NP8173-S FAN RPM CONTROL IS AFFECTED BY KEYBOARD LIGHTING APP

This is a new thread on the following issue.
I purchased a NP8173-S back in mid august which had arrived dented with fan issues (Fan video). The old thread is at this link. My new replacement showed up this past Wednesday 9/14 and is exhibiting the same fan issues that was present in the first unit in regards to fan rpm's getting turned off or locked to their current speed by the stock Sager Keyboard lighting control application.

I have Windows 10 OS with the latest updates/drivers.
I played several games during the past 48 hours and I have noticed this in order:
1. Upon fresh boot from full shutdown, fans behave normally and react to usage load.

2. I performed a fresh boot up, opened HWMonitor, and played WoW, BF4, CS:GO ultra settings. Temps were great with CPU at 69c and GPU at 74c tops. These temps were the same during benchmarking with Heaven.

3. I tried to replicate the steps needed to trigger fan shutoff on my first unit after playing games, so at this time the rpm's were about medium and I could still hear them. I figured this would be a great time to listen for fan shutoff by playing with the keyboard profile app. After toggling all the available lighting options, I did not hear any fans ramp down, so I thought: that's great, this one has no issues! I resumed BF4 and after quitting around 20 minutes later, HWMonitor showed my new Max temps reached: http://imgur.com/ViBkz3E. (I did notice during this boot session that the fans cut power and went quiet for a split second at 3 different random times, during gaming but not when I toggled lighting profiles) So now I'm thinking WTF? I performed a full shutdown (not restart), and then started up the laptop again. All fans kicked into high gear upon turning on. During this new boot session, I only opened up HWmonitor and played games and did not open the keyboard lighting app. Temps were good all across the board, low 70's and below.

4. Full shutdown and start up again. Started HWmonitor. Started Sager keyboard app, toggled random profiles. Closed Sager keyboard app. Started WoW, and noticed fans not ramping up, still very quiet. I stared at HWmonitor and watched as the gpu temp rose steadily to 86c, and during this time all 3 fans did not react to temperature and turn on, still quiet. I immediately performed a system restart (Not full shutdown) and upon boot, the fans still would not turn on and react to the high temps. Upon loading into windows, I performed a full shutdown. Immediately upon boot, the fans kicked into high gear. During this boot session, I played games for a little while and the fans reacted normally to usage load. With HWmonitor and the game running in the background, I decided to try opening the keyboard app again. Upon first lighting profile toggle, the left side GPU fans shutoff completely. The cpu fan was still in high gear. I watched as the GPU temps started to rise into the 80's. Another full shutdown, fans acting normally.

I called Sager today (9/16) 2pm PST and spoke with David about this issue. He said he would forward my contact information to one of his more knowledgeable techs and they would call me back. I really like this laptop but if this does not get fixed I will be requesting a return/refund.

Can any other NP8173 config owners chime in and see if their laptops have the same issue?

 

I have been testing the newer P775DM3-G laptops and have found that they work much better with the 5.0001.0.50 control centre than they do with the one that ships with it or with no control centre at all. With the later Control centre my fans were all over the place, kicking in at random times, not shutting down and coming on higher than they should be and misreporting the temps. I took off the newer control centre put on the older one and everything is back how I would expect it to be. Only down side is you lose the overclocking utilities, but I don't need those for my clients.
I do also have one of the new P670 models(NP8173-S) in but haven't had a chance to unbox and test it to see if the fan speeds settle down with the older control panel on that model yet.

 

Thank you for your input Adbear. I have actually not opened the Control Center application until just now. I found the system tray icon a couple days ago but when I clicked it nothing happened. Today is the first time Control Center has opened/popped open a window for me. Does anyone know if CC and the Keyboard app are connected?

 

Yes, they come as a bundle together and I assume they do communicate with each other. That's why my first assumption was that there is a bug in the software where changing the keyboard lighting also changes the performance profile on Control Center.

 

Yes if it happens try flicking the fan control from automatic to over clocked or custom in the Clevo control centre.

