Dell Precision 7670 & Dell Precision 7770 owner's thread

[MyPC8MyBrain]

@Kataphract
you misunderstood me, in that post i partially quoted myself from earlier post,
in that post there are 7 or 8 images which i edited out in my quoted response,
follow that quoted bit to its full post and you will find the other images,

or simply click here

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

you can also change active power plan passive/active fan policy,

passive will allow some heat buildup before activating fans

vs. active where fans will always run to keep things cool,

 

I don't think Windows active/passive cooling power profile policy has any impact on the thermal/fan behavior in these systems.  You can however change Dell's "thermal mode" between Optimized/Cool/Quiet/Ultra Performance, it can be set both from the BIOS and the Dell Power Manager app in Windows, or there are options to change it programmatically / by script (both on Windows and Linux).  "Optimized" is the default behavior and the others each prioritize one of low surface temperature, low noise, or high performance (at the expense of the other two).

 

I'd also love a setting to keep the fans at a minimum value, or just to lower the threshold at which they reduce speeds or power off.  It looks like there are fan table values that could be mucked with.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

33 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

I don't think Windows active/passive cooling power profile policy has any impact on the thermal/fan behavior in these systems.

its not direct or a huge influence but it is still some influence a user can utilize to some extent,

for example i like to keep my CPU Mhz as low as possible when idle, its just a weird cork of mine,
i don't like it when the system ramps up to crazy high Mhz's for no reason, if its not doing anything i want it at the lowest 799Mhz per core, i use the power policy to influence this behavior bit,

if i run active cooling policy the system will allow the cpu to ramp up in Mhz when idle counting on the fans to keep things at bay, while if i chose passive cooling the logic is to keep CPU Mhz low first before fans are used to cool things down,
this result in slightly (relative!) higher temps as fans are not always running while the CPU is kept relatively cool by its low Mhz merits as a base logic,

[win32asmguy]

2 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

same here 🙂

 

i posted the full bios dump, 
i'm sure there some fan controls there that can be further modified,
 

 

you can also change active power plan passive/active fan policy,
passive will allow some heat buildup before activating fans

vs. active where fans will always run to keep things cool,

 

Ah, good point. The bios may be adhering to those hidden settings or even the power plan fan policy. In the past I think the Dell EC ignored them and used a custom hard coded curve based on which of the four dell performance modes you were in.

 

One of my biggest pet peeves about laptops is that virtually no manufacturer has bios options for custom fan curves similar to what you would find even on a cheap $150 desktop motherboard. The only exception to it is system76 which allows you flash a customized EC with user defined fan curves to certain models they offer.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

@win32asmguy
i can see the temp curve settings in the bios options
(trip point 0 and trip point 1 etc., there's even more specific fan speed variables)

they are just hidden from the end user, likely can be overwritten manually to change Dell's default behavior,
one just need to further decipher the current embedded logic off the bios dump i posted,

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, win32asmguy said:

In the past I think the Dell EC ignored them and used a custom hard coded curve based on which of the four dell performance modes you were in.

 

There is definitely a significant change in how Dell systems handle fan control starting with 2021 systems (Tiger Lake).  The system-driven control is much more granular than before (adjusting speeds tens of RPM at a time on a curve, rather than hundreds of RPM at a time with just a few discrete values it will ever use) ... and, the established EC interface that allowed for manual control and the less documented "SMBIOS token" control mechanism for manual control have both been removed.  They may well have moved the "tables" that define the behaviors to these UEFI NVRAM variables.

 

I'm going to spend some time digging around @MyPC8MyBrain's dump and see if I can make heads or tails of anything.

[Aaron44126]

39 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

I'm going to spend some time digging around @MyPC8MyBrain's dump and see if I can make heads or tails of anything.

 

Well.  Not a whole lot to look at, there are only seven references to "fan" in the file.

 

Line 25325 — I believe this is referring to a fan sensor so it is not interesting.

Lines 25366, 25373, 25379 — Appear to be toggles to enable/disable each of "FAN1", "FAN2", and "FAN3" devices (...probably lifted from desktop BIOS where there could be more fans)

Line 26443 — Just a text string which contains the word "fan"

 

The others are settings for "active trip points" 0 and 1, which @MyPC8MyBrain quoted above.  They are in the bit from line 25186 through 25328, labeled "Platform Thermal Configuration", which seems to be an interesting part.

