cpu side i assume).
Any way to reduce the pch temperature?

Thank you!

(i've tried logging my temps on hwinfo64 but i can't read the csv file )

 

Unfortunately, the high idle speed of the fans are an outstanding issue. Especially if you use external cooling, the CPU internal fan (on the left side indeed) will rarely turn-off unless your ambient temps are impracticaly low (< 21°C in my case), and essentially spin for no reason at all. (So it's like parking your muscle car in your driveway overnight and leaving the engine to idle at 2500rpm while you sleep... you know, because it's a fast car...!?)

That's the one that was annoying me the most personally as it generated headach inducing discrete tones that would resonate and peak in amplitude right at idle speed. I seem to have managed to eliminate the bulk of these tones with a bit of polishing of the fan impeller, sound insulation and modification of airflow paths within the laptop. But that's a messy ordeal anyone should avoid.

If you bought the P170HM second hand, it might be due for a lub job on the fan bearings. That can help cut-down the noise a bit. A little graphite powder and 3-in-1 oil have always served me well.

I'm not sure my PCH temperatures are good reference for comparison. I have forced air cooling into the laptop, so positive pressure within the chassis. The PCH gets more cooling as a results. The PCH is right above the GPU, so depending on the GPU temperature, the PCH temps will also rise. E.g. At 25°C ambient, GPU@52°C : PCH=53°C

You can also right-click on the sensors in the "Sensor Status" window and chose "Show Graph" to see the plots real-time. You can do PrtScn to take a screen capture or Ctr+Alt+PrtScn to capture images the individual graph windows in the cliboard to paste them where you want after (ms paint) if you want to keep a record.

If you log data into a CSV file, you can use MS Excel or OpenOffice Calc to open the file and read or plot data.

 

Thanks!
Is there a way to have access to the pch on P170hm? (to try to clean it)
Is the cpu fan the one reducing the pch temp or is it the gpu fan?
As for the noise i'll try the tape method and repaste asap as i get the new paste delivered.

 

During last weekend I had a time to test more accurately loudness and speed of fans in P170HM and P170EM in under load and IDLE.
My test results: (I used latest version of HWINFO64 it's support CLEVO EC sensor for GPU and CPU fans):

P170HM (i7-2720QM, GTX 485M, IC DIAMOND 24 CARAT thermalpaste on CPU, GPU)latest BIOS 1.01.10 (dated 2011/9/9) and EC/KBC firmware 1.00.09 (dated 2011/10/28)
CPU:
0C - 38C - 0 RPM
39C - 48C 2540 RPM (audible specialy working at night) (IDLE)
49C - 54C 2740 RPM
55C < 2769 RPM


GPU:
0C - 38C - 0 RPM
39C - 57C - 2270 RPM (IDLE)
58C - 66C - 2520 RPM (quite audible)
67C - 76C - 2740 RPM
77C < - 2956 RPM


P170EM (latest BIOS (BIOS 1.00.07) and EC firmware (1.00.06)) (i7-3610QM, GTX680M, IC DIAMOND 24 CARAT thermalpaste on CPU, GPU)
CPU:
0C - 45C - 0 RPM (IDLE)
46C - 55C 2040 RPM
56C - 62C 2265 RPM
63C - 69C 2569 RPM
70C < 2816 RPM

GPU:
0C - 41C - 0 RPM (IDLE)
42C - 57C - 2140 RPM
58C - 70C - 2360 RPM


Conclusion: From 0 RPM to 2000RPM fans are very very quiet, when fans runs at 2500RPM they are audible and very annoing especially at night. My recommendation for Clevo is to fix specially first part of table for CPU and GPU in P170HM basing on table fan from P170EM. For example it should like this:

For CPU:
0C - 46C - 0 RPM (IDLE)
47C - 52C - 2040 RPM
53C - 58C - 2300 RPM
59C - 63C - 2560 RPM

GPU:
0C - 41C - 0 RPM (IDLE)
42C - 57C - 2140 RPM
58C - 65C - 2360 RPM
66C < like previously RPM

What you think ?

 

Wow! Thanks for that analysis. The lower idle speed and higher kick-in temperature will certainly make all the difference in the world. That the P170EM is relatively quiet at idle is definitely believable now. I never understood why they didn't drop the first idle speed level for the CPU fan in the HM series.

While it seems the CPU fan in the P170EM kicks-in at higher temperature than in the P170HM, did you notice a difference in the rampdown temperature thresholds? Usually there is hysteresis implemented so the fan will kick-in say at 46°C, but it won't turn back off until temperature drops below a certain threshold such as 38°C in P170HM. Did you notice specific fan "turn-on" and fan "turn-off" threholds for the CPU fans? E.g. I have noticed ~42°C turn-on and ~37°C turn-off on my P170HM, but this was never consistent, and I'm still not sure why.

So for the P170EM, at what temperature does the CPU fan turn off once the CPU cools down? (you can set the PC performance in power saver and turn-off the "Clevo EC" monitoring to let the CPU cool down as much as possible, and you may have to use external cooling to actually achieve lower temperature enough to trip the CPU fan turn-off threshold).

What you suggest would most likely have a tremendous impact on noise. Just droping the lowest idle fan rpms would be a tremendous improvement. That will definitely lower noise levels by a significant amount on HM series. I agree that at 2000rpm, the fans are reasonably quiet.

