NS50 running hot

NitroPad, NitroPC
1

Is there a way to have the NS50 run cooler?

The keyboard remains hot to the touch, even with the most recent firmwares.

I tried using pwmconfig but no pwm-capable sensor modules are installed.

Thanks

Joris

2

You can try to disable the TurboBoost feature for that particular CPU model/family.
I do it on a KabyLake i7-7500U CPU because the fan running wild bothers me.
Of course, there will be a penalty/performance hit: but that mostly depends on what you do with your laptop. Without TurboBoost, it runs much cooler: those clock frequency shifts towards max TDP create a lot of instantaneous heat!
It is done through a bash script poking (writing) at a particular bit of an msr register - so you need msr-tools package installed. You could possibly find that msr register address and bit to manipulate - I don’t know the specific values for your 12th gen CPU (since those registers are model specific, hence their name) I only know the value for my own SKU.
You could have a script for TurboOFF and another one for TurboON, so you can toggle in real time according to your needs. Or have it permanently execute at startup via rc.local

3

thanks for the suggestion and reminder (msr)

using btop I found the actual culprits are not just the CPU but also the GPU
Linux is maybe really becoming way too bloated and fragmented to remain performant

4

I would also suggest at hardware level to blow air into the fans and change the thermal paste of CPU/GPU.

5

thought of it, doesn’t seem like it

there are multiple issues, i assume some due to sub-optimal firmware and/or drivers
another being the SSD which is getting hit hard in some use cases and consumes excessive CPU

6

Removing the seals, and re-applying cooling paste has greatly helped, I’ve also dumped use of the power-profiles-daemon in favor of working with TLP.

Which means less performance since I disabled the turbo-boost but also much cooler temperatures and much less fan-noise (near silent actually) which was a very annoying thing with the NS50.

I assume it will be possible to re-enable the turbo-boost frequency and limit it to keep the temperature down and the fan-noise down. Alternatively I’ll seek replacement for the fan with either a different model or an alternate form of cooling, also experiment with thermal padding and such.

Also notable is the nvme drive is indeed a cause for high-temp, I’ve since added a Samsung Pro nvme with PCI 4.0 and found it runs cooler. I’ll also see to add thermal padding there.

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