T510 Discrete Graphics (NVIDIA) runs fan a lot in Linux
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 8:10 am
I've had this T510 for over 7 years now and it's recently been brought back into regular service. I bought a 512GB SSD for it and it has 8GB RAM; it now exclusively runs Kubuntu 19.10LTS.
More to the point though, the fan runs a lot. As in, almost constantly, regardless of what I'm doing. Even if my web browser isn't started and I'm just looking at a terminal window in KDE, the fan is running at nearly maximum. The system doesn't seem to be hot to the touch, but the fan apparently thinks otherwise.
What should I look at for this? I was considering replacing the fan but the CPU fan for this system is not easy to obtain for the discrete graphics models - I've seen a couple on ebay but they take over a month to slow boat to my place from China (I can't find one located in North America that isn't a refurb). Or is there something else I should look at first? I was considering opening up the system and maybe pushing some compressed air through the fan first in case it's just clogged up with dust from being in my basement office (largely unused) for a long time.
More to the point though, the fan runs a lot. As in, almost constantly, regardless of what I'm doing. Even if my web browser isn't started and I'm just looking at a terminal window in KDE, the fan is running at nearly maximum. The system doesn't seem to be hot to the touch, but the fan apparently thinks otherwise.
What should I look at for this? I was considering replacing the fan but the CPU fan for this system is not easy to obtain for the discrete graphics models - I've seen a couple on ebay but they take over a month to slow boat to my place from China (I can't find one located in North America that isn't a refurb). Or is there something else I should look at first? I was considering opening up the system and maybe pushing some compressed air through the fan first in case it's just clogged up with dust from being in my basement office (largely unused) for a long time.