Fan noise, help me

English Hardware
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1

Hi everyone.
Please help me get rid of this annoying fan noise.
This laptop used to run Fedora (GNOME); it operated silently, with the fans only kicking in occasionally.
But now, there’s an annoying noise.
Thanks.

2

Show at least some basic system informations…
inxi -Fxx

3 
System:
  Host: geeko Kernel: 7.1.5-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 16.1.1
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.7.3 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
    Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20260804
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: OMEN by HP Laptop 17-ck1xxx v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 8A17 v: 32.26 serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: 6U7T5EA#ABF Firmware: UEFI vendor: AMI v: F.22 date: 04/28/2025
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 79.1 Wh (100%) condition: 79.1/83 Wh (95.2%) volts: 12.17
    min: 11.58 model: HP Primary serial: SerialNumber charging: status: full
    cycles: 4
CPU:
  Info: 14-core (6-mt/8-st) model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H bits: 64
    type: MST AMCP arch: Alder Lake rev: 3 cache: L1: 1.2 MiB L2: 11.5 MiB
    L3: 24 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 400 min/max: 400/4600:4700:3500 cores: 1: 400 2: 400
    3: 400 4: 400 5: 400 6: 400 7: 400 8: 400 9: 400 10: 400 11: 400 12: 400
    13: 400 14: 400 15: 400 16: 400 17: 400 18: 400 19: 400 20: 400
    bogomips: 107520
  Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-P GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Xe ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:46a6
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q]
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: nvidia v: 595.84 arch: Ampere pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 ports: active: none empty: DP-3,HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2520
  Device-3: Luxvisions Innotech HP Wide Vision HD Camera driver: uvcvideo
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-6:5 chip-ID: 30c9:0065
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.24 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.13
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
    unloaded: vesa alternate: fbdev,intel,nouveau,nv dri: iris gpu: i915
    display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x09bf res: 2560x1440 hz: 165 dpi: 170
    diag: 438mm (17.3")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2 drv: iris
    device: 3 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland:
    drv: iris x11: drv: iris inactive: device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.6 vendor: intel mesa v: 26.1.6 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel Iris Xe Graphics (ADL GT2)
    device-ID: 8086:46a6 display-ID: :1.0
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.357 surfaces: N/A device: 0 type: integrated-gpu
    driver: mesa intel device-ID: 8086:46a6 device: 1 type: discrete-gpu
    driver: nvidia device-ID: 10de:2520 device: 2 type: cpu
    driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-smi wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake PCH-P High Definition Audio
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:51c8
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA106 High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:228e
  API: ALSA v: k7.1.5-1-default status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.6.8 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [Filogic
    330] vendor: AzureWave driver: mt7921e v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 2f:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:7961
  IF: wlp47s0 state: up mac: 14:13:33:b8:fb:25
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 30:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: 5c:60:ba:be:47:cc
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: IMC Networks Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-7:7 chip-ID: 13d3:3567
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: 14:13:33:B8:FB:24
    bt-v: 5.3 lmp-v: 12
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 422.91 GiB (44.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Micron model: MTFDKBA1T0TFH-1BC1AABHA
    size: 953.87 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: UMDMD01R3GT5U6
    temp: 42.9 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 448.95 GiB used: 102.52 GiB (22.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/dm-0
    mapped: cr_root
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 3.99 GiB used: 7.8 MiB (0.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-3: /home size: 448.95 GiB used: 102.52 GiB (22.8%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-0 mapped: cr_root
  ID-4: /opt size: 448.95 GiB used: 102.52 GiB (22.8%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-0 mapped: cr_root
  ID-5: /var size: 448.95 GiB used: 102.52 GiB (22.8%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/dm-0 mapped: cr_root
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 15.28 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.8 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 2024 fan-2: 1844
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 15.28 GiB used: 6.65 GiB (43.5%)
  Processes: 455 Power: uptime: 0h 26m wakeups: 0 Init: systemd v: 261
    default: graphical
  Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm pm: flatpak pkgs: 20
    Compilers: gcc: 16.1.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.15 running-in: konsole
    inxi: 3.3.41
4

Your CPU fan is running on 2000 rpm.
You may need to compare the CPU govenors and power and performance profiles between Fedora and TW.

You may also want to clean the laptop fans as this is also a common reason on laptops to become louder.

And there are many reports regarding this issue. Just Google your model and fan noise.

5

OK, thank you

6

The string

inxi -Fxx

for getting system info is much faster and more comprehensive than neofetch or any other fetch. I am glad I stumbled upon this post.

7

The fan starts making noise after adding an account to KMail. :unamused:

8

So some observations;

  • With dual gpu’s and now with vulkan in use, some systems benifit from setting the vulkan device. In you case as above, it’s using the intel gpu (tied to the cpu, so extra load == fan noise)

If you create a /etc/environment file and in that file add;

## GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q
MESA_VK_DEVICE_SELECT="10de:2520"

Reboot the system

  • Ensure the power-profiles-deamon package is installed and the service is running, then check the output from cpupower frequency-info is it showing balanced?

  • If you monitor the frequency info, is it changing at idle, under load etc?

  • Is your user in the video and render groups, if not, suggest you add as well, this requires logout/login.

Use the command senors to check fan speeds as well.

Install nvtop and open a console session and observer there, as root user you will need to run the following commands and also ensure libcap-progs and intel-gpu-tools are installed as well, then as root user run;

setcap cap_perfmon=ep $(which intel_gpu_top); setcap cap_perfmon=ep $(which nvtop)

Then run nvtop and should see the likes of gpu ram in use, power, fan speed etc.

9

Thanks a lot; I just tried installing TLP. I’m testing it now.

10

@Simon63r TLP is really only for battery, plus it’s less relevant these days. Generally manual tweaks are required for newer hardware.

11

Restored power-profiles-daemon. It’s quiet for now.