Fan speed control on Alienware m17 R3

[Quantum Quasar]

I am trying to manually control the fan speed on my alienware m17 R3. I tried turning off EC control but that did not even give me the 3 setting option to control fan speed. Is there any way to manually change the fan speed? If not through HWiNFO, is there any other program or "hack" to gain manual control of the fan speed? The AW control center is fine for when I am gaming and even when playing games that really tax the CPU and GPU my temps are great, but when I am just working the fans are too loud, even using the "quiet" thermal setting in the control center. Fan speed goes down to 31% for CPU and 41% for GPU in quiet mode but won't ever dip below that, and at those speeds they make an extremely annoying high pitched sound that makes you want to jam a pencil in your ear. Any help would be very very very appreciated!

 

[kkthebeast]

So this info is for the m18x R2, But on the off chance that it works.... Not sure if things changed enough to matter between models.. but Mr. Fox's deal worked for me (ish)

https://imgur.com/a/UYC3s

but i have the opposite issue. mine don't want to ramp up high enough. like to stay way slow and quite. but using his settings exposed different options in the fan control section of HWiNFO64

 

[kkthebeast]

Also curious what your temps are when they are at 31% cpu fan and 41% gpu fan levels. Could it be an issue temp spikes keeping them from going lower on their own? like with old thermal compound? If it is temp related... I was brave and repasted the CPU and both 980m's with Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut. (be very careful or you can mess up bad) Also the fans shouldn't be making any noise other then the sound of air moving. if there is any kind of whine other then on max speed, I would look at getting some replacements. (super easy to change out) getting harder to find though . If you are feeling adventurous. you could take the bottom off and unplug each fan one at a time and see if one is whiney. Please don't short your mobo though.

ALIENWARE M17x R3 Fan | Newegg.com

Search Newegg.com for ALIENWARE M17x R3 Fan. Get fast shipping and top-rated customer service.

www.newegg.com

 

[Quantum Quasar]

So this info is for the m18x R2, But on the off chance that it works.... Not sure if things changed enough to matter between models.. but Mr. Fox's deal worked for me (ish)

https://imgur.com/a/UYC3s

but i have the opposite issue. mine don't want to ramp up high enough. like to stay way slow and quite. but using his settings exposed different options in the fan control section of HWiNFO64

I appreciate the help but unfortunately it was no good. I tried it but no matter how I configure the settings when I bring sensors up the little fan icon at the bottom is missing and there is no other way to access fan control. I saw another post on here where a moderator said that they changed the way the system worked on the m series of laptops and they have not figured out how to access fan control yet. Huge bummer

 

[Quantum Quasar]

Also curious what your temps are when they are at 31% cpu fan and 41% gpu fan levels. Could it be an issue temp spikes keeping them from going lower on their own? like with old thermal compound? If it is temp related... I was brave and repasted the CPU and both 980m's with Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut. (be very careful or you can mess up bad) Also the fans shouldn't be making any noise other then the sound of air moving. if there is any kind of whine other then on max speed, I would look at getting some replacements. (super easy to change out) getting harder to find though . If you are feeling adventurous. you could take the bottom off and unplug each fan one at a time and see if one is whiney. Please don't short your mobo though.

ALIENWARE M17x R3 Fan | Newegg.com

Search Newegg.com for ALIENWARE M17x R3 Fan. Get fast shipping and top-rated customer service.

www.newegg.com

So my temps are usually around 40-45 C for each. I would be ok with them climbing to like 50-60 C if the fans would slow down. I was thinking about changing out the thermal compound, and I will try inspecting the fans too, thanks for the suggestion! I would love to use one of those liquid metal compounds but definitely do not trust myself to properly install it and avoid leakage! It is a pain in the ass that they changed the way the system works when they released the m-series of laptops, it looks like when they did this they changed the way fan control works and the people at HWiNFO have not figured out how to gain control yet.