 

There are four tables interesting tables labeled "Critical trip point", "Active trip point 0", "Active trip point 1", and "Passive trip point", which have temperatures paired with increasing values.

 

0xB20DD 		One Of: Active Trip Point 0, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x698, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0xE84, Size: 1, Min: 0xF, Max 0x7F, Step: 0x0 {05 91 4B 12 4C 12 84 0E 01 00 98 06 10 10 0F 7F 00}
0xB20EE 			One Of Option: Disabled, Value (8 bit): 0x7F {09 07 04 00 00 00 7F}
0xB20F5 			One Of Option: 15 C, Value (8 bit): 0xF {09 07 51 12 00 00 0F}
0xB20FC 			One Of Option: 23 C, Value (8 bit): 0x17 {09 07 52 12 00 00 17}
0xB2103 			One Of Option: 31 C, Value (8 bit): 0x1F {09 07 53 12 00 00 1F}
0xB210A 			One Of Option: 39 C, Value (8 bit): 0x27 {09 07 54 12 00 00 27}
0xB2111 			One Of Option: 47 C, Value (8 bit): 0x2F {09 07 55 12 00 00 2F}
0xB2118 			One Of Option: 55 C, Value (8 bit): 0x37 {09 07 56 12 00 00 37}
0xB211F 			One Of Option: 63 C, Value (8 bit): 0x3F {09 07 57 12 00 00 3F}
0xB2126 			One Of Option: 71 C, Value (8 bit): 0x47 (default) {09 07 58 12 30 00 47}
0xB212D 			One Of Option: 79 C, Value (8 bit): 0x4F {09 07 59 12 00 00 4F}
0xB2134 			One Of Option: 87 C, Value (8 bit): 0x57 {09 07 5A 12 00 00 57}
0xB213B 			One Of Option: 95 C, Value (8 bit): 0x5F {09 07 5B 12 00 00 5F}
0xB2142 			One Of Option: 103 C, Value (8 bit): 0x67 {09 07 5D 12 00 00 67}
0xB2149 			One Of Option: 111 C, Value (8 bit): 0x6F {09 07 5E 12 00 00 6F}
0xB2150 			One Of Option: 119 C (POR), Value (8 bit): 0x77 {09 07 5F 12 00 00 77}
0xB2157 		End One Of {29 02}

 

I thought that these might be fan curves, but they are not.  It's just a list of options.  I Googled around and ran across things like this documentation which clarified things for me a bit.  You can select one of these options to use as the value for the various trip points mentioned above.  When the system hits one of these trip points then it will set the fan speed to the value configured for that trip point.  I.e., when the temperature rises above "Active Trip Point 0", set the fan speed to "Active Trip Point 0 Fan Speed". (This is standard Intel Management Engine stuff and the Dell EC/BIOS is likely completely ignoring it anyway, since it seems that Dell's fan control is a good bit more sophisticated than that.)

 

I didn't see anything else in the dump that looked interesting with regards to fan control, so, dead end ...?

[MyPC8MyBrain]

look at line 25186  "Platform Thermal Configuration" and below 
the keyword for thermal configuration are the "trip points" seen below "Platform Thermal Configuration" section, 

 

  

7 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

You can select one of these options to use as the value for the various trip points mentioned above

isn't that the fan curve?

[Aaron44126]

7 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

isn't that the fan curve?

 

No, you can only pick one of them to use for each trip point.  There are only four trip points (passive, active 0, active 1, critical).  The "table" is like a drop-down list of options.  The values mean nothing other than "here is the value you plug here if you want this temperature to be the trip point".

 

I don't think the fan control in this laptop is implemented with IME so again I think these values are meaningless in the end (for our purposes).

[MyPC8MyBrain]

1 minute ago, Aaron44126 said:

No, you can only pick one of them to use for each trip point.

got it!
 

line 25325 & 26443 mentions "CPU Fan Speed"

[Aaron44126]

2 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

line 25325 & 26443 mentions "CPU Fan Speed"

 

Yeah, 25325 is in reference to a fan speed sensor if anything (there is a "CPU temp" reference right above, and its in a section that is all about sensors and alerts).  26443 is a text string.

