AW15 R2 Fan Control via HWINFO

Does anyone know how to get this to work?

http://alienwareusersupport.weebly.com/unofficial-aw-fan-control.html

Clicking the fan icon does nothing for me, BIOS 1.2.3.
Thanks

 

Disable EC Support in Settings before launching HWiNFO64

 

that's correct. you must have this disabled in order to control your fans independently. if you have this checked it will make the fans spin at the same time.

you may get audio popping or crackling due to a DPC latency with the CPU when HWInfo is active.

EDIT: You will also have to note that the fans will not kick in even if HWInfo starts at boot. you will need to modify the INI file with the following line:

OpenFanCtrlMin=1

this keeps the custom fan control settings open but minimized so they're not in the way. The reason is that the app doesn't know to open the correct window therefore the fans won't kick in. if you want the fans to kick in at boot then add the above line at the end of the INI file and save.

 

Thanks, pretty cool. Now the question is what each of the fans 1-3 are responsible for. Anyone knows?

 

they're not specific to any fans and you can select which one is which by clicking on custom auto. in custom auto you can set at what temps you want the fans to kick in for the component you want.

I have fan 1 as the CPU and fan 2 as the GPU but you can do whatever you want.

 

holy crap that explains why my audio is going nuts and the random spikes i am having!!!!! tbh i cant use my aw15 w/out a laptop cooler or hwinfo(but the audio issues/spikes are so bad). even with my custom fan profile over at hwinfo it throttles and reaches a peak of 94c.

 

you can test for DPC latency with latencymon - http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

if you test with HWINFO on and see a red error message that means you have a DPC latency - it usually happens within the first minute or earlier.
if you test without HWINFO and you see a green message that means you don't have a DPC latency and that HWINFO is causing that latency.

I have spoken with the developer of HWINFO and it is because of how dell EC works that they're not able to get that latency fixed....at least for the 2013 model i have and i guess that's the same for the newer models.

so if you want decent cooling then you'll have to live with occassional audio popping....it's unfortunate but that's how it is as alienware won't update the BIOS for anything.

even with HWINFO it shouldn't be peaking that high. you might not have it configured correctly. i have my fans at full blast and it idles in the 30s for both CPU and GPU. for me my Cooler Master U3 doesn't seem to be making it cooler at all probably due to the small fans and the holes in the surface of the cooler aren't big enough to allow for unobstructed airflow.

 

may i see your settings/fan table? well i use it as a console and i have no space for it on the table below my 60 inch television so i have to set it on the floor, on the carpet i guess thats why but ill try playing a game later on a normal desk. either way i am really disappointed and really considering selling this thing by january if i cant resolve the problems i am having and getting myself a refurb/recertified gt72 w gsync over at ebay

 

firstly, make sure that EC Support is off:



if this is still on then both the CPU and GPU fans will be combined into 1 control slider, the fans will go nuts, and the temps too. SO DISABLE IT!

go into sensors and click the little black fan button at the bottom



you should now see the fan control pop up and 2 fan sliders unlocked (the 3rd is locked since there's no 3rd fan...obviously).

click custom auto for fan 1 and select your CPU....you may have 3 CPU options: pick the one that says "CPU Package" - this is the CPU Temp.



click custom auto for fan 2 and select your GPU...you only have 2 options: GPU Temp and GPU Temp (HW). pick one.



IGNORE ALL SENSOR 2 SETTINGS

Below is where you determine the temps and fan speed. the 2013 model has 3 states off, low, high and this might be the same for newer models. you'll have to enter in custom values to see what the limits are and then simply create a table with that threshold.

These are old settings but the general idea still applies.

 

ok did it and limit for cpu is 5200 and 5000 for gpu. now ill see if i can live with the spikes. if not i guess its time for a new machine. Hoping for the price of those gt72 w a 980m and gsync will drop by march of next year as i have a trip to the us and i plan on getting myself that laptop. Thanks for the detailed help! you are a great asset to this community! More power to you sir.

 

what matters is your temps. you can put temp monitors in your task bar's notification area.

 

with what app?

 

same app.

go into the sensors option and again at the bottom select the cog on the right.



You should see a pop called HWINFO sensor settings. click on the tab called system tray and in the list below select the same values you selected for the fans.

check the box that says "show in tray" and select the colors you want to differentiate from other sensor readings.

click ok.

 

Is it possible to control the fans for my P570WM in the same way as described above via HWinfo?
I'm not at home so I can't try yet.

 

clevo based laptops work differently to alienware so probably not.

 

@thegh0sts Good info - many thanks for this. Unfortunately, I found that on the AW15R2 this method is fatally ineffective. The max CPU fan speed setting is 5200, whereas it's clear by comparing the noise in System Auto mode that the actual max fan speed is higher. This further evidenced by the fan at 5200 speed not being able to effectively control the temps during load
Additionally, a bit minor, but the system fan speed control seems gradual/continuous whereas this is discrete with 3 states leading to fan frequently spinning on and off around the boundary temp.

 

Don't think this is accurate. On AW15 R2 fan 1 is specifically the CPU fan, and fan 2 is the GPU fan. Presumably mixing the two up, i.e. spinning the GPU fan up in response to raising CPU temps would not be very effective...

 

well really it's just a guide, you may need to tweak it to make it work.

 

Not possible on Clevo.. You can in the control centre mess around with the fan profile and make a custom one but max speed is 80%....

 

To be fair the max fan speed I get through HWINFO on the AW15R2 is 80% of max at most. I can replicate the performance of the standard fan mode, but can't match the "Performance Fan" BIOS setting (extra 6% ish system performance basically, and idle CPU temps in the 20s).

 

Well, I wonder how - try to override the fan speeds in regedit? Eek.

 

probably not possible if it's in the system BIOS.

 

I wanted to make a custom profile but is it me or does the 980M sensor not show up?

 

Does anyone know how I can make the fancontrol in HWInfo less eratic. For example when it reached 65c I have it enabled that the fans should start spinning but within 2 seconds it goes under 65c again. The fans go like on and off like this. Is there a way to give it like a 10 second delay till they turn fully off again?

Maybe @thegh0sts knows how?

 

To @rinneh:
Fire up Gpu-z before running HWInfo, that way GPU temps shows up in HWinfo.

Try tweaking Respin Period in HWinfo

 

The problem was unfortunately that i used a too old version

Regarding respin, does this enable that after spinning up that the fan will continue the to spin for at least lets say 5 seconds even if the temperature is already lowered? I thought it was for troubleshooting if it wont hold the selected fanspeed?

 

Exactly. It certainly helps under full load to keep temps low.

 

I came across an issue. My fans suddenly stop all together if i disable ec in hwinfo. Suddenly saw 1 core throttle at 95c while playing tainbow six. Then i noticed the fans werent spinning. But i do not want to enable the ec for possible lag while producing music.

 

@rinneh: Its a known issue, even my CPU thermal throttled to 97C w/o fans spinning at all whilst gaming. Only workaround, is before exiting HWinfo make sure System Auto button is clicked on both CPU and GPu so that AW default fan curve will kick in to avoid Thermal throttle next time.

 

@thegh0sts i had to use a high elevated program shortcut to make it work on startup :S the good thing is that is working perfectly now ...

if someone have the same problem that i had, here is the link to make it
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11949-elevated-program-shortcut-without-uac-prompt-create.html