HP Z8 G4 Win10 system fans too fast

[Yuri_R]

I have a brand-new HP Z8 with 1 x Quadro P400 and 2 x GTX 1080 Ti, running Windows 10 Workstation Pro 64-bit.
With no application running, with no services creating any load all the systems fans are at 50% and it is driving me crazy.

Most of the internet suggests that high-running fans can be traced to a drivers mismatch - but here's the funny bit: After a clean install of Windows (not the HP build, but a clean one from the MS download site) the fans are blissfully slow and silent.
The moment I install the latest drivers from the nVidia site (25.21.14.1735) - that's when the howling fans start up.

Using the system restore of the HP build the fans hit the fast run right away.

Any suggestions as to how I can bring the fans down to a usable level?

Since HP lock the BIOS down real tight, SpeedFan is no good. Can anyone advise me on how I can manage the fan speed on the Z8?

Thanks,
Yuri

P.S. It is a bit funny and a bit depressing to find, while joining this message board, that HP thinks that the Z8 G4 is a Laptop...

[Yuri_R]

Update: I went with a more stable older driver from nVidia (397.93) and that did not make any difference.

Reading this forum I find that some other users have had issues with fan speeds on Z8. Ho-hum....

[BambiBoomZ]

Yuri_R,

The mysterious aspect is that the fresh install of Windows 10 corrected the fan speed. An important aspect of this situation is, that if the fan speed is a known issue, it may be advisable to contact HP for warranty service.  Changes made by the user may affect the warranty. If the configuration has been altered, consider retuning it to the original and contacting HP for warranty service.

Otherwise some ideas:

1.  I have never seen the setings for the Z* system BIOS, but if it's similar to zX20's, look for a possible Advcanced > Thermal setting.  If that or similar exists, try setting it to minimum.  

2. There does seem to be some strong possibility of GPU driver conflict as the Quadro and GTX need to run on different drivers. Consider running the system on each GPU singley and making a clean install of the driver each time.

If the system runs normally on one card, consider trying the procedure for installing the Quadro and GTX drivers independently by installing (check "Clean Install" to remove the old drivers) the primary GPU in the primary GPU slot with the seondary GPU slot disabled. Then, the secondary GPU is installed with the primary GPU disabled.  See the thread by forum friend Brian1965 who runs a Quadro P2000 and GTX 1080 Ti in a z620 for a fuller description.

3.  Running  HWMonitor or similar on top, note over time the temperatures of the P400 and GTX 1080.

It's possible, that the GPU sensors are misreporting the tempertures, or intermittently. 1. In case the temperature sensors are defective on the GPU, try running the system on each card seperately and if possible try a third, known working card. 

4. Check that the BIOS and chipset driver are current

5.  I don't know the  if the GPU temperture measurement signal chain is directly through BIOS,  or that the sensors on the cards may be read or at least linked through Windows.  The reinstall cure suggest that there may be a Windows-related component.  It may be worthwhile reinstalling and updating the HP OEM an running HP Performance Advisor as the OEM Windows does contain quite a lot of specialized features and drivers.  When I placed an HP 9212-4i HBA controllerd in a z620, it simply booted and ran.

6.  Consider running HP Performance Advisor.

7.  This is a bit of wild card: The Z8 enclosure has an interesting physical design and I have to say, that I would need to be convinced that the airflow in the case works effectively in the way shown in the sales diagrams- but especially for the rear CPU.  The GPUs' too are cooled by air that has to be drawn though the drive cage.  Consider removing all but the boot drive from the system in the event the GPU air flow is restricted by drives.  I don't know the Z8 drive caddy design, but consider running with even the drive caddies removed.

These are my best wild guesses.

The original post mentioned that the problem occurred at idle, but what kind of applications is the system running?

BambiBoomZ

HP z620_2 (2017) (R7) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB + GTX 1070 Ti 8GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 500GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 sound interface + 2X Mackie MR824 / 825W PSU /> HP OEM Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit  > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H  (27" / 2560 X 1440)

[bifer]

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@Yuri_R wrote:

Update: I went with a more stable older driver from nVidia (397.93) and that did not make any difference.

Reading this forum I find that some other users have had issues with fan speeds on Z8. Ho-hum....

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So did this improve the situation? I was wondering today the same about my case fan. 

And I use the same driver version (25.21.14.1735) on my P4000. And since I ordered today evening a new Nvidia GeForce RTX2080 Ti as a 2nd graphics card, I was wondering at what noise level I would end up.

[bifer]

My bad ... For 1 week I wasn't realizing that it wasn't the rear chassis fan, but it was the front chassis fan with over 1700 rpm causing the loud noise. For whatever reasons ... it is now down to normal noise level again at 880 rpm. Now I have to figure out why my Memory Fan 1 is still at 1740 rpm ... strange.