Hello, everyone.
I’m a new user who has started using Manjaro since a couple months ago in my personal laptop, after using Kubuntu for years at work. My laptop is an Asus ROG laptop, which obviously came with Windows, and I chose Manjaro to fully migrate to Linux now.
While I haven’t had many issues, and the issues I’ve had I’ve been able to resolve on my own, there is the specific problem of the fan speed for which I haven’t been able to find a solution. My laptop is a GL553VE specifically, and its maximum supported fan speed is 5400 RPM, which it was able to reach in Windows, with a manual “fan boost” mode.
In Linux, however, it will just not go over 4800, and there’s no way to force it. Whenever I’m gaming, my GPU goes all the way up to 90ºC because of this, which is very much not ideal. I found this tool on Github (asus-fan-control by dominiksalvet), which has allowed me to automate the fan acceleration as the temperature goes up in a far more successful way than what came adjusted by default, but it does not change the maximum fan speed, which stays at 4800.
I’ve been following the Arch wiki article (archlinux wiki / Fan speed control) on controlling fan speeds, but I haven’t had success. Everything works until I have to use pwmconfig, which fails with an error: /usr/bin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed. I’ve searched around and I’ve found people who get this error as well, but in their case, it’s usually because sensors-detect is unable to detect their fan. In my case, the fan does show up, which is how I know the speed never passes over 4800.
This is the output of sensors right at this moment:
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +53.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0: +52.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1: +49.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2: +55.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3: +49.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
pch_skylake-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +42.5°C
nvme-pci-0500
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +45.9°C (low = -20.1°C, high = +84.8°C)
(crit = +81.8°C)
Sensor 1: +45.9°C (low = -20.1°C, high = +84.8°C)
iwlwifi_1-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +50.0°C
asus-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
cpu_fan: 2000 RPM
BAT0-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0: 16.05 V
curr1: 0.00 A
acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1: +51.0°C (crit = +98.0°C)
As you can see, the fan is shown as asus-isa-0000, and it has a cpu_fan property, which updates every time I type sensors, which tells me it’s working.
I don’t want to start doing things I don’t understand that could potentially damage my system (which I know is a real possibility when adjusting fan speed), and it’s the reason I’ve decided to ask for guidance here. But I know I also cannot just start gaming and let my GPU go over 90ºC, because it’ll also get damaged.
Before you ask, yes, I’ve made sure it’s not a dust problem: I’ve taken the laptop apart and I’ve cleaned everything thoroughly, making sure the heatsink has no dust collected, that there’s good airflow. I’ve cleaned the old thermal paste and have applied Arctic MX-5 thermal paste to the CPU and GPU just to be sure. It really is just the insufficient fan speed.
Any ideas of what I can do?
