Dell Fan Management — Software for controlling the Dell laptop fan speed

[Aaron44126]

Version 3 supports the same command line arguments as version 2 and also supports up to, I forget, 6 or 7 fans?

 

I don't know about the local administrator account, I've never tried to use it (it is generally not recommended except for servicing the system).  It is probably my "Do I need to complain about UAC?" launch check that is tripping it up.

[superb123]

51 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

Version 3 supports the same command line arguments as version 2 and also supports up to, I forget, 6 or 7 fans?

 

I don't know about the local administrator account, I've never tried to use it (it is generally not recommended except for servicing the system).  It is probably my "Do I need to complain about UAC?" launch check that is tripping it up.

 

Maybe I tried cmd function with Build In Administrator local account that is why it did not work for me?nothing shown up in cmd and not even GUI opened, I will try with normal admin account and will post the feedback. Normally I will try to use cmd argument as same as version 2.1.1.

I normally use Build In administrator(windows) account. If it supports Build In account next update, that would be great and help full for me and rest of others who use Build In account.

 

[superb123]

Ok after checked multiple times, I found following errors and non-errors

 

errors:

This Program cannot run Without UAC promote elevated rights, as A result you can't use it with Build In Administrator local account and as well as SYSTEM account of windows.

problem: You can't use it from remote command or remotely control fans from cmd and you can't with Domain admin account from server to Workstation PCs because this programe has no way to tun on without UAC promote Dialogue "yes" "No" box.

 

non-errors:

This Program work perfectly with UAC promote elevated rights, so you have to login to windows with normal admin account every time and have to run the exe GUI or command line with UAC promote Dialogue "yes" "No" box.

 

I hope, remove the "UAC promote mandatory" from that DellFanManagement.exe file will be available at next update.

Thanks!

[MyPC8MyBrain]

On 7/25/2022 at 3:56 PM, SinCityTeck said:

Do you know how I can fix this? 

getting the same error on 7770, any suggestions?

[grant2]

On 11/21/2022 at 7:22 AM, Aaron44126 said:

And since Dell's 11th gen Tiger Lake systems (and later) fans can't be controlled at all, this project has dropped down in priority for me.

It's my recollection that the ultimate source of your fan control is some magic code from the Linux kernal dedicated to interacting with the fan controls in Dell BIOS.

 

Is it the case that we need to wait for someone from the linux project to figure out how to access these controls with the newest Dell BIOSes?

Or do we know that these controls have been totally removed?

[Aaron44126]

10 hours ago, grant2 said:

Or do we know that these controls have been totally removed?

 

Depends how far back you want to look.  The Linux code was derived from some DOS-based diagnostic utility — from Dell themselves — that someone reverse-engineered.

 

It's my impression that the old controls are gone.  Dell has revamped how fan control works.

...That said, I am totally interested in hearing if anyone on the Linux side figures out fan control because I think that I would be able to reproduce it on Windows.

[dellxps7590user]

Hi Aaron44126,

 

Just wanted to say thank you very much. Used your June 2022 build on Dell XPS 7590 and manual fan controls work! Been looking for this for a long time. Really appreciate it!

[M4980]

@Aaron44126,

Firstly thank you for the software, it has been very useful on my Precision M4800. 

 

I have an issue though, I’ve recently been trying to use it on my Precision 7520 and had a few issues

1. Had the same issue as @solemgar when using a Quadro M1200 (NvAPIWrapper error)

 

2. Switched to Quadro T1000 and I no longer have that error but the system is visibly and audibly stuttering every 2 seconds or so

You should be able to hear it in this video:

https://imgur.com/a/Iqyd7ze

 

Any ideas? Thanks again!

[Aaron44126]

Does the newer build have the NvAPIWrapper error?  (It's caused by newer versions of the NVIDIA driver.)

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsIwJHFk4EFdqKJP4MOlZA6NwrWAPg

(Needs .NET 6.)

 

I've never had stuttering with this software, but I've heard other complaints about this.  I think it is caused by the constant temperature/fan speed measurements but I am not sure if it is CPU temperature sensing, GPU temperature sensing, or RPM speed sensing that is causing it.  Do you experience the same issue if you just run Open Hardware Monitor?

[M4980]

On 12/9/2022 at 2:34 AM, Aaron44126 said:

Does the newer build have the NvAPIWrapper error?  (It's caused by newer versions of the NVIDIA driver.)

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsIwJHFk4EFdqKJP4MOlZA6NwrWAPg

(Needs .NET 6.)

 

I've never had stuttering with this software, but I've heard other complaints about this.  I think it is caused by the constant temperature/fan speed measurements but I am not sure if it is CPU temperature sensing, GPU temperature sensing, or RPM speed sensing that is causing it.  Do you experience the same issue if you just run Open Hardware Monitor?

 

I won't be able to test for the NvAPIWrapper error for now as I've got a different GPU installed now and it only happened with the Quadro M1200. Going to put the card in my M4800 soon so I'll test it on there

 

As for the stuttering, I can confirm that I experience the same issue with Open Hardware Monitor. Doesn't happen with HWMonitor but that information is not useful seeing as it is closed source.

 

Perhaps it is an issue with Windows 11?

[Aaron44126]

38 minutes ago, M4980 said:

As for the stuttering, I can confirm that I experience the same issue with Open Hardware Monitor. Doesn't happen with HWMonitor but that information is not useful seeing as it is closed source.

 

Perhaps it is an issue with Windows 11?

 

Alright.  I use Open Hardware Monitor for reading the CPU temperature, but the GPU temperature uses NVAPI directly, if you have an NVIDIA GPU.  (Actually, I'm using a fork called Libre Hardware Monitor.)  They would need to fix this and then I could incorporate a newer version of their library.

 

Try this new dev build.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsIwJHFk4EFdqNc2I45BxBqHhwaKIA

Needs .NET 6 if you do not have it -- https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0 (grab the "desktop runtime").

 

Before launching it, go to regedit, navigate to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Dell Fan Management, add a "DWORD" value named "DisableCpuTemperatures" and set it to 1.  That will disable CPU temperature reading in Dell Fan Management and hopefully work around this stutter.  ("Consistency mode" won't work properly with this setup because it needs to be able to see the CPU core temperatures.)

 

It could be a Windows 11 issue?  I have done very little testing on Windows 11.  I'm not running it on any systems right now.

[M4980]

2 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Alright.  I use Open Hardware Monitor for reading the CPU temperature, but the GPU temperature uses NVAPI directly, if you have an NVIDIA GPU.  (Actually, I'm using a fork called Libre Hardware Monitor.)  They would need to fix this and then I could incorporate a newer version of their library.

 

Try this new dev build.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsIwJHFk4EFdqNc2I45BxBqHhwaKIA

Needs .NET 6 if you do not have it -- https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0 (grab the "desktop runtime").

 

Before launching it, go to regedit, navigate to HKCU\SOFTWARE\Dell Fan Management, add a "DWORD" value named "DisableCpuTemperatures" and set it to 1.  That will disable CPU temperature reading in Dell Fan Management and hopefully work around this stutter.  ("Consistency mode" won't work properly with this setup because it needs to be able to see the CPU core temperatures.)

 

It could be a Windows 11 issue?  I have done very little testing on Windows 11.  I'm not running it on any systems right now.

 

Thanks for looking into this Aaron 🙂

I have set up the new dev build with the registry key. However, even with the CPU temperature reading disabled, the stuttering issue continues.

 

Guess NVAPI is the problem..🤔

[roninspin]

Aaron44126, hi! Please, add to DellFanKeepAlive the option (like a flag) to not just disable the EC at the current fan speed when the conditions are met, but also set the speeds for the fans to level1 (minimal) forcibly.  And also you could add a fourth parameter - time (in seconds) after which if the upper temp. threshold is still met the management passes to the EC (timer starts right after the temps pass the threshold). That would help a lot. Thanks!

[Inspiron Turbojet]

I'm so desperate to make this work, but it doesn't seem to work on W11 or my Inspiron 16 5620. I've been trying anything I could to stop this bloody fan from destroying my ears without success.

 

 

[kojack]

17 minutes ago, Inspiron Turbojet said:

I'm so desperate to make this work, but it doesn't seem to work on W11 or my Inspiron 16 5620. I've been trying anything I could to stop this bloody fan from destroying my ears without success.

 

 

Have you tried a repaste with good quality paste? The fan on my 5406 would be on alot before I did it.  Now it's only if I am pushing the system hard will it start blowing. 

[Aaron44126]

4 hours ago, Inspiron Turbojet said:

I'm so desperate to make this work, but it doesn't seem to work on W11 or my Inspiron 16 5620. I've been trying anything I could to stop this bloody fan from destroying my ears without success.

 

 

11th/12th gen systems don't work well with this program.  There is no known interface for manual fan control on these newer systems.  The "consistency" mode option that you have selected is just a quick hack that I put in place to prevent the fans from turning off by putting an artificial CPU load on if the fan speed gets too low.

[pickled-egg]

Just replying (with a brand new account, nice forum!) to say thank you for this software.

 

I can report it working perfectly with a 2020 Inspiron 7501 which I believe was also sold (in dark grey) as a Vostro 7500 in some markets, hardware seems to be the same in both (10th gen Intel).

 

Really useful.  I can only think of one feature I would like which would be some sort of quick button to turn EC control off and both fans to max, it's no hardship to have to click a few times to achieve this but a sort of one-shot "All fans max" control would be nice... perhaps in a tray icon right click menu? This laptop seems to be very slow to ramp up fans with EC control (even in "Ultra Performance" thermal config), clearly Dell have favoured quietness over all else and it can lead to throttling before the laptop finally decides to spin everything up under load so an "All fans max" control would be nice to have when doing something CPU/GPU intensive.

 

Thanks again!

 

 

[Aaron44126]

23 minutes ago, pickled-egg said:

Really useful.  I can only think of one feature I would like which would be some sort of quick button to turn EC control off and both fans to max, it's no hardship to have to click a few times to achieve this but a sort of one-shot "All fans max" control would be nice... perhaps in a tray icon right click menu?

 

Not a bad idea.  I will note that the program supports command-line parameters so you can set yourself up a batch script shortcut to quickly set options like this.  Run it with "/?" to see what the options are, or look at old documentation for DellFanCmd (the options are the same).

 

However...  You shouldn't try to use command line parameters to adjust the fan behavior while the GUI app is running, or the GUI app will likely end up having issues.  Control via command line or control via GUI, not both.

[pickled-egg]

30 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Not a bad idea.  I will note that the program supports command-line parameters so you can set yourself up a batch script shortcut to quickly set options like this.  Run it with "/?" to see what the options are, or look at old documentation for DellFanCmd (the options are the same).

 

However...  You shouldn't try to use command line parameters to adjust the fan behavior while the GUI app is running, or the GUI app will likely end up having issues.  Control via command line or control via GUI, not both.

Oh great thanks, I'll take a look at the command line options

[Klesha]

Aaron44126, Thanks for your work! I think your development benefits many users!
I have a dell inspiron 7490 with an intel core i7-10510u. Unfortunately, the main modes(Manual and Consistency) in your program are not active for my laptop. Perhaps you can suggest what could be the reason?
 

Spoiler

 

[Klesha]

1 hour ago, Klesha said:

Aaron44126, Thanks for your work! I think your development benefits many users!
I have a dell inspiron 7490 with an intel core i7-10510u. Unfortunately, the main modes(Manual and Consistency) in your program are not active for my laptop. Perhaps you can suggest what could be the reason?
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'm sorry, I didn't add the key to the registry as instructed in your instructions. With the key, the modes work!

[gorazdb]

Aaron, hi, I`m getting the below error when trying to run it on Latitude 7520:

Error: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
   at DellFanManagement.KeepAlive.DellFanKeepAlive.Main(String[] args)

 

When trying to run CLI version I get:

Loading SMM I/O driver...
Failed.

 

Any solution to that? 😒

Thank you very much for your effort!

[Aaron44126]

5 minutes ago, gorazdb said:

Loading SMM I/O driver...

Failed.

 

Did you add the "UpgradedSystem" registry entry (and then reboot) as described in the very first post in this thread?

 

[Edit]

Checked the specs of your system.  It's a newer one.  11th gen and up (2021 systems and newer) don't support this fan control mechanism.  I'm not aware of any software that can control the fans on these systems.

[chieukhanhok]

On 7/27/2022 at 4:24 AM, Aaron44126 said:

 

Consistency mode has to wait until the EC lowers the fan speed and then lock it in.  It will follow the "natural" system behavior until the thresholds are met.  Run the system with a light load until it lowers the fan speed below 2400.  (If this never happens for whatever reason, consistency mode will not work, at least not without changing the thresholds.)

Hello @Aaron44126 Your application has been very helpful to me. However, I have tried everything to make your application start up with Windows 10, but it doesn't run with Windows. Do you have any way to make the application run with Windows? 

[Aaron44126]

5 hours ago, chieukhanhok said:

Hello @Aaron44126 Your application has been very helpful to me. However, I have tried everything to make your application start up with Windows 10, but it doesn't run with Windows. Do you have any way to make the application run with Windows? 

 

It needs to run elevated which is tricky.  Windows will generally automatically decline to run such apps at startup.  My suggestion would be to add a job in Task Scheduler, set it to run at login, and make sure "Run with highest privileges" is selected.