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Inspiron G5 15-5587, thermals, cooling, fan control
Before you read: This is a recap of what I've seen on the forums and I want you to use it as a post for information, this is by no mean a tutorial to tweak your computer, the things I list below are here only for informing other G series owners of what the situation is now. I didn't test anything that stated "this could impact on hardware lifetime" or anything similar.
I've got my G5 5 days ago, it's rocking an i7 8750h and an Nvidia 1050ti with 16Gb of ram and all the other irrelevant stuff.
I updated BIOS to 1.5.0 with all the other stuff prompted from the Dell support center and found out how bad the fan curves are. Worst of all, a user can't really access any kind of control by default, they're just like that. "Thermal cooling" is even sponsored on the sticker on the chassis. 1.4.1 seems to be the same.
Now: I'm kind of fixed on thermals and I love to have full control and monitoring on my hardware, I have another macBook Pro which has a custom fan curve (macsFan) on both MacOS and Windows Bootcamp, and a desktop computer with an i7 6700 in a MINI ITX case THAT NEVER REACHED +75 degrees in the heaviest of stress tests paired with an overclocked nvidia GTX 970.
My heart almost broke when I saw 92° on a cpu core on HWMonitor after booting a game to test thermals (Dark Souls 3, Medium Settings, 1080p locked at 60fps).
I have bought this G5 instead of a 100 euro cheaper G3 with the same exact specs because of the beefier cooler because I want my computers to last for years (my macbook is still 100% ok, even battery, after 8 years being my daily driver, and note that I use my daily driver 12 hours a day at least, 24/7).
Now, I did some testing, I'm positive it's all because of the fans curve, they kick in too late, right after they get to the right speed, the computer gets way cooler, but the temperature spikes between the clock ramp and the fans activating are probably dangerous on computer components in the long run and I don't like my left hand sweating just because the fans are not spinning.
Please don't say that having fans spinning more frequently than this would damage the pc, I prefer to get faster consuption on my fans to replace them in 2-3 years for 30 euro instead of replacing my m.2 drive or my motherboard.
In fact, after the fans start spinning, everything gets kind of cool (mid 70°s under gaming/working load).
The problem is how long they take to act, this is not only a problem at boot, since they sometimes slow down because of a change of scene or something momentarily lighter on cpu/GPU to get again super hot and start spinning again, resulting in thermal throttle and all those bad things.
Reading other posts, I understand that Dell is not the direct producer for the motherboards and this slow reaction to this problem (take a look at the forum, posts on fan curves and thermals are all over the place) might be caused by some uneffective communication between companies. What we know is that we don't have a built in way to access the EC or control fans.
Fun fact: disabling TurboBoost (setting the cpu max power on windows' power management advanced options to 99%) has a perfect pairing on thermals and fan speeds. It really look like Dell (or who for them) draw the fan curve on thermals with TurboBoost disabled.
I read about different ways people are "solving" this issue, some are using HWInfo which has a fan management tool that allows you to set a simple table of speeds based on the temperature sensor you choose. It's the only thing that works, and you can even choose the ramp time the fans have to wait before acting, which could be 1ms instead of 5000ms.
I don't like it since I'm not an expert in ECs and I don't know if doing this could actually get in the way of the other commands on fans. It does work though, but when setting a fan to Max speed, it won't run as fast as when you leave the system default and get a game to run (you can't see speeds of fans, but based on noise I'm 100% sure of this).
Then there's SpeedFan, which doesn't work by default. Opening the options panel and activating the Dell support option seems to do something, since the program manages to retrieve info about fans and speeds, but trying to tweak it will result in fans kicking at the speed you want for the fraction of a second to stop right after, this behaviour repeats in a loop.
A user (topic linked below) created an application that disabled EC and allows users to set 3 speeds on fans. This application requires the Testing mode of windows to be enabled, which is something I can't do because 90% of the things I use to work won't allow it.
It is clear that this is not a hardware problem, it's just a management thing. Please Dell, provide a solution for us Temps Nerds, a custom fan curve tool, like any other company does would be optimal, but I'd be happy with a simple "super noisy fan mode" too.
