GX640 fan speed constantly changes - loud and annoying - help!

Hi all,

First post here. I searched through the threads and found some stuff that I thought would be helpful, but tried everything and I am still having this problem with my GX640-260US.

My laptop cooling fan constantly changes between medium and high even when I am just using the internet or word processing. It goes back and forth between medium and loud at random every 2-10 seconds. The fan will stay on high for a few seconds then drop back down. It does this constantly, even when I've stepped away from the computer for awhile and it's just sitting with the desktop and no applications open or running. It has done this since day one.

I am deployed in Iraq and we live in very close quarters. It drives me and my roommate crazy, especially when he is trying to read or enjoy quiet, and I don't blame him. It also makes it impossible to take it into meetings or use anywhere that is quiet. Everybody starts looking at me like what the hell am doing on my laptop that it is making such a racket.

The most recent thing I tried I got from a post here: using ATI overdrive, alter the profiles configuration file to underclock the GPU. I underclocked it all the way from 625 core/1000 memory to 400/500. It made no difference. Also, the manual fan control in ATI overdrive doesn't seem to make any difference either. Actually I don't even know if it's the GPU or CPU fan that is constantly switching and is so loud. I tried bios update, but MSI update utility says I have the most recent bios (American Megatrends 2.00.1201). I have the latest ATI driver, 11.2. My room is a constant 72 degrees and the laptop sits on a cooler master stand with more fans, so it's getting plenty of cool ambient air.

Is there anything I can do to stop this fan noise and the constant random speed switching every few seconds. It's driving me nuts!

Thanks.

 

I would open up the back and repaste both the CPU and GPU. Try that and see if it doesnt help. Sounds like you have a bad paste job and its keeping the temps high and causing the fan to stay ramped up.

 

go to the frostycomputers youtube channel it will show you how to repaste the CPU and do the same for the GPU.

 

Lower the clocks even more. Idling GPU @100/150 should keep the cooler from constantly switching its speed.

I guess GPU temp is about 53 (Celsius), and this is a temperature where cooler enters the next 'faster' phase. If GPU is keeping the temps around this level, then the fan will be constantly increasing/decreasing speed.

Other thing is, if the fan is getting extremely loud (as this phase should only be at very high temps: more than 95 C). In this case, repasting GPU could be a viable solution.

 

my room is full of fans. so i hardly hear anything from the laptop =) lol

 

Had the same issue. Since last week, the fan had become unbearably loud. The computer was idling at 75°C. Something was obviously not right.

I had a look inside and to my dismay, a complete repaste was in order. I also noticed that the thermal pads around the GPU were barely touching the memory modules because of the copper shim mod I did some months ago. Took off the pads, cleaned up everything with alcohol, repasted both CPU and GPU and screwed everything back into place. And then what? BAM, 46°C idle. Furmark test after 10 minutes: 73°C. Furmark (Extreme burning mode) + Prime95 running at once: 83°C.

Doctor's advice: repaste that mofo. It's worth it.

 

Mine have been doing the same for about two weeks. I repasted the CPU and GPU with Arctic MX 4 but maybe I didn't it well because it didn't change anything about the noise. The temperature are still the same also I think. Right now, since powerplay is activated, I'm at 300/1000 with and idling aroung 51c. My computer is on a Zalman cooler but I doubt it runs at its full speed (I had to use a USB "divider" because of the lack of the GX640 ports).

The fan speed still changes a lot.

Now, maybe I should remove the thermal pads like Dakins did. Why not doing it also for the CPU pads?

Edit : I realised I put arctic silver 4 while it was arctic MX-4. Sorry.

 

The reason I removed them is that the heatsink does not make proper contact with the GPU because of the thickness of the thermal pads for the RAM modules. Hence the use of a copper shim to compensate for that. I found out recently that copper shims provide terrible thermal conductivity, further contributing to the heat issue.

I did away with the copper shims and thermal pads completely, and now the heatsink sits flush with the GPU and the RAM modules. And also those grey blocks that are likely voltage regulators. The CPU side of things doesn't have that issue. Just make sure that you use good, non-electrically conductive compound.

You shouldn't have to use an external cooling fan, it's pretty ridiculous if it comes to that.

 

I only use this external fan at home ^^ (it gives me some extra USB port anyways + a nice slope.

Do you think you could take a picture of the inside of your computer? I'm so NOT SURE which pads you did remove...

 

Thanks for all the replies! So it's the GPU after all. Mine idles at 56C, or at least when I am using email, word processor, and other light duty apps.

I will begin surgery on my laptop as soon as I have all the required tools and materials together. Let's see: Arctic Silver 4, alcohol, q-tips, screwdriver, and a steady hand. I used to build systems, so I am generally familiar with how to mount heatsinks and being gentle with the chips and all. Acrctic Silver 4 still the recommended paste?

One question though. From reading the posts, do I remove the thermal pads from the GPU *and* the system RAM *and* CPU? Ar ethere thermal pads on all of these that need to be removed and then do I just repaste everything back together without the pads? I wonder why they put the pads in there in the first place of they are so problematical?

 

Wait! I didn't use arctic silver 4 (but simply arctic MX-4). It's non conductive.

 

Or IC7 is a good one too.

 

YouTube - video-2010-04-02-02-14-04

Merry Christmas. He will show you what to do. LOL

 

No. He only puts thermal paste on the CPU and GPU (which I've already done). He doesn't replace the pads with thermal compound. :|

 

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/apply-thermal-grease-laptop-processor/

If you have a gap between your CPU or GPU and cooler, then I would look into a copper shim. The thermal pads AKA is cheap paste. You can use Shin estu thermal tape on the mem on the gpu if you need a contact between the cooler and the mem. But I would just repaste the chip and place the heat sink back on top and screw it back down. Take the heat sink back off and see how it spreads out to see if you have solid contacy between the two. That will tell you if you have good contact.

 

Why not? Dakins did it and got 46 C :

" Open up the latch
Take off the heatsink assembly.
On the GPU portion, remove all thermal pads.
Do a complete repaste, don't forget to put paste where thermal pads used to be.

"

 

Thats for the mem on the gpu. LOL. Get some thermal tape or paste it. Be specific about what your talking about. And the reason he had to put paste there was because his copper shim mod he did made it where the mem's thermal pad was barely touching the cooler. Its one thing to keep your chip cool, but you have to get the heat out of your meme too. And thats why he repasted the mem.

 

Hey I'm going to be doing this mod very soon. I absolutely love this computer, but this fan cycling is ridiculous.

Im just hung up on whether or not im going to apply thermal paste directly to the GPU memory. Some dude was saying it will melt into the plastic memory over time. That doesn't sound to good.

 

Keep me posted! I finish my exam session in a week and maybe I'll do some appropriate mod inside my laptop.

 

lower speed to 100/150 Mhz @ 0.9V that will help a lot.