Do you notice any on/off cycling of the fan CPU on the P170EM?

It would still be good to provide a higher CPU fan "turn-off" threshold. At the moment is seems to be 37-38° on a P170HM. With some external coolers, the laptop can be cooled passively at idle to moderate load. The CPU fan turn-off threshold should be bumped by at least 4-5°C. So I think a CPU turn-off threshold ~42-43°C would be very good... for me personally. (But, this might cause some on/off duty cycles that some people don't like if they can't cool their systems passively.)

 

There shouldn't be anything to clean really, it's just cooled passively by a little bit of airflow throughout the chassis. Both the GPU and CPU fan will generate some airflow. If you lift your keyboard you may be able to take a peak at it under the plastic frame around where the key "9" is under the keyboard. It might be possible to cut a hole through the plastic chassis above the PCH to put a low profile heatsink on it if you really want to provide better cooling for it.

 

If some of you didn't update your P1x0EM to the latest bios yet: do you get the same fan RPMs as LightningPL, or did Clevo actually make an effort to improve fan tables to reduce idling noise in the latest BIOS/EC updates?

 

Repoman20 & MrDJ reported similar idle fan speeds and also find the idle behavior relatively quiet in the EM series:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/680956-after-receiving-my-9150-im-speechless.html#post8776613

 

This is what I'm seeing on my P150EM:

EC 1.00.05EU

CPU
0C~42C: 0RPM
43C: 2137RPM
60C: 2485RPM
67C: 2560RPM
71C: 2824RPM

Fn+1: 4130RPM

GPU
0C~42C: 0RPM
43C: 2421RPM
57C: 3029RPM
91C: 3419RPM

Fn+1: 3600RPM

 

With my P170HM (last ec and bios)

CPU at 43 (2510rpm) = very noisy!

GPU at 42 (2307rpm) = noisy

FN+1 CPU 4200rpm gpu 11843 probably glitched

Clevo should REALLY let us do our own fan table, or at least update theirs so that the fans would spin less, noise in idle is really annoying.

 

Same here. I don't consider 2500rpm a tolerable idle fan speed at all.

And the worse is, Fn+1 probably doesn't do much to drop the CPU idle temps does it? In my case (although with an external cooler) I drop CPU idle temperature by at most 2°C with Fn+1 (4200 rpm) vs 2500 rpm... The fan is actually spining for nothing!

 

I can't believe clevo is going to let us with this bios and EC? They don't know about this issue? The fan being noisy for nothing?
And they don't plan on letting us do our own fan table at least?
So much noise for nothing...
There should (must!) be a fan table with lower fan speed at lower temp!

 

Hi there!
Any news from Clevo? The laptop is great but i can't stand the noise at idle with such temperature!

 

I don't have any good news from Clevo, I used few tricks to make my machine quiter sherzsherz please PM to me

 

LightningPL, I have a Clevo P170Hmx with the same noise problems as mentioned in above posts. Can you please share your tricks with me? I have just updated to BIOS V 1.00.10 & EC V 1.00.09, over the previous BIOS V1.00.02/EC V 1.00.05 the pc came with. The computer has just been serviced at the dealer. They cleaned it for dust, but it's still the same annoying noise. I don't have a problem with the noise in games, but there's just to much noise when idling! Can you please help either here or pm me? Couldn't find the 'button' to pm you?

 

wow, I have just tried to flash my P170HM with the latest EC version version for the p150HM (EC V 1.00.13), and the laptop is now much more silent in idle mode!! ;-) I read about it on page 286 in the "Clevo Bios" Thread. I would still like to hear if there is more I could do to make it even more silent.

 

I have flashed also p150HM latest EC without touching bios (I have last one for p170HM) and mine is much more silent now to nly a little more of noise that I would like to have but it should be because of bad pasting. On totally idle with 6970m at 150/100 mhz graphics card is at 64.5ºC and cpu at 43ºC-48ºC (different on cores), room is at 16ºC so I think that is not good temp after seeing others in forum so I'll check thermal paste but for the moment noise is really much less anoying. Thanks a lot,

 

I can help you with noise in IDLE in P170HM. More details on PM.

 

So much dust....man, you really need to clean it more often.
And dont place the machine on blankets or any other cloth material.

Also, to avoid much of the dust, elevate the laptop on something (all 4 corners would be ideal). Helps venting heat also.

 

Hi there,

@LightningPL I would really enjoy your help on the "noise in IDLE" problem for the P170HM. I could not access the PM site, no idea why. Could you please provide me a message with details.
Thanks for help in advance!
Greetz
Balu

 

Hi, I can't also write to you PM, probably you didnt fully activated your account. Maybe write here your e-mail I will write to you soon.

 

Hi, can you please help me as well with the noise at idle?You can read my post at page 4 to see what I've already done? I cannot PM you??
Regards

 

After searching the forum I figured out that I need to post at least 5 post to be able to PM, so this is my 4rd post.

 

Hopefully it works after posting my no5 post here ;-)

EDIT: now I'm able to PM. LightningPL...you have a PM

 

I could also do with the solution LightingPL. Post 1.

 

I could also do with the solution LightingPL. Post 2

 

I could also do with the solution LightingPL. Post 3

 

I could also do with the solution LightingPL. Post 4