Some are undervolting their cpus with ThrottleStop, which looks like the last resort to me, undervolting could be fine for you but I bought a high end laptop cpu because I want high end performance, I'd rather get somebody from Dell to provide a proper solution, since I really like my warranty :)
Please check out the other posts and let's try to get Dell's attention on this.
I will keeping updating this post and tests if anybody wants to join me in this hot mission.
https://www.dell.com/community/Inspiron/Dell-G7-Fan-Controller/m-p/6161368#M29975
EDIT: Update 14/12/2018: Bios 1.6.1 is out: Dell says it's to avoid fps drops. No sign of better thermal management. The mod stating this confirms that fans start spinning up at 70°. Am I the only one thinking that 70° should be the final target for max speed, and not the starting point for fans to activate?
EDIT: Update 28/12/2018: I have emailed the developer from SpeedFan to ask advice about this issue and to know if speedfan will be able to solve it in some way in the future. Fingers crossed!
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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January 17th, 2019 05:00
As an FYI to all on this thread, I stated in this other thread on 11-27-2018 10:19 AM and on 12-05-2018 07:34 AM the disposition and policy decision of the Inspiron G platform team and the Dell policy concerning these complaints =
We escalated these complaints to the Inspiron G platform team. There are currently no plans to add a user thermal management system or user fan control to the entry level Inspiron G series laptops. Inspiron G series BIOS 1.6.1 G5/G7 and 1.4.0 G3 were released to address FPS (frames per second) concerns. With these BIOS installed, the fans should speed up once 75°C is reached. This is working as designed.
We escalated these complaints to the Inspiron G platform team. There are currently no plans to add a user thermal management system or user fan control to the entry level Inspiron G series laptops. If the platform team ever decides to change this, they would release the necessary BIOS on the driver page. All you can do going forward is periodically check the driver page.
avenger4534
26 Posts
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February 22nd, 2019 07:00
Bios 1.9.0 is the exact optimization we have been waiting so far. After you install Dell Power Manager Service for your G5/G7 you can see the Thermal Management options as below
There are 4 different options to optimize the fans as we like. I am trying for an hour, as I understand they implemented our beloved bios 1.3 fan curve in Ultra Performance Mode In that mode fans react much sooner and you never see the temps spike to unacceptable levels. Cool mode is to prevent surface temperature and the Quiet mode is for the ones who desire no fan noise when using device. I advice you not to use optimized mode because they use bios 1.4 thermal table in that option. As you can see chrome tabs and many other applications are open but temps never past beyond 75C.
Dell finally understand the problem and gave the us many fan curve options to use the device as we wish. I thank you all again for giving feedback to Dell and make that possible. I also thank DELL for this user friendly solution.
Caula
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December 14th, 2018 08:00
Update 14/12/2018: Bios 1.6.1 is out: Dell says it's to avoid fps drops. No sign of better thermal management. The mod stating this confirms that fans start spinning up at 70°. Am I the only one thinking that 70° should be the final target for max speed, and not the starting point for fans to activate?
ConnorW
1 Message
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December 21st, 2018 12:00
No. 70°C seems a touch excessive as the baseline.
Caula
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December 28th, 2018 10:00
I emailed the developer from SpeedFan to ask advice about this issue and to know if speedfan will be able to solve it in some way in the future.
Fingers crossed
craig191
2 Posts
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January 2nd, 2019 16:00
Im in the exact same boat tried to download a few tools no joy. I purchased a laptop cooling pad has made no difference. Least it came with warranty if it breaks they will have to replace it.
