Probook 4530s fan noise : DSDT table edition ?

[jovan84]

I tried it, but nothing was happened, same story.... HP :manfrustrated:

[jhoonq]

As i've said on the previous page, it's time to give up. HP decided on a strict  table for the fan control and it will stay that way. They will not move the 40C threshold for fan on to 60C or whatever. They will ignore the 15 people bothered by the fan noise and keep the other thousands happy to have a cool laptop!

Would it make sense to have the fan off untill ~65C? Sure, but they will not bother to do something about that. There is a fail safe in the bios that does not allow the fan to be off at over 40C, as tested by many of us in the past.  You can play with the EC and make the fan go slower or faster at any temp, but not turn it off if cpu temp is 40C.

My point about them not giving a 1$ about this is validaded by the new bios:

"- Fixes an issue where the BIOS Setup menu (F10) does not display the Modem Options after the system is restarted."

That is that... 

[MaraMarik]

Never give up, my friend.:smileywink: You paid your money for this, so you have a right to demand for a proper quality. 

[jhoonq]

 Version: F.25 (27 Mar 2012)
  Enhancements
  - This BIOS contains code updates intended to reduce the likelihood of certain system boot failures.

They still update this series and no fix for the fan on at 40C. Thanks, HP! 

[Cavour]

jhoonq, here is a reply from the HP Support:

You have mentioned in your e-mail that you are experiencing issues with the running off the fan on the unit. You suspect this as an issue with the version of the BIOS and wish to get this corrected.
I appreciate your time and patience in explaining the details of the issue. It is my pleasure assisting you with the issue.
Let me inform you that there has been no such known issue reported for the model or the BIOS version.

So, they don't know about the issue at all, that's what they say.

[jhoonq]

The answer is very logical. There is no "issue"! The fan works perfectly, as intended by them.

As i tested before, the fan on this series works like this:

- 0-39C, state is 255
- 40C, state is 82
- 50C, state is 74
- 60C, state is 65
- 70C, state is 59
- 80C, state is 49

- Drop to 70C ---> fan state 59
- Drop to 60C ---> fan state 65
- Drop to 50C ---> fan state 74
- Drop to 40C ---> fan state 82
- Drop to 31C ---> fan state 255

- Using tpfancontrol or acfancontrol to write decimal values at offset 47, we have the 0-255 range:

-------255 state - Fan OFF

-------128 state - Slowest fan setting other than off (129 to 254 make the fan sound exactly the same as 128 state)

-------127->0 - The fan gets louder and louder the lower the state is set in this range

------------------------------------------------------

If any of us here could talk 30 seconds with the engineer guy from HP that decided on the thresholds, the "problem" would be fixed instantly, as it is a ridiculously easy thing to change. Any sane person understands that even an idle i3 can't drop to 31C (i had tot take the cover off and put the laptop outside to get it there) to turn the fan off, so this laptop will forever have the fan on! 

How i would edit the fan table?

- 0-65C, state is 255
- 66C, state is 128!!! (start the fan with the lowest speed allowed by the controller FFS, not straight with 82!!!!!)
- 71C, state is 82
- 76C, state is 74
- 81C, state is 65
- 86C, state is 59

- Drop to 80C ---> fan state 65
- Drop to 75C ---> fan state 74
- Drop to 70C ---> fan state 82
- Drop to 65C ---> fan state 128
- Drop to 59C ---> fan state 255

Will any of this ever happen? No, as i've explained on previus posts.  They had problems in the past with overheating so their logic now is "better cold and loud than silent and hot". If the fan is bothering e few, no big deal, 95% are happy to have the laptop cold at all times.

We also have to keep in mind that this exact bios is shared by 8 series:

HP ProBook 4230s Notebook PC
HP ProBook 4330s Notebook PC
HP ProBook 4331s Notebook PC
HP ProBook 4430s Notebook PC
HP ProBook 4431s Notebook PC
HP ProBook 4530s Notebook PC
HP ProBook 4730s Notebook PC

I have no clue if any of them has i7, but i5 with hot dedicated radeons there are for sure. Those probably get hot fast and need proper cooling.

My laptop is ridiculously cold and never gets even slightly warm under light use, with the fan set at the lowest possible fan state (128), temps are ~40C.  But i only have the 2350 with hd3000.

Take this as a lesson for the future laptop. Research before this "issue": "Can i have full control on the fan and decide when to start, stop, ramp up etc (with 3rd part app)? Or, if i can't, has the manufacturer decided on some sane thresholds?"

Yeah, the 4530s is very cheap, the case looks decent but the compromise is the joke of a screen with washed out colors and the fan forever on...

Btw, if this series would recieve the fan table change or provide EC documentation to allow someone to write a tool and have full control over the fan, one could make a great laptop out of it. Upgrade the screen to an amazing B156HW01 V.4,  get a ssd and we would have a 0 dB laptop.

[jhoonq]

Meh, it seems the unnecessary fan noise issue is a common thing and most manufacturers go with "better noisy and cold than warmer and silent!"

I was working on a ~recent sony notebook today . This unit is starting the fan at 48-49C with a very silent speed and turns it off when the temp drops to 45C. The thing is you can have this laptop most of the time with the fan off, as light use does not  bring the temp to the fan on point.

Our only hope to ever have the fan off at over 40C is DSDT editing OR Notebook Hardware Control!

I was testing this program and it works with the 4530s. The problem is (besides 32bit only) we need someone to make a simple ACPI module for it. Check out this step by step guide with pictures where someone builds this file for an Asus (use next next on the upper left part of the screen). Same step by step for a probook. This one was much harder because there were no defined ACPI methods to read/write to the SMC. But the program is so complex that it can create it's own methods of reading/writing to SMC.

Check out the english part of their forum. Notice "Post your requests here!" and how many people have the same issue as us with this model.

It doesn't look like rocket science, but it can be daunting for many. Check out the final part of the asus project and how nice he got it done! I'm speechless! Any level there one can edit to his own needs. It looks to good (and logical) to be true!

On the 4530s, the thermal zone uses a different method than the asus tutorial so i got stuck, but i'm sure this can can be done. If only we could just move the 40C fan on thershold to 60C or some other editable value and most of the problem would be solved...

Come on, if there are others here on 32 bits, get 2.4.3 version and have a look at what can be done!

Post here  your findings so more people see this and maybe HP will do something about it.

Imagine that for someone at hp who writes the ACPI parts, this editing to change the temperture where the fan first goes from off to on is a 1 minute job, trouble is the user can't interect with any of them and the drones answering the phone are clueless.

[l_petkov]

I have the same problem guys, and when my 4530s is cool and the fan is running at high speed , i just open some high performance game and the fan's speed decreace. Then i just close the game and thats it. And this works only if you close the game after the fan slows down, if you continue playing the game and the laptop gets hotter , the fan will again become loud. 

[jhoonq]

We have done it!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-business-class-notebooks/657013-hp-probook-4530s-fan-always-help-... 

[jhoonq]

Soon...