Bug 217057

Summary:	Asus high CPU temperature / low fan speed
Product:	Drivers	Reporter:	jacobecc9
Component:	Platform_x86	Assignee:	drivers_platform_x86 (drivers_platform_x86)
Status:	NEW ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	corentin.chary, ted437
Priority:	P1
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Kernel Version:	6.1.11-200.fc37.x86_64	Subsystem:
Regression:	No	Bisected commit-id:

Description jacobecc9 2023-02-18 21:03:13 UTC

laptop Asus X415EA (Tiger Lake) is running fan too slow in automatic mode even if CPU temperature is over 90C. There are no options in BIOS. Windows has software which allows fan to reach high speed with performance fan curve. Linux only allows to disable PWM.

Comment 1 jacobecc9 2023-02-18 21:45:59 UTC

[   19.733079] asus_wmi: ASUS WMI generic driver loaded
[   19.779429] asus_wmi: Initialization: 0x1
[   19.779476] asus_wmi: BIOS WMI version: 9.0
[   19.779507] asus_wmi: SFUN value: 0x21
[   19.779510] asus-nb-wmi asus-nb-wmi: Detected ATK, not ASUSWMI, use DSTS
[   19.779513] asus-nb-wmi asus-nb-wmi: Detected ATK, enable event queue
[   19.814908] input: Asus WMI hotkeys as /devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/input/input23
[   19.827710] asus_wmi: fan_curve_get_factory_default (0x00110024) failed: -19
[   19.827840] asus_wmi: fan_curve_get_factory_default (0x00110025) failed: -19

Comment 2 Artem S. Tashkinov 2023-02-19 14:49:42 UTC

This bug needs attention from Intel developers but I don't know anyone who's related to this. AFAIK ASUS doesn't care about Linux running on its products at all.

To calm you down you a bit: 90C is an OK'ish temperature for laptop TGL CPUs, the maximum being 100C. The CPU will never go above that and will simply throttle (decrease its operating frequency). It's almost impossible to destroy modern CPUs as they have a ton of safeguards against overheating and working outside of safe electrical parameters.

You could use the CPU frequency subsystem to limit your CPU maximum frequency - that will allow you to run cooler. You could even disable Turbo Boost but I wouldn't recommend that - the base frequency for TGL CPUs is too low.

Comment 3 Artem S. Tashkinov 2023-02-19 18:46:57 UTC

I'd recommend seeking support from ASUS directly because this Windows fan control utility works only under certain versions of Windows.

Given that this laptop can be used with any x86-64 OS, it's a huge oversight to have fan controlled by something so limited. Besides there are multiple ways this utility may stop functioning even under a supported version of Windows, so fan control should be a motherboard feature regardless of the installed OS.

Comment 4 Jean Delvare 2023-02-20 09:07:30 UTC

Moving to a more appropriate component. This is not related to hardware monitoring but to thermal management, and most likely the only way to handle this is in a dedicated x86 platform driver (or possibly fixes to the asus-wmi driver).

Comment 5 jacobecc9 2023-02-24 17:58:36 UTC

It seems some Asus laptops can change fan with ec_probe which isn't probably packaged 

In ASUS FX504GD model setting the fan speed to one of the three modes uses these register values:

# ec_probe write 0x5e 0x80 # silent mode
# ec_probe write 0x5e 0x40 # balance mode
# ec_probe write 0x5e 0xC0 # performance mode

Comment 6 Anthony Rabbito 2024-02-29 15:30:55 UTC

I have a similar issue on a UX5401ZAS ec_probe doesn't seem to make any effect.