Caula
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January 3rd, 2019 01:00
I must say that I did manage to get some better thermals with a couple of usb 5v fans. I first tried drilling holes and using them to push air into the laptop, I used an ikea laptop riser (the cheap black one) with these fans since I couldn't find a cooling pad on amazon with a layout able to align with the fans drills on the g5. After some tests, unfortunately, I realized that pushing doesn't help until the fans start spinning at 70° because the space between the fins of the fan and the rest of the fan's chassis is too narrow and air is not able to flow (of course results are decent when they start to spin). So what I did then is the opposite, I've set the two fans on the back of the laptop, PULLING air directly from the cooling block, and it worked for a difference of more than 10°, showing exactly what I'm trying to say in this entire post.
avenger4534
26 Posts
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January 16th, 2019 13:00
All was good back then bios 1.3.0 then Dell ruined everything with releasing 1.4 bios, now my device thermal throttles, cpu temps suddenly jumps to unacceptable levels (98-100°C), fans react so delayed my laptop becomes like an oven. As a gamer; I don't care how loud my fans are but it is vital to have cool internal system for better performance. As I paid that device for gaming it is my right to have decent cooling system not some crippled fans which just sits and don't react until 75°C. Now I am trying every possible way reaching out Dell to make them fix what they broke.
1- If we can give enough feedback to them, they will pass that information to their engineering team and they will fix the fan curve on the next bios release. Direct messaging to mods about that issue with our service tags may prove useful.
2- After given feedback we need to be heard also. I think the best way to achieve that is on twitter. I am tweeting about that issue daily with adding @DellCares them to my tweets. I am also replying under some kinda PC mag PC world, tech's accounts, these tweets can be seen million times. ( You can also DM @DellCares with your service tags for feedback.)
If we can give enough feedback and try hard enough them to hear our voice.
Tsironman28
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January 27th, 2019 22:00
I hope their views change and release an update to address the fan issues...I'd like for my laptop not to overheat.
Caula
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February 4th, 2019 07:00
Thanks for participating DELL-Chris M.
This is such a bad image from Dell, they're basically saying that our computers are entry level, even though they cost +1000euro and that overheating is no problem.
so this are my reached temperatures today (max ones on the right), after a couple matches of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, 1080p, lowest settings.
Note that the computer is in a 18C° room, elevated, with even 2 fans blowing air from the bottom of the laptop and an OCOOL rear fan pulling up air from the rear.
Let's remind everybody reading this post that G5's and G7's on the forum are:
- Overheating due to poor management in bios of fan curves and power
- Throttling CPU speed randomly at 0.8GHZ when on battery
- Batteries are discharging in modern games while the laptop is connected to power
craig191
2 Posts
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February 6th, 2019 10:00
I don't understand why they wont give us control. If I want my fans full blast emphasis on the MY fans, there mine I should be able to do as I please and that's have them full blast to keep my PC at optimum temperature.
LimitBreak26717
1 Message
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February 7th, 2019 23:00
So i have called and called many many times and spent many hours on the phone with various customer service and tech support reps. this is ridiculous and has gone on long enough. they cant rip off consumers like this and get away with it. 1.6 bios update change log even states one of the "features" they added was reduced skin temperature and reduced fan noise. there has to be something this is ridiculous. i cant even play games without stuttering around like a child with their very first pc with the core 2 duo processor from 10 years ago. disabling turbo boost brings temps down to no higher than 70, but if youre playing a cpu intensive game, ie any strategy game, or simulation game, it cant handle going past 27-33 fps. your cpu then becomes a massive bottleneck, which should not be the case for a 1200 dollar MID-LEVEL gaming computer. oh and oh yea! did you guys know theyve realeased the "New" G5 15 gaming series laptop? and its very obvious dell cares about their customers about as much as ea does.
edit i also forgot to mention, yes i have tried undervolting. in fact with bios 1.8 i have no choice but to undervolt. if i dont even worse performance in games, and thermals will reach high enough that the computer shuts itself off to keep it from frying the cpu!
Starvald
10 Posts
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February 8th, 2019 01:00
Hi Limit Break, I recommend using Throttlestop and instead of disabling turbo, you can limit max turbo speed which will also greatly lower temperatures.
cesiumwave
14 Posts
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February 9th, 2019 10:00
agreed i have the same system and went through everything , disabling turbo boost, undervolting.. if i could just control the dang fans it wouldnt be a prob idle
Evsign
13 Posts
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February 15th, 2019 13:00
Inspiron G3 has same issues.