[win32asmguy]

18 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

I don't think the fan control in this laptop is implemented with IME so again I think these values are meaningless in the end (for our purposes).

 

We might try using RW Everything to monitor EC memory area and see if some addresses map to fan speed control. That is essentially how MSI implements their fan control (and interfaces to it via their GUI software), so you can write six Temperature Threshold + Fan Duty combination values for each fan. You can see more about this mapping table I described here:

 

https://github.com/YoyPa/isw/wiki/MSI-G-laptop-EC---Rosetta

 

Its just a hunch but if things have changed from their previous implementation the new design may be accessible via the EC memory area now.

[Aaron44126]

8 minutes ago, win32asmguy said:

We might try using RW Everything to monitor EC memory area and see if some addresses map to fan speed control.

 

I feel like I tried this on Precision 7560 when I noticed that the fan control mechanism is different and was not able to get anything from the EC.  I just fired it up on the Precision 7770, and when I hit the "EC" button, it just locked up the entire system 😕

 

I do think the EC is the key to the puzzle here, however, Dell's EC seems to be more sophisticated than most so it's probably a bit more complex than simple memory overwrites that you can do with other manufacturers' ECs.  Fan control with prior systems involved sending reverse-engineered commands to the EC to get it to either return data (i.e. fan speeds) or change behaviors.  The commands were actually reverse-engineered from an old DOS-based Dell BIOS update tool or diagnostics tool or something like that, and they worked for a long time.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

there's few more sections in the raw bios dump i didn't decrypt yet,
later this evening ill try to extract and decrypt the other sections maybe we can find a lead there,

[MyPC8MyBrain]

there's a lot of hives nested in this bios,

searched through what made sense (temperature, speed, thermal, fan, rpm, pwm, acpi)
found many hives with interesting sections including keywords above,
i was unable to decrypt some hives,
the few i was able to decrypt i didn't get the chance to go through yet, 

have at it 😉 

File_DXE_driver_05B17EF3-26CB-444A-82F7-92705CFB6B1E_DellSetupFormSets IFR.rar

File_DXE_driver_038CE287-B806-45B6-A819-514DAF4B91B9_DellErrorLogConfig IFR.rar

File_DXE_driver_E6A7A1CE-5881-4B49-80BE-69C91811685C_Setup IFR.rar

 

@Aaron44126

did you try to disable "Modern Standby"?
this will hand over the old classic power plan controls and the slew of power plan we always had available with individual elements can be further modified,

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power]
"PlatformAoAcOverride"=dword:00000000
"CsEnabled"=dword:00000000

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\ModernSleep]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\ModernSleep]

 

some interesting keys i found (these need further investigating)

