X15 NUC fans aren't spinning up

JohnDoh · ‎01-21-2022

The fan control on my X15 seems to keep stopping. In the NUC Software centre it displays that the fans are at 1400rpm, sometimes with both fans, sometimes just the CPU side.

While playing games I'll notice that the fans aren't speeding up (pretty noticible considering the volume). This isn't a constant issue and I can't seem to figure out what the specific trigger is, one time it will work, another there is nothing.

I've tried each of the profiles available, disabling the passive cooling option, using the Nvidia Whisper mode. Once the fans stop responding the only way to get them to push past the lowest speed is to hit the benchmarking switch which pushes them to full speed at 5500rpm. Or restart the computer.

Obviously gaming on a computer that has no or minimal fans isn't going great and it just hits the thermal throttle near instantly and tanks the performance.

I've reinstalled the uniwill service (required by the NUC software centre to work multiple times.

There doesn't seem to be a log or anything in Event Viewer to give any clue to what is happening.

JohnDoh · ‎01-22-2022

Ok I was wrong there is something in Event Viewer. Seems to be related to the computer resuming from sleep.

When resuming there are a lot 20+ items of the uniwill service trying to change the power profile from the guid for balanced mode to the guid for balanced mode (I'm using balanced mode). It does this constantly after sleep.

Restarting just the uniwill service fixes the lack of control.

DeividA_Intel · ‎01-24-2022

Hello JohnDoh,

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

In order to better assist you, please provide the following:

1. What is the brand and model name of your NUC?

2. Have you performed any BIOS changes, besides the fan settings?

3. Have you noticed any overheating issues?

4. Can you take a picture of the fan settings at the BIOS?

5. What is the BIOS version of your NUC?

Regards,

Deivid A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

JohnDoh · ‎01-24-2022

1. What is the brand and model name of your NUC?
Intel X15 LAPKC71F
2. Have you performed any BIOS changes, besides the fan settings?
Update and a 50mv undervolt to attempt to get the thermals under control.
3. Have you noticed any overheating issues?
The chassis gets over 60 degrees Celcius, hot enough to burn. Whe the fans aren't working it idles at around 70c on the cpu, if I do anything while the fans aren't working it tries to throttle down. I assume it would eventually shut down but I've stopped it manually each time this has occurred.
4. Can you take a picture of the fan settings at the BIOS?
There are none in the bios
5. What is the BIOS version of your NUC?
BIOS Update [KCTGL357] for the Intel® NUC X15 Laptop Kits - LAPKC71F, LAPKC71E, LAPKC51E

JohnDoh · ‎01-24-2022

Some event logs for NUC and uniwill that appeared around the time it stopped working today.

DeividA_Intel · ‎01-25-2022

Hello JohnDoh,

In this, to help you further, please try the following:

1. Load BIOS defaults:

Press F2 during boot to enter BIOS Setup.
Press F9 to load defaults.
Press F10 to save and exit BIOS Setup.

2. Check the fan RPM in BIOS:

Press F2 during boot to enter BIOS Setup.
Go to Advanced > Cooling > Performance Monitoring.
Press F10 to exit BIOS

3. Perform a BIO recovery:

BIOS: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/648490/bios-update-kctgl357-for-the-intel-nuc-x15-l...
Steps: see file attached (BIOS Recovery by the Power Button Menu)

If none of the previous steps worked, please check with the place of purchase for RMA options.

Regards,

Deivid A.

Intel Customer Support Technician

JohnDoh · ‎01-25-2022

Have done number 1 before, there are no fan settings other than the NUC s software, bios does not have cooling tab.

Have done bios recovery last night, testing stability now.

JohnDoh · ‎01-26-2022

Today it is running like a different computer… Strangely I'm seeing completely different fan behaviour after the restore of the BIOS and the .NET reinstall (figured it couldn't hurt since the error seemed to point there) , I'm not sure which has done it or if I've just gone crazy…

No cooling pad and the temp is staying under 60 degrees browsing. Whenever it goes above this the fans are increasing to 2000rpm and bringing it back down. Previously I wasn't seeing any fan changes until nearly 70 degrees, even when it was working. The response is fast, at light browsing level usage the fans sit at 1300rpm, if I chuck on a youtube video I can feel the air from the vents increase within a second. The next jump appears to be around 75 degrees up to around 3600rpm.

Forza benchmark in performance mode is making the fans hit 5000rpm (never saw above 4500rpm out of Benchmarking mode before) and the gaming temp is low 80's on the cpu and low 70s on the GPU. I've got every setting maxed since I seem to have a bottleneck (single channel RAM + no mux is my guess) sticking me to just above 60fps anyway so I may as well have all the eye candy, GPU limited is still only at 45%.

I've left the computer going in and out of sleep, idling, benchmarking at various points all day and haven't had so much as a hiccup. It feels like a different machine from a thermal standpoint. The performance figures are still the same, but cooler and with more obvious fan responses.

I have a support ticket that has gone to engineering who said the fan assembly has died and gave me a ticket number for a return.

Due to the intermittent nature of the issue, I'll continue testing stability tomorrow and decide whether or not to send it back for RMA. Or if the BIOS restore has fixed it.

Emile · ‎07-17-2022

HI JohnDoh,

I think I have a similair issue, I try to reinstall .NET but failed until now. Would you please tell how you did it ?

Have you UniwillServices and Intel NUC Studio installed ?

Right now they are not installed on my laptop and I don't experience thermal issue. I have reinstalled uninstalled those 3 or 4 times and everytime they are installed I experience thermal issue (problem is that without them i can't have some features like keyboard's light on...)

I hope you'll come back and see this post :)...

JohnDoh · ‎07-17-2022

Have you reinstalled the BIOS? I just downloaded the exe and ran it again, it ran through the update process.

For .Net, I went into add or remove Windows features and removed them all. Restarted then added them back in and restarted again.

Emile · ‎07-20-2022

Thank you. Now I fell like it's i behaving like your answer, with fans spinning at 2000+ when reaching 62-64 °C. Yet the laptop is still too hot while I am just writing, nothing like my previous laptop. I hope we will have fans control back soon. Thank you very much for your answer, it helped.

DeividA_Intel · ‎01-26-2022

Hello JohnDoh,

I am glad to know that your computer is now working better. In this case, since you have opened a support ticket with us I recommend you to continue the support there.

I will proceed to close this thread to avoid duplication of effort and the support will continue through the internal case.

Regards,

Deivid A.

Intel Customer Support Technician