HP Omen 17 fan speed problem

[RasmusL]

Hello! My HP OMEN 17-an004no gaming notebook has a fan noise problem. It's not a new problem and was probably a problem before I got it as I bought it used.

The problem is that only one fan seems to want to turn. It can go as high as around 4000 RPM while the other one stays at 200.

As you can imagine this is VERY loud and VERY annoying, I can only describe the sound it makes to that of a jet plane before takeoff.

Here are the things I have tried so far

- Removing collected dust from the laptop with air duster
- Resetting BIOS settings
- Updating the BIOS
- Re-installing Windows

To clarify this only happens during intensive tasks such as gaming and only when the CPU reaches 80 celsius then the fan goes from pretty loud to VERY loud. There are no other processes sapping performance, the vents are clean, the BIOS is at the latest revision.

I don't know what to do next or if there even is anything I can do. I can't imagine this to be normal behavior but if it is I demand that a BIOS update be released to address this issue as it is simply unacceptable that this should be standard behavior for a high end gaming notebook as even my old gaming notebook is way quieter.

If this is a hardware issue how can I get it fixed?

[Jeet_singh]

@RasmusL,

Thank you for posting your query on HP Community,

I would like to inform you that the fan functions are system managed and there is no HP tools or options to turn on or off the system fan manually.

If your device is overheating, please remember the below information:

NOTE: Generally, when temperatures inside the case rise above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), the risk of damaging important internal components increases greatly.

Also, to avoid the CPU damage, we do not recommend throttling or overclocking the CPU, I recommend you refrain from using high-performance games on this laptop as it's not built for the same.

In this scenario, I would suggest here is to run an extensive system test from F2 and check if the hardware components on your PC are functioning correctly.

1. Hold the power button for at least five seconds to turn off the computer.

2. Turn on the computer and immediately press Esc repeatedly, about once every second.

When the menu appears, press the F2 key.

3. On the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) main menu, click System Tests.

4. Click Extensive Test.

5. Click Run once, or Loop until error.

While the test is running, the time remaining and test result for each component are

shown on the screen.

6. If a component fails a test, write down the failure ID (24-digit code) so you have it

available when you contact HP Customer Support. The information is also available in

Test Logs on the main menu.

Let me know how it goes for further assistance. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Have a great day!

[Korhog]

Did you update the BIOS before it happened?

[RasmusL]

@Jeet_singh

It's pretty clear in my post that I don't want to turn off any fans. What I want to do is run both fans at the same RPM in the range of maybe 1500-2500 each to reduce the noise.

As 4000+ RPM on one fan and 130 RPM on the other is not an acceptable result of owning any notebook let alone a high end notebook.

The reason that running one fan at 4000+ RPM while the other one is practically standing still is that the airflow over a heatsink and the dissipation of heat is not linear and slows down exponentially while the noise that is created is linear and therefore a fan that runs twice as fast doesn't cool twice as good but does sound twice as loud. At least that's what I could gather from a few minutes of research.

I did run some of the hardware tests with the diagnostics tools however I did not see a reason to run the extensive test as I know there are no problems with my disks, memory, video memory, USB ports, etc. None of the tests returned any error codes so I am thinking that this is a hardware issue either with the motherboard or the fan.

Upon further research on the forums I am not the only one to run into this issue.
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Gaming-Notebooks/HP-OMEN-17-FAN-1-faster-then-FAN-2/m-p/6870586

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/HP-Omen-17-Fan-speed-issue/td-...

I have concluded that this is (probably) NOT a hardware issue and is purely a software issue. I would like to see a new BIOS revision to address this as the noise could probably be reduced by up to half(-5db to -10db reduction). Either by just fixing the fan curve or letting the user set some basic fan control. I can't imagine this being too much work for the former as you would just be changing some values (presumably, I don't know what the source code looks like).

[Ferty]

I have the same problem now. Thanks for the recommendations, but nothing helped me with the options above. Are there any other options?

[dollaronewebhos]

Try again ferty. It's worked for me. May be your system have some another problem?

[RasmusL]

To my knowledge there are no other options currently.

I did find that with notebook fancontrol  using the HP Pavilion 17-ab240nd configuration I can control one of the fans, but not the one I want to.

I am thinking of making my own fan config possibly but I don't know what EC register to write to for the right fan or if it is even possible as the register that controls fan #1 is the same as the CPU temperature. So by writing to it you spoof the BIOS into thinking that the CPU is really hot (at least that's what I think it does)so it turns up the fan. However from what I can tell there is no sensor that controls the fan speed of fan #2 so I don't know whether that is controllable from a register or not.

The register that controls Fan #1 is register 0x58 (88 in decimal) and if you set that to 90 you get the max fan speed. Weirdly enough registers 0x47 (71 in decimal) and 0xF4 (244 in decimal) also control fan speed but only for fan #1. If HP could provide some documentation that would be great *wink* *wink*.

I will post an update if I find a way to control fan #2 but don't count on it.

[RasmusL]

UPDATE: I must not have been very thorough in my testing register 0x47 (71 in decimal) clearly controls the speed of BOTH under certain conditions fans while register 0x58 (88 in decimal) ONLY controls the left fan. The way of actually controlling the right fan is a bit weird though. I have to set register 0x58 to 90 in decimal then set 0x47 to 90 in decimal repeatedly several times every second. I have tried to find a pattern where another register is also altered while doing this that would just control the right fan but no luck so far.

Again will update if I find anything new and if I find a good solution I will create a fan profile for notebook fancontrol.

[dragontattoo123]

Is your problem solved.

Try here

[RasmusL]

No my issue has not been solved and HP have stopped caring. They don't seem to care about quality of experience in their hardware products. It works but man is it annoying to play Battlefield V for example. Once the CPU hits 80C the left fan goes into overdrive while right fan does nothing. It's baffling why such an idiotic software flaw (as I have been able to prove in my findings that it is not a hardware problem) is left unpatched almost 2 years after the product was released. Really disappointed and I will not buy a HP product after this if this is the level of quality that they think is acceptable.