note: 0x8CB08, 0x8CF87, 0x8CFA8, 0xAEC5C, 0xB1F43, 0x88CE6

0x885A2 	One Of: CPU Run Control Lock , VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x112, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x28, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 84 06 85 06 28 00 03 00 12 01 10 10 00 01 00}
0x89EAC 	One Of: HwP Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x228, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x93, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 A4 03 A5 03 93 00 03 00 28 02 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8A124 	One Of: Power Limit 4 Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x2F, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x9F, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 2E 04 2F 04 9F 00 03 00 2F 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8A6BE 	Ref: CPU Lock Configuration, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0xFFFF, VarStore: 0x0, QuestionId: 0xBF, FormId: 0x1012 {0F 0F 59 03 5A 03 BF 00 00 00 FF FF 00 12 10}
0x8B492 	One Of: Package Power Limit MSR Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x30, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0xFC, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 09 04 0A 04 FC 00 03 00 30 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8C1B2 	One Of: TDC Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1B4, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x133, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 34 05 35 05 33 01 03 00 B4 01 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8C595 	One Of: TDC Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1B5, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x145, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 34 05 35 05 45 01 03 00 B5 01 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8C84C 	One Of: TDC Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1B6, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x155, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 34 05 35 05 55 01 03 00 B6 01 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8CA61 	One Of: Power Limit 3 Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x29, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x15D, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 26 04 27 04 5D 01 03 00 29 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8CB08 	One Of: Configurable TDP Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x45, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x160, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 B0 03 B1 03 60 01 03 00 45 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8CF81 	Form: View/Configure CPU Lock Options, FormId: 0x1012 {01 86 12 10 85 02}
0x8CF87 	One Of: CFG Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x43, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x16E, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 E2 05 E3 05 6E 01 03 00 43 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0x8CFA8 	One Of: Overclocking Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x10E, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x16F, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 DE 05 DF 05 6F 01 03 00 0E 01 10 10 00 01 00}
0xA20A6 	One Of: Lock PCH Sideband Access, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x73C, VarStore: 0x5, QuestionId: 0x856, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 35 09 36 09 56 08 05 00 3C 07 10 10 00 01 00}
0xAEC37 	One Of: RTC Memory Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1B, VarStore: 0x5, QuestionId: 0xD29, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 40 0A 41 0A 29 0D 05 00 1B 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0xAEC5C 	One Of: BIOS Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1C, VarStore: 0x5, QuestionId: 0xD2A, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 42 0A 43 0A 2A 0D 05 00 1C 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0xB09F6 	Checkbox: Thermal Throttling Lock, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x720, VarStore: 0x5, QuestionId: 0xE01 {06 8E DA 10 DB 10 01 0E 05 00 20 07 10 00}
0xB1F43 	One Of: Tcc Offset Lock Enable, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1CD, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0xE7C, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 DF 12 E0 12 7C 0E 03 00 CD 01 10 10 00 01 00}
0xB1FF2 	One Of: PROCHOT Lock , VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x7D, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0xE81, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 E5 12 E6 12 81 0E 03 00 7D 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0x88CE6 	One Of: CS PL1 Limit, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x39, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0x49, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 99 00 9A 00 49 00 01 00 39 00 10 10 00 01 00}
0x88131 	Ref: OverClocking Performance Menu, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0xFFFF, VarStore: 0x0, QuestionId: 0xB, FormId: 0x1013 {0F 0F 8C 07 8D 07 0B 00 00 00 FF FF 00 13 10}
0x8F0EC 	One Of: OverClocking Feature, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x1D9, VarStore: 0x3, QuestionId: 0x1574, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 8E 07 8F 07 74 15 03 00 D9 01 14 10 00 01 00}
0x90993 	Numeric: GT OverClocking Frequency, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x262, VarStore: 0x2, QuestionId: 0x333, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x2A, Step: 0x1 {07 91 ED 08 EF 08 33 03 02 00 62 02 10 10 00 2A 01}
0x90A6A 	Numeric: GT OverClocking Frequency, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x26B, VarStore: 0x2, QuestionId: 0x339, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x2A, Step: 0x1 {07 91 EE 08 EF 08 39 03 02 00 6B 02 10 10 00 2A 01}
0x93731 	Form: Memory Overclocking Menu, FormId: 0x101C {01 86 1C 10 DE 08}
0x88A0F 	One Of: ACPI S3 Support, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0xE, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0x3E, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x1, Step: 0x0 {05 91 0B 00 0F 00 3E 00 01 00 0E 00 10 10 00 01 00}

 

[TwistedAndy]

3 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

did you try to disable "Modern Standby"?
this will hand over the old classic power plan controls and the slew of power plan we always had available with individual elements can be further modified,

 

You can disable S0 in the registry, but in this case there will be no sleep options at all. If you want to enable the S3 sleep mode, you can do that in BIOS in the same way as you unlocked undervolting, but it is pretty buggy and may not work well.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

  

23 minutes ago, TwistedAndy said:

If you want to enable the S3 sleep mode, you can do that in BIOS in the same way as you unlocked undervolting,

 

this command should do the trick than
setup_var CpuSetup 0xE 0x0  # ACPI S3 Support

[Aaron44126]

4 hours ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

@Aaron44126

did you try to disable "Modern Standby"?

 

Yes, I used a registry trick to disable it and re-enable the old power settings.  (You can actually get the power settings back without disabling Modern Standby as well.  There's a link in my sig to an article on "Turbo boost toggle" and it is described in there.)

 

I make use of some of those power options.  I have two Windows power profiles -- one for "quiet" and one for "performance" -- and I use Process Lasso to automatically switch between them depending on what applications I have open.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

@Aaron44126
i find modifying default core parking behavior bit more suitable for dynamically adjusting core usage on the fly without too much tinkering, i park 100% for daily driver usage, when i fire up a heavy load i will manually switch to ultimate power plan,
 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

@Aaron44126
I believe I figured Fan Curve out,
the key here is to first understand/reverse engineer current logic,
this is how i perceive their fan curve works, imagine a virtual Fan gearbox with 3 gears,
each gear is activated at certain predefined temp, once a gear is activated the predefined Fan Speed will be applied,
 

Default Curve Configuration

1st Fan Gear 55c - 70c
2nd Fan Gear 71c - 94c
3rd Fan Gear 95c - 118c (full blast)

 

the above deciphered from this

setup_var Setup 0x69C # Critical Trip Point 			(Default value 0x77 > 119 C)
setup_var Setup 0x698 # Active Trip Point 0 			(Default value 0x47 > 71 C)
setup_var Setup 0x69A # Active Trip Point 0 Fan Speed 		(Default value 0x64)
setup_var Setup 0x697 # Active Trip Point 1 			(Default value 0x37 > 55 C)
setup_var Setup 0x699 # Active Trip Point 1 Fan Speed 		(Default value 0x4b)
setup_var Setup 0x69B # Passive Trip Point 			(Default value 0x5f > 95 C)

 

to change the threshold for trip point 1 run this command

setup_var Setup 0x697 0xF # change trip point 1 from 55c to 15c

 

the above should result in the fan running much earlier in the temp range keeping the system and surfaces much cooler, this is also the reason we all see temps around the 55c which I believe Dell opted with in order to achieve longer battery life at the expenses of few temps,

 

here are the original trip tables in bios to further tailor and configure this as one pleases,

0xB204B 			One Of: Critical Trip Point, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x69C, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0xE83, Size: 1, Min: 0xF, Max 0x82, Step: 0x0 {05 91 4F 12 50 12 83 0E 01 00 9C 06 10 10 0F 82 00}
0xB205C 				Default: DefaultId: 0x0, Value (8 bit): 0x77 {5B 06 00 00 00 77}
0xB2062 				One Of Option: 15 C, Value (8 bit): 0xF {09 07 51 12 00 00 0F}
0xB2069 				One Of Option: 23 C, Value (8 bit): 0x17 {09 07 52 12 00 00 17}
0xB2070 				One Of Option: 31 C, Value (8 bit): 0x1F {09 07 53 12 00 00 1F}
0xB2077 				One Of Option: 39 C, Value (8 bit): 0x27 {09 07 54 12 00 00 27}
0xB207E 				One Of Option: 47 C, Value (8 bit): 0x2F {09 07 55 12 00 00 2F}
0xB2085 				One Of Option: 55 C, Value (8 bit): 0x37 {09 07 56 12 00 00 37}
0xB208C 				One Of Option: 63 C, Value (8 bit): 0x3F {09 07 57 12 00 00 3F}
0xB2093 				One Of Option: 71 C, Value (8 bit): 0x47 {09 07 58 12 00 00 47}
0xB209A 				One Of Option: 79 C, Value (8 bit): 0x4F {09 07 59 12 00 00 4F}
0xB20A1 				One Of Option: 87 C, Value (8 bit): 0x57 {09 07 5A 12 00 00 57}
0xB20A8 				One Of Option: 95 C, Value (8 bit): 0x5F {09 07 5B 12 00 00 5F}
0xB20AF 				One Of Option: 100 C, Value (8 bit): 0x64 {09 07 5C 12 00 00 64}
0xB20B6 				One Of Option: 103 C, Value (8 bit): 0x67 {09 07 5D 12 00 00 67}
0xB20BD 				One Of Option: 111 C, Value (8 bit): 0x6F {09 07 5E 12 00 00 6F}
0xB20C4 				One Of Option: 119 C (POR), Value (8 bit): 0x77 {09 07 5F 12 00 00 77}
0xB20CB 				One Of Option: 127 C, Value (8 bit): 0x7F {09 07 60 12 00 00 7F}
0xB20D2 				One Of Option: 130 C, Value (8 bit): 0x82 {09 07 61 12 00 00 82}
0xB20D9 			End One Of {29 02}

0xB20DD 		One Of: Active Trip Point 0, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x698, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0xE84, Size: 1, Min: 0xF, Max 0x7F, Step: 0x0 {05 91 4B 12 4C 12 84 0E 01 00 98 06 10 10 0F 7F 00}
0xB20EE 			One Of Option: Disabled, Value (8 bit): 0x7F {09 07 04 00 00 00 7F}
0xB20F5 			One Of Option: 15 C, Value (8 bit): 0xF {09 07 51 12 00 00 0F}
0xB20FC 			One Of Option: 23 C, Value (8 bit): 0x17 {09 07 52 12 00 00 17}
0xB2103 			One Of Option: 31 C, Value (8 bit): 0x1F {09 07 53 12 00 00 1F}
0xB210A 			One Of Option: 39 C, Value (8 bit): 0x27 {09 07 54 12 00 00 27}
0xB2111 			One Of Option: 47 C, Value (8 bit): 0x2F {09 07 55 12 00 00 2F}
0xB2118 			One Of Option: 55 C, Value (8 bit): 0x37 {09 07 56 12 00 00 37}
0xB211F 			One Of Option: 63 C, Value (8 bit): 0x3F {09 07 57 12 00 00 3F}
0xB2126 			One Of Option: 71 C, Value (8 bit): 0x47 (default) {09 07 58 12 30 00 47}
0xB212D 			One Of Option: 79 C, Value (8 bit): 0x4F {09 07 59 12 00 00 4F}
0xB2134 			One Of Option: 87 C, Value (8 bit): 0x57 {09 07 5A 12 00 00 57}
0xB213B 			One Of Option: 95 C, Value (8 bit): 0x5F {09 07 5B 12 00 00 5F}
0xB2142 			One Of Option: 103 C, Value (8 bit): 0x67 {09 07 5D 12 00 00 67}
0xB2149 			One Of Option: 111 C, Value (8 bit): 0x6F {09 07 5E 12 00 00 6F}
0xB2150 			One Of Option: 119 C (POR), Value (8 bit): 0x77 {09 07 5F 12 00 00 77}
0xB2157 		End One Of {29 02}

0xB2159 		Numeric: Active Trip Point 0 Fan Speed, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x69A, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0xE85, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x64, Step: 0x1 {07 91 68 12 69 12 85 0E 01 00 9A 06 00 10 00 64 01}
0xB216A 			Default: DefaultId: 0x0, Value (8 bit): 0x64 {5B 06 00 00 00 64}
0xB2170 		End {29 02}

 

0xB2172 		One Of: Active Trip Point 1, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x697, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0xE86, Size: 1, Min: 0xF, Max 0x7F, Step: 0x0 {05 91 49 12 4A 12 86 0E 01 00 97 06 10 10 0F 7F 00}
0xB2183 			One Of Option: Disabled, Value (8 bit): 0x7F {09 07 04 00 00 00 7F}
0xB218A 			One Of Option: 15 C, Value (8 bit): 0xF {09 07 51 12 00 00 0F}
0xB2191 			One Of Option: 23 C, Value (8 bit): 0x17 {09 07 52 12 00 00 17}
0xB2198 			One Of Option: 31 C, Value (8 bit): 0x1F {09 07 53 12 00 00 1F}
0xB219F 			One Of Option: 39 C, Value (8 bit): 0x27 {09 07 54 12 00 00 27}
0xB21A6 			One Of Option: 47 C, Value (8 bit): 0x2F {09 07 55 12 00 00 2F}
0xB21AD 			One Of Option: 55 C, Value (8 bit): 0x37 (default) {09 07 56 12 30 00 37}
0xB21B4 			One Of Option: 63 C, Value (8 bit): 0x3F {09 07 57 12 00 00 3F}
0xB21BB 			One Of Option: 71 C, Value (8 bit): 0x47 {09 07 58 12 00 00 47}
0xB21C2 			One Of Option: 79 C, Value (8 bit): 0x4F {09 07 59 12 00 00 4F}
0xB21C9 			One Of Option: 87 C, Value (8 bit): 0x57 {09 07 5A 12 00 00 57}
0xB21D0 			One Of Option: 95 C, Value (8 bit): 0x5F {09 07 5B 12 00 00 5F}
0xB21D7 			One Of Option: 103 C, Value (8 bit): 0x67 {09 07 5D 12 00 00 67}
0xB21DE 			One Of Option: 111 C, Value (8 bit): 0x6F {09 07 5E 12 00 00 6F}
0xB21E5 			One Of Option: 119 C (POR), Value (8 bit): 0x77 {09 07 5F 12 00 00 77}
0xB21EC 		End One Of {29 02}