 

Open up the Control Center, and set your system to "Performance". You can also set the fan speed there.

 

If it's anything like the problem I get that won't make any difference, even manually setting the fan speeds made no difference to the P775DM3-G's

 

I guess we'll never know.... Also, that is not the same model so it's not fair to make a comparison.

 

I also get fan issues on the new P670RP6-G (which is the GTX 1060 version of the OPs chassis) that I've been testing this afternoon and changing the fan setting on that makes no difference either. There seems to be issue with the new Chassis's that have been released. I'm going to try talking it back to the older Control panel like I did on the P775DM3-G and see if that helps settle it down

 

You guys should probably wait for a BIOS/EC update as the issue probably starts there. Until then you will have to put up with the erratic fan speeds or have to switch to Max fan speed every time you game. Unless Clevo releases a Control Center that will cover up the issues.

 

Well as I said I fixed the issue on the P775DM3-G by going back to an earlier control panel for the P771DM-G, so I will test out this model and see if the same thing fixes the issues for me until they release a new fixed control panel.

We've already reported it to Clevo via the UK distributor

 

Looks like control center does override/resets the rpm lock triggered by the keyboard application.

I started on a fresh boot session without previously opening the keyboard application. Started HWmonitor and ran a game to ramp up fan speeds. Opened keyboard application, upon selecting first lighting profile GPU fan spinned down and stayed locked to low rpm (I could still feel a little bit of warm air being pushed out, not as much as before I toggled a lighting setting). Noticed GPU temps rising from 50 to high 70's before I closed the lighting app and then opened the Control Center application to select maximum fan then auto. This seemed to override the rpm lock set by the keyboard app and temps started to fall back down. Under "default Auto" setting, the fan looked to be reacting to temperature load normally again.

During the same boot session, I opened the keyboard app again and toggled a different lighting option. GPU fan spinned down and got stuck as expected. Played Crysis 3 and noticed GPU temps rising with no increase in fan rpm. Instead of closing the keyboard app, I went ahead and opened control center and reselected Max then auto again, seems to override/reset the lock made by the keyboard app like before.

 

I noticed when I toggle to the custom fan setting from either maximum or auto, all fans momentarily cease spinning for a couple seconds before turning on again to a slightly lower rpm. Is this common with similar/other chassis? My temps were past the fan trigger point in the default settings under custom, yet the fans did not increase rpm. This may be another issue that needs to be looked into.

Thank you Adbear for looking into the issue with your laptops, I really appreciate you taking the time to run tests as well.

 

That is common with the P650 chassis as well, nothing to worry about. BTW, instead of opening the Control Center and selecting Max fan mode, you can press Fn+1 which does the same thing. If you press the combo again, it resets to Normal/Auto fan mode (even if you had Custom selected before). Unless this combo doesn't work due to the buggy fan functions?!

 

Thanks! Looks like the Fn+1 combo does indeed toggle max fan/auto.

 

Glad it's kinda figured out! I wish Sager would include something letting people know how important the CC is.

 

My power brick died today after owning my replacement for 5 days. Laptop shutoff miduse with no warning on 0% battery. Tried several outlets that I know are working and the light on the brick wont come on. I swapped out the disconnectable plug cable to no avail. I've spent 1800 bucks for problem after problem, and now im calling quits. I will be calling Sager in the morning to setup a return/refund and I will be checking out the other brands since quality control seems to be severely lacking. I also discovered a bent corner on the metal frame at the top of the screen lid where the metal ends and the plastic screen cover begins. It was really hard to spot but when you run a finger across it is definitely bent upwards and not flush like the other side. For a brand new laptop that is 1800, this is absolutely unacceptable. Thanks to everyone who've tried helping me with the other issues I have experienced.

And I have not heard back from the Sager tech yet either.

Photos of all physical/visible problems experienced while owning this model: http://imgur.com/a/J3i9V

 

I'm sorry to hear how many problems you had, that's a fairly impressive amount of problems but not the most I've ever seen. With that said, IPS bleed isn't just found on Clevo laptops, you'll find it on pretty much any IPS laptop out there.