Arch Linux

kaifis

Member

Registered: 2016-12-22

Posts: 58

How to disable fan and underclock CPU

Hi, my fan just broke and now it's making a lot of noise.  I would love to stop it and underclock CPU so I wouldn't overheat.
I have xiaomi notebook air 13 first gen. with  i5 skylake. I cannot disable fan nor underclock CPU from BIOS. I've been trying to duckduckgo something but haven't found any nice solution.
Have you ever tried to achieve something similar? Do you have any suggestions?
I'd be really pleased just by direction (which kind of tools to use) I can find the rest myself.
Thanks guys.

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,318

Re: How to disable fan and underclock CPU

Undervolting may be possible with the intel-undervolt package from the AUR, I don't know what you can do with the fan except unplugging it, though.

There seems to be a replacement fan available on aliexpress for less than $20.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-CPU … 27955.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/comment … n/do9gqyn/

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ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: How to disable fan and underclock CPU

The in kernel CPU frequency scaling allows you to set maximum or specific frequency: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CP … requencies

kaifis

Member

Registered: 2016-12-22

Posts: 58

Re: How to disable fan and underclock CPU

Thanks for quick replies. I really thought I saw somewhere something for regulation of my fan. Anyway already ordered replacement from AliExpress for $16 (link suggested by progandy).

And do you have any experience with undervolting? I didn't knew it is possible / good idea.

Last edited by kaifis (2018-08-29 22:44:32)

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,318

Re: How to disable fan and underclock CPU

Undervolting can be useful to lower heat generation, but if you do too much your system will be unstable. The safe margin varies between laptop models and even between devices of the same series. Currently I am looking into undervolting my spectre x360 and it seems around -100mV seems a mostly stable value there.

Edit: Did you check if this is really the correct fan for your model?

Edit: As for fan control
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=263828

Last edited by progandy (2018-08-29 23:24:39)

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