Spectre x360 15-df0126ng fan control and noise

[GunterO]

On which registers are the fans for nbfc? Do you have a config file for the HP Spectre x360 Convertible 15-df0xxx?

Thnx.

[ThetaRho]

I'd not recommend the NBFC way, as it could damage the device and does not really improve the situation (at least for me).

When just turning off the fan controller the device ran into thermal shutdown sometimes, as others have also noticed.

A configuration which switched the controller between default and disabled depending on temperature thresholds resulted in a device switching between silence and whining. I found that more disturbing than a constant noise.

The only real solution would be a kindhearted HP developer reading all these threads of complaints and adding a low-noise profile to the fan controller firmware.

I just can join in NicolasFR's appeal:

   "Can anyone from HP send this to the adequate technical team (in charge for BIOS update for example?)"

[k-ing]

there is a new bios update F.28 Rev.A out. don t know if it solves any problem yet. i couldn t find any changelog file.

https://support.hp.com/de-de/drivers/selfservice/swdetails/hp-spectre-15-df0000-x360-convertible-pc/...

[GunterO]

Fix and enhancements:

- Provides support for additional notebook models.

I would be surprised if this fixes one of these issues.
Additional to this fan issue, I would like to see an option to keep the keyboard backlight on.

[Jonny_Vee]

Unfortunately no change with the fan noise... 😞

[Pilot7]

Here's some info on the register that the NBFC profile writes to:

https://www.reddit.com/r/spectrex360/comments/977amv/scriptturn_the_fan_offon_using_rw_everything/

https://github.com/maisi/HP-Spectre-x360-Tools

Also, is anyone having a problem with the temperature reading not working (showing as -2147483648°C) ?

Other users claim that uninstalling the HP Assistant/Solutions Framework fixes it, but it doesn't for me.

PS: I'm on a ch000 (Vega), but the register is the same.

[Pilot7]

So, I was able to get nbfc to work on my cf000 unit.

There seem to be some weird side effects when using other programs that utilize the same service (winring0) or try to read and write to the EC registers.

In my case, I was running Throttlestop, which caused NBFC to not read the registers until I restarted the laptop.

In addition, when running Throttlestop, HWinfo and NBFC I was getting weird things, like unecessary throttling and the laptop going to sleep with no overheating ocurring. I suspect it's some sort of "safe mode" when the registers can't be read because the EC is being polled by all these utilities.

To those experiencing "thermal shutdowns", is your laptop actually overheating, or is it just going to sleep ?

In my case, the solution was to uninstall everything and reinstall NBFC first. Also, after configuring NBFC I never opened it again. Its service runs in the background and works just fine. It looks like the taskbar icon polls the EC more frequently to refresh the temperature reading and causes conflicts.

Also, @ThetaRho, you can edit the profile to add some fuzzy logic and dramatically reduce the erratic on-off of the fans. The way the profile is set, it has a threshold at 60C. Over that temp it allows the fans to be on, under that it turns them off.

However, if you lower the "Downtemp" threshold for 100% fans in the profile to something like 45C then you get:

- Fans off under 45C

- Fans "on" over 60C

- Fans maintain their previous state between 45C and 60C.

This way, under medium loads you don't get the constant on/off effect.

One thing to keep in mind is that NBFC only monitors CPU temps. My ch000 has the Vega GPU practically right next to the CPU. So even under pure GPU loads, the CPU temp goes up, and NBFC picks it up.

In your case the NVidia GPU is further away from the CPU so there may be some lag. If you decide to use NBFC long term, I'd recommend testing to make sure you won't overheat the GPU under load.

[XNM0539F]

Hi guys,

I was facing the same issue with my DF0126 on Windows 10 and Ubuntu 19.04...

Since installing HP Bios update F31A (07/05/2019) the problem has been solved- CPU fan is off at low CPU usage (e.g. You Tube etc.)...

Best

A HP DF0126 User

[Pilot7]

There are some reports that this bios lowers the power limit significantly.

Hopefully, that's not the reason why the fans don't turn on as much.

[XNM0539F]

Interessting. I didn't notice lower power limit. However I am using the Spectre mostly for office related activities and I am more then happy that the fan is completely turned off while the CPU has low load. Can you share some more Information about the reports regarding issues with the latest BIOS version?