Fan running loud, and longer usage starts freezing Fedora install, but CPU is OK

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Hi Fedoras :slight_smile:

Help a brother out, please.

Background: wanted to start learning to code and take it as an excuse to start using Linux again after a couple of years. Seemed Fedora 34 would fit the bill, as the kernel should support all of my hardware.

It actually does, it’s the only distro I tried where my Bang & Olufsen speakers and bluetooth work seamlessly.

There’s a problem:

The fan is running loud. Really loud.

Thing is, it starts off normally. Then the fan starts working hard, but the CPU is only at 4-6%, not more. The load on cores is changing, but the CPU is never at more than 12%.

But also then, everything starts slowing down. The videos are getting clunky, workspaces are getting clunky, and they shouldn’t.

What can I do?

Fedora 34 Gnome Workstation
HP Envy x360 AMD Ryzen 5

Thank you

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I am having a same problem on my Dell XPS 15 7590. Battery drains rapidly as well. I did install “tlp”, but didn’t help.

Never had this problem on F33 though.

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Thanks for your answer. But does it clock out or anything? Or it just runs normally, but hotter/more fan.

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Do you have an AMD APU, or GPU?

Perhaps this reddit comment is relevant:

Kernel 5.12.13 is affected by a AMDGPU power management bug - your system is affected. A fix is included in 5.12.14 which will arrive for Fedora 34 tomorrow.

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@pauldoo thanks for your response, seems very relevant. Everything I have is AMD, so I guess that’s that! (I guess these issues are usually caused by power management bugs?)

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Not mine. Its intel i7 9th gen, and dual graphics Intel/nvidia graphics. I have not activated Nvidia graphics yet. After upgrading to F34, graphics was defaulted to Intel. On F33 i was using nvidia.

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A bit of feedback. Battery is back to normal after installing Nvidia graphics. No more fan sound. For some odd reason I cant see an option to switch to Wayland anymore. All I see is X11. Hope this is will help other Dell XPS users.

Note: Nvidia drivers are from RPM

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When using the nvidia drivers you cannot use wayland. They do not (yet) play together.

Another possible cause of the overheating could be some dust/lint collected in the fan or air passages inside the machine. It happens to all of us over time, and the air flow blockage causes overheating which causes the fan to run fast, and the cpu to throttle. Under heavier load the cpu may even cause a heat related safety shutdown.

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Laptop is new actually. But problem was solved after installing Nvidia graphics on Dell XPS after upgrading to F34. Battery is stable and charge is also quick.