AMD graphics card fans not spinning; computer shutting down

Running Fedora 40 with the latest updates and KDE Plasma 6.

If I go to websites that are graphically intensive (eg www.heroforge.com, www.foundryvtt.com) the computer turns it self off. If I look at the graphics card (case has a window) the fans are not spinning despite it being very hot in the room.

I’m not sure what information to provide you, but I would love to know if I can fix this in software or if this is an indication that the graphics card, motherboard, or both are dying.

Interestingly, if I run sensors:

fam15h_power-pci-00c4
Adapter: PCI adapter
power1: 49.00 W (crit = 125.02 W)

amdgpu-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
vddgfx: 950.00 mV
fan1: 1351 RPM (min = 0 RPM, max = 4100 RPM)
edge: +49.0°C (crit = +91.0°C, hyst = -273.1°C)
PPT: 29.25 W (cap = 180.00 W)

k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1: +23.2°C (high = +70.0°C)
(crit = +80.0°C, hyst = +77.0°C)

But when I look at the fan it is not spinning.

More data: running Furmark 2.4.1.0 causes the computer to immediately reboot itself. So it’s not limited to websites.

When you boot a live cd, are your fans spinning?
Do they spin for second after turning on the machine?

It is quite possible the fan bearings may have failed. If they do not spin at least momentarily when first powering on then the fan is likely failed.

You also may be able to open the case and see if the fans spin freely by hand (with power off, of course)

Good question. I ran with a live USB of Fedora 40 and they did not spin.

On one of my logins, the screen was showing garbage and the fans were spinning so I thought maybe there was something in KDE that was preventing it. But @augenauf 's suggestion to use a live USB seems to point to perhaps teh card and/or fans being broken.

bought a brand new card. The fans spin until I start seeing the Linux boot messages fly by. So I feel like the kernel is turning it off. Not sure if that makes sense?

This is normal behaviour, the fans should always spin up at boot until the drivers are loaded, then they spin down. Afterwards they should only spin up again when the GPU temperature rises too much.

Did you check the temperature of the GPU when you are on the desktop?

how do I check?

Thanks!

There are several ways but i like to use the terminal program nvtop, it gives a nice overview of the stats and the load of the GPU.

For the new card I bought to test if the fans were broken on the old card:

output right now (I added line breaks for readability) is:

Device 0 [AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT]
PCIe GEN 2@16x
RX: N/A TX: N/A
GPU 20MHz
MEM 1124MHz
TEMP 50°C
FAN 0%
POW 36 / 220 W

You can use the code option in the editor to format the text more easily, it’s the icon that looks like this:

</>

Considering the temperature, 50°C is low so that’s good. You could try running some 3D to see if the fans spin up when the temperature reaches 65°+ degrees. It isn’t a problem for the GPU to run at 80°-90° for longer periods, but the fans should be spinning in that scenario.

when I run Furmark or anything 3D the computer computer turns off. I’m guessing that means the fans are a red herring?

Would that be from too lower power from the power supply?

It’s possible… GPU’s are built to run at higher temperatures than CPU’s, for longer periods of time. If the GPU is really overheating you may see artifacts on screen first (noise, glitches), before it would cause a shutdown. But it may depend on the motherboard and the GPU too if that would happen.

Did you check the wattage of your power supply to see if it’s enough to draw a full load?

I’ll be checking this against a higher PSU when it arrives tomorrow. It’s possible I have too low wattage a PSU in here. Usually I’m very careful about that, but I built this computer 11 years ago and may have had different needs then. (ie may have changed to a higher wattage graphics card since then). Strange that the problem only started cropping up recently, but that may be because I haven’t put much of a 3D load on this computer.

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Stupid me. My PSU wasn’t strong enough.

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