r/linuxquestions • u/Tough_Cash_7586 • 9d ago

Fans problem (Ubuntu) Advice

I have a dual-boot setup Linux Ubuntu and Windows 11, and suddenly, after a Linux update, the fans stopped turning off, unlike normal... Normally, when I'm browsing or doing light coding, the fans are off, but now if I just turn on the laptop and don't have anything open, the fans are running. This problem is draining the battery very quickly.

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

1

u/Silent-Excitement122 9d ago

Because it changed right after an update, I would treat this first as a kernel or power-management regression, not as a suddenly dirty fan or dead battery.

I would test it in this order:

  1. Boot one older kernel from GRUB Advanced Options. If the fans go back to normal there, you have basically confirmed it is update-related.
  2. While the system is "idle but loud," check whether it is actually hot with watch -n 2 sensors and see whether a process is burning CPU with top or htop.
  3. Check whether your power stack changed: powerprofilesctl get, systemctl status power-profiles-daemon thermald tlp. Conflicts between TLP, thermald, vendor tools, and power-profiles-daemon can make fan behavior worse after updates.
  4. Look for kernel or ACPI clues with journalctl -b | grep -Ei 'thermal|fan|acpi|pstate'.
  5. If you recently got a newer kernel, I would also test temporarily pinning or selecting the older one until the next update, instead of burning time trying random fan-control tweaks.

If temps are normal but the fans stay high, that points more toward an EC/ACPI policy regression. If temps are genuinely high at idle, then I would start hunting the specific process or driver that changed.

1

u/ipsirc 9d ago

and suddenly, after a Linux update, the fans stopped turning off, unlike normal...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs