OMEN fan too loud - by design or faulty hardware?

[Rani-K]

I just got my OMEN laptop, 17 inch i7 GTX1060 (17-an008ca).

Ever since I got it, any type of activity I do on the laptop makes the left fan (facing the laptop) go too loud. This includes something as simple as browsing on Chrome/Edge, or even moving the cursor a lot. The CPU temperature averages around 50 degrees celcius on low activity, 5-7% CPU utilization.

Read a lot of the forum posts here and it seems that this is a common problem. Now my question is, is this how the fan is designed? Or is there a hardware issue with my fan/thermal controller?

I've tried almost all the suggestions I read online, and the fan is still too loud.

• Installed all updates
• BIOS updated
• Hard reset (held down power button)
• Tested hardware (F2 on boot)
• Confirmed 'fan always on' is disabled in BIOS (F10 on boot)
• Can't be program load as I only installed two programs, both don't run in the background by default
• Dust can't be the issue, it's brand new

Have yet to try changing power settings, but I wouldn't want that to be the issue since that means I'd be throttling down the power of the processor. It should be able to adjust on its own depending on the load.

Chatted to support and they told me the OMENs they have are quiet during low activity. So what's wrong with mine then? Reading a lot of the posts on these forums, it seems that it could be software related or hardware related.

Software: It could be software because it looked like a lot of people got this issue after a certain update. This post here says it could be related to HP System Event Utility, but haven't touched that yet.

Hardware: It could be hardware because it could be ... hardware related, not sure how to explain that any other way! Also read something about a bad batch with thermal controllers over here. That seems dated though and not sure if that can still be valid for my laptop. A few other people commented about repositioning the sink and that helped them ... hmmm.

I really don't want to return the laptop as it looks amazing and has all the specs I want. Considering going to a store that has them on display to see if the laptop there sounds the same, not many do in the Vancouver region though so not sure if I can do that in time before the return policy expires 😛

Overall, this can't be normal, I doubt the fan should be this loud for basic use. So is my fan broken? Or does HP need to consider investing in revamping their fans to be quieter? Or maybe, if it's software, then perhaps they should look into it and release an update.

Any suggestions appreciated - thanks!

[Flower_Bud]

Hi @Rani-K,

Thank you for posting on HP Forums,

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP.

They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number.

Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact.

Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

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[noblepacino]

Try clicking Fn+F once... and wait a few seconds. It should go down gradually back to normal. I accidentally hit Fn+F instead of Ctrl+F when I was doing some work and after that ...fan was always on... Then I found out about the Fn+F option. 

[Rani-K]

This laptop model does not have the Fn+F option, no other key combination option to keep fan on either.

The fan is not constantly loud by the way, but easily goes loud from simple activities like browsing.

[EddyK]

Hi Rani-K,

I don't know much but I have used HP laptops in the past with fan issues from simple tasks. There may be an issue with how HP programmed the fans to respond to Windows tasks. But then again, I have to agree it could be either a software or hardware issue. 

This may be a really weird and irrelevant question but do you perhaps have HP CoolSense installed? Either turn it off or try uninstalling it if you do. HP CoolSense often seems to amplify the fan issue. 

Also, have you tried changing the system cooling policy under your current power plan from active to passive?

I have to agree that sometimes pre-installed HP processes such as HP System Event Utility or HP Support Solutions Framework causes issues and sometimes raises CPU usage. You could try uninstalling problematic applications. Try viewing their issues under Event Viewer. 

Also although you did just receive this laptop, did you update Windows all the way to the latest version (1709)? If so, do you perhaps remember if this issue did not occur in previous versions?

Hope you find a solution,

kem579

[Rani-K]

Hi Kem579,

Looks like you've done some good research, thanks for taking the time to read and respond back.

CoolSense: Your question on CoolSense is not weird at all, it's also quite relevent as it is directly related to the fan.

But yes, I have tried disabling and enabling HP CoolSense, made no difference to the sound of the fan.

Active to Passive: I have changed and played around with the power plan settings. Changing from active to passive did not help much, it added a slight delay to when the fan gets kicked up I felt, but it still happened.

Power Plan: Limiting the processor's power (in power plan) on the other hand did help quite a bit, it kept the fan off (or on low?) when I limited it to 50% power. I did not test this long enough to make sure the effect was persistent though. Mainly because I do not feel comfortable limiting the processor much to use it in the library or other public spaces, feel that the fan should be able to run quiter when CPU is not being overworked ... maybe all HQ processors are built in a way that gets very hot quick?

Uninstall apps: I have not tried to uninstall any of the HP applications, probably one of the few things I didn't try.

Updates: Updated everything all the way to the latest, that includes Windows, HP apps, and the BIOS - no good. The issue happened from when I first got it (as it was setting up it was pretty loud too).

So ... fan still loud, but I've returned the laptop already, will post more on that later.

Thanks for your help 🙂

[Rani-K]

Since the return policy deadline was closing in, I decided to try exchanging it 1:1 in case mine was defective. The replacement laptop had the same loud fan issue though (and I feel it was a bit louder! Perhaps because I still haven't updated the BIOS on it).

I ended up returning it 😞 shame really cause I loved everything else about the laptop; the screen was crisp and anti-glare, the laptop looked amazing, keyboard layout was perfect, ports were plentiful, and the specs were just what I needed. But that fan was just way too loud, and I couldn't use the laptop in public places for reading documents or browsing the web.

My conclusion is that the fan is just built loud ... could the vents above the keyboard amplify the sound too?

Also, maybe the HQ processors easily overheat so the cooling fan kicks off whenever it hits 50 degrees. I read some posts where Omen users were manually adjusting the kick-off point for the fans by using RWEverything - I wasn't willing to risk depreciating the laptop faster though (in case it does do that).

Now ... maybe I did get two defective laptops, because I have seen posts where Omen owners of the same model say their laptop sounds quiet on low activity. Or maybe they're just not as sensitive to these things as I am, or they use their laptops outdoors when it's cold or something.

[Peregrin71]

Have yet to try changing power settings, but I wouldn't want that to be the issue since that means I'd be throttling down the power of the processor. It should be able to adjust on its own depending on the load.

I noticed that the fan's mainly got loud when a core (or two) started maxing out. GPU (1070)  load didn't seem to have any effect. Throttling down CPU max load to 85% did the trick for me (haven't tried higher values yet). 

Running pretty quiet now didn't really notice the performance degradation.