Swift 3 (SF314 -71) fan controller curve not adjustable and bad default setting

Karly1990
Karly1990 Member Posts: 8

Tinkerer
in Swift and Spin Series

Hello Guys and Girls.


I brought a Swift 3 OLED "SF314-71". Its a nice machine that has a fatal flaw: its fan controller.

The laptop is almost unusable (at least unbearable) because of the fan behavior.

Even a low CPU/GPU load situation like watching Youtube or editing text documents causes the fan to run at a very high speed. Its even worse: the fan starts and stops frequently.

It seems like the fan controller can only do discrete steps, like 1500rpm, 2500rpm, 3000rpm and so on.

While editing a text document (so almost no cpu load) the fan turns on for 7 seconds, and than cycles off after running for 7 seconds. Sadly the start of the fan is also quite annoying as its "violent" the whole machine jerks noticeable and the fan starts with a big "whoosh" sound.

The CPU package temperature is only at 40°C while this is happening. The air that gets blown out of the vents is also close to room temperature, no wonder by such a low fan start temperature.

The same thing happens while watching YouTube in Chrome (so with hardware accelerated VP9 decoding), CPU and GPU load are very low and CPU package temp is also barely reaching 40°C.

I currently have the latest firmware / Bios installed.

Why is it that a 1000$+ laptop from 2023 doesn't have a continuous fan control algorithm that doesn't cause ear bleeding to set in after just 10 minutes of use? All dedicated GPUs produced in the last 10 years have fan controllers that can ramp the fans up slowly and let them run at speeds that cause no sounds at all.

Even if the fan can't run slower (which would be a very bad engineering choice): the 40°C fan start temperature is just way too low. Setting that to something like 75°C would cause no harm and make the laptop silent while watching YouTube.


I can't find any software to make my own fan curve that works with the strange embedded controller chip. Is there anything out there?

Acers own software features a shortcut: fn+f but that does not do anything other than displaying a picture. The actual fan behavior does not change.

TO BE CLEAR: The CPU/GPU is under very low load when that happens- 5-7%. The temperature is also very low, 40°C. The reported package power (HWinfo) is under 7W average indicating that there is no meaningful CPU load at all. Windows task manager is also reporting single digit CPU/GPU utilization.

If I can't get a BIOS/firmware update, I need to return the laptop. Its just unbearable to have a 1000$ piece of tech that uses a fan controller from the late 80s.

Lg Karl

Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer

    Acer doesn't publish the fan control specs on your Swift, but typically they run using a table where fan speeds are set at thresholds, not using something like a PID. Yours doesn't sound like it's working right though, it certainly doesn't sound like any Acer laptop I've used over the years, though my newest is 11th gen rather than 12th. Contact Acer support and describe the behavior or contact your vendor to get a swap for a different unit if it's still new enough.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Karly1990
    Karly1990 Member Posts: 8

    Tinkerer

    Even that seems silly. Why are they using a PWM controlled fan and than only using a "discrete steps" approach?

    A PID loop wouldn't be necessary, even a simple P controller would be all that's needed. The calculation of multiplying the temperature with a fixed value to get the desired fan speed is so freaking simple.


    I don't see how a different unit would make a difference. The fan is functioning like acer intended it to but the intention is just bad? Or maybe someone screwed up the table but that should be noticed at the testing stage. Right? They hopefully even do testing (but it does not seem like it tbh).

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer

    But my point is the fan is not functioning as intended. From your description it's running at full speed all the time. That is an issue with your specific unit, not will all units. My guess is there's an issue with the temperature sensor or with the logic between the sensor and the rest of the system. It likely will require a motherboard swap, unless it's actually just the fan itself.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Andy_1331
    Andy_1331 Member Posts: 6

    Tinkerer

    "While editing a text document (so almost no cpu load) the fan turns on
    for 7 seconds, and than cycles off after running for 7 seconds. Sadly
    the start of the fan is also quite annoying as its "violent" the whole
    machine jerks noticeable and the fan starts with a big "whoosh" sound."

    … same with mine, so I don't think its an issue with a specific unit.

  • 95x
    95x Member Posts: 1 New User

    I'm going to buy this laptop, but before I do, I decided to check the community for this model to see if this issue is present in all units. If the issue is the same across all units, then I might have to buy the Vivobook 14X, which is more expensive compared to this model.

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