0xB21EE 		Numeric: Active Trip Point 1 Fan Speed, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x699, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0xE87, Size: 1, Min: 0x0, Max 0x64, Step: 0x1 {07 91 6A 12 6B 12 87 0E 01 00 99 06 00 10 00 64 01}
0xB21FF 			Default: DefaultId: 0x0, Value (8 bit): 0x4B {5B 06 00 00 00 4B}
0xB2205 		End {29 02}

 

0xB2207 		One Of: Passive Trip Point, VarStoreInfo (VarOffset/VarName): 0x69B, VarStore: 0x1, QuestionId: 0xE88, Size: 1, Min: 0xF, Max 0x7F, Step: 0x0 {05 91 4D 12 4E 12 88 0E 01 00 9B 06 10 10 0F 7F 00}
0xB2218 			Default: DefaultId: 0x0, Value (8 bit): 0x5F {5B 06 00 00 00 5F}
0xB221E 			One Of Option: Disabled, Value (8 bit): 0x7F {09 07 04 00 00 00 7F}
0xB2225 			One Of Option: 15 C, Value (8 bit): 0xF {09 07 51 12 00 00 0F}
0xB222C 			One Of Option: 23 C, Value (8 bit): 0x17 {09 07 52 12 00 00 17}
0xB2233 			One Of Option: 31 C, Value (8 bit): 0x1F {09 07 53 12 00 00 1F}
0xB223A 			One Of Option: 39 C, Value (8 bit): 0x27 {09 07 54 12 00 00 27}
0xB2241 			One Of Option: 47 C, Value (8 bit): 0x2F {09 07 55 12 00 00 2F}
0xB2248 			One Of Option: 55 C, Value (8 bit): 0x37 {09 07 56 12 00 00 37}
0xB224F 			One Of Option: 63 C, Value (8 bit): 0x3F {09 07 57 12 00 00 3F}
0xB2256 			One Of Option: 71 C, Value (8 bit): 0x47 {09 07 58 12 00 00 47}
0xB225D 			One Of Option: 79 C, Value (8 bit): 0x4F {09 07 59 12 00 00 4F}
0xB2264 			One Of Option: 87 C, Value (8 bit): 0x57 {09 07 5A 12 00 00 57}
0xB226B 			One Of Option: 95 C, Value (8 bit): 0x5F {09 07 5B 12 00 00 5F}
0xB2272 			One Of Option: 103 C, Value (8 bit): 0x67 {09 07 5D 12 00 00 67}
0xB2279 			One Of Option: 111 C, Value (8 bit): 0x6F {09 07 5E 12 00 00 6F}
0xB2280 			One Of Option: 119 C (POR), Value (8 bit): 0x77 {09 07 5F 12 00 00 77}
0xB2287 		End One Of {29 02}

 

[Aaron44126]

29 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

@Aaron44126
I believe I figured Fan Curve out

 

Eh.  I'd be pretty interested if you are able to change one of these values and produce a change in fan behavior.  But, I don't think that changing these values is going to do anything.  (I'd love to be proved wrong.)

 

My understanding after reading around (+ work I have done on Dell fan control in the past) is that these values are stock "simple" ACPI fan control implementation.  Dell is not using this ACPI implementation (which relies on some level of OS support), they're doing their own thing with the embedded controller (which works entirely independently of the OS).  I think the key to controlling it, if there is any, will be figuring out how to send commands to the embedded controller via the SMBIOS WMI interface to change its behavior.

 

I thought I might point you to another place where there is a pile of BIOS values that can be changed programmatically.

https://github.com/dell/libsmbios/blob/master/doc/token_list.csv

 

This is a list of "tokens" that can be used to change BIOS settings in the system via the SMBIOS WMI interface.  Many of these settings are also changeable from the BIOS setup menu itself, but not all of them.  Many of them don't apply to all systems.

 

I have previously written a simple console application that can read and write any of these values from Windows.  On Precision 7X60/7X70, you can do "live" things like manipulate the keyboard backlight (02EA/02EB/02EC/02F6).

 

Anyway, there are fan control settings in there as well.  (00BD, 00BE, 02FD, 02FE, 0332-0335, etc.)  I was able to successfully manipulate the system fans using these settings on Precision 7510 and Precision 7530, but starting with last year's Precision 7X60 systems, this level of control does not work anymore.  Those tokens do appear to be present in the newer systems' BIOS, they just don't actually don't actually control anything anymore.

 

The "token value" in the leftmost column is only 16 bits, so you can just enumerate all possible values and discover that there are "tokens" in the systems that are not documented in this CSV from Dell.  (That's how I found the current fan speed sensor values... they are actually readable using tokens from near the end of the 16-bit field space.  And that's why Dell Fan Management is the only application that can read the fan speeds on these systems in realtime, even if it can't control anything right now.)

 

Furthermore...  This token list isn't the end of what you can do via the SMBIOS WMI interface.  I'm also using WMI commands to change the "thermal mode" (optimized / cool / quiet / ultra performance, as mentioned above).  I reverse engineered that from Dell Power Manager and the commands that need to be issued don't use these tokens at all.

 

Anyway, all this to show that there are multiple / completely separate variable stores and the controls for the system fans (if there are any) remain yet to be found.  I think the way to root it out is to probably disassemble the BIOS code that does the onboard system diagnostics and figuring out what commands they are running during the fan test.  I don't really have the skills for that, but if anyone ever figures it out, I believe that I'll be able to set up tooling to have manual fan control work on both Windows and Linux.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

59 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

I'd be pretty interested if you are able to change one of these values and produce a change in fan behavior

i can confirm after making the following changes no temp change observed 😞
setup_var Setup 0x697 0x1F # change trip point 1 from 55c to 31c
setup_var Setup 0x698 0x27 # change trip point 0 from 71c to 39c

 

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

I think the way to root it out is to probably disassemble the BIOS code that does the onboard system diagnostics and figuring out what commands they are running during the fan test. 

 

i came across a debug hive i can decrypt, ill see if i can find it again, 

[MyPC8MyBrain]

@Aaron44126
i think we need to disable "Intel(R) Dynamic Tuning Technology" for these fan trips to work,

[keks2k]

Hi guys,
just wanted to join the discussion, which I've been silently following for quite some time now, as my 7770 (with only iGPU) finally arrived - and delights me with bad thermals, too.

 

I already played quite a lot with:

- undervolting,
- power limits,

- frequencies (capping e-cores in some combinations achieved some positive effect),

- disabling cores

- fixing the IA setting (1.7 mOhms - thanks for pointing that out!),

but all that effort with only so-so results.

After all, the best score I ever got was 19k on a first run CBR23 at roughly 80 watts, which then heavily dropped further.
That's pretty disappointing to me.

One of my devices weak points seems to be the cache: I had to cap its multiplier to 41 in order to achieve only -0.04 volts on the P-cache (and therefore the CPU, which seem to be kind of locked/inter-related).

Temp-wise I observe a P-core delta of 20 degrees after a repaste with MX-2. Before it was around 16, like @win32asmguy got on his machine. So my job seems to have had at least some negligible effect into the right direction.

One thing I noticed:

The cooling plate and CPU die don't seem to be nicely aligned. There seems to be much more pressure in the middle and towards one side in respect to the other (see attached pics; less pressure on the left side on both attempts).

Tomorrow I'll be receiving some LM paste, but currently not quite sure if I really want to go that route; or if I should try to get the otherwise lovely device replaced.. otoh/from what I'm reading here, I'm not that convinced I'll be more lucky next time.  What do you think?

[Aaron44126]

9 minutes ago, keks2k said:

What do you think?

 

If you have the version of the heatsink with Delta fans, which most (all?) of us seem to be getting from the factory ...  See if you can get Dell to send a replacement heatsink and hopefully you get the other version (Sunon fans).  @win32asmguy reports that it works much better even with the stock thermal compound on it (but still far from perfect).

 

I've been meaning to do this myself, hopefully I can finally set aside some time to call them tomorrow...

 

[Edit]

Actually.  You have an iGPU system!  It might have a totally different heatsink than what we have seen so far.