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I have some HP Elite 8200 SFF desktops that I plan to refurbish.

These have two fans, one for the PSU and one for the CPU, which are quite loudy, as spinning at quite high speed and without interruption, although the heatsinks are obviously almost at room temperature (~ 25°C, ~77° F). Heatsinks and fans are clean.

The speed of the fans is too high but remains "acceptable", in the sense that it not like if there was some hardware abnormality.

In the BIOS, the "Fan idle mode" is set to the minimum: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04740290

The "Fan Idle Mode" level can range from 0 star to 6 stars. I tried setting it with 0 and 1 star.

Contrarily to what is audible in this short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvaLjGDPS3U, the fan speed remains same whichever the value (0 to 6) that I select in the BIOS for "Fan Idle Mode".

One thing that I don't understand is that both "OS Power management" and hardware "SATA Power Management" are enabled. Not sure if the "SATA Power Management" is for the PSU, the CPU or both, and if the software driven "OS Power Management" takes precedence over the hardware one.

I assume there is a missing software component and that the fan speeds stay at their default values. For a notebook, I would expect some ACPI driver to be in charge of the power management, but I cannot find such equivalent for the desktop.

The BIOS has been upgraded to its latest version. Chipset drivers were installed as well.

The desktop is running Windows 7 Pro (64-bit) which is its original OS. Problem is same if the PC is running Windows 10.

OS Power Management

Hardware Power Management

Fan Idle Mode

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  • It seems you've done a thorough job of trying to get native fan speed control working. Perhaps a third-party app might work, if it has its own drivers: makeuseof.com/best-laptop-fan-control-apps . Might be worth testing on one laptop. If it works, please let me know and make it an answer.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Sep 11, 2023 at 12:59
  • @DrMoishe Pippik: Thank you. It is not a laptop but a desktop. I posted an answer to my own question with ideas for hardware modifications.
    – OuzoPower
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 15:46

1 Answer 1

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So far, I could not find a way to control the fan speed by software means (either BIOS or operating system). The fans spins constantly and relatively fast with Windows and Linux. The system will be running Linux.

Since the passive heat sink is big enough, one simple solution could be to unplug the CPU fan and remove the plastic tunnel. After removing some brackets at the rear of the desktop enclosure, passive ventilation should be sufficient in moderate climates.

In addition, the distance from the CPU heatsink to the top cover being only around 7 mm, adding a thermally conductive piece on the CPU heatsink, would bridge it with the metal top cover which could serve as an additional heatsink. Not totally sure if a good idea from an electrical standpoint, but I assume it is GND and should not be too much of a problem ; this still needs to be confirmed however.

Instead of unpluggin the CPU fan, an alternative solution could be to serialize its power cable with a temperature probe, that would switches on/off the power to the fan depending on the temperature.

View of the plastic tunnel between CPU heatsink and fan in an HP Elite 8200 SFF

View inside of an HP Elite 8200 SFF computer (plastic tunnel between fan and heatsink removed)

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  • Did you consider trying the third-party software speed controls?
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 17:01
  • Not yet. Although I am not totally sure about that, I believe the processors from Intel are sufficiently robust to shut down (and protect themselves) in case the temperature would go too high. On this model, the CPU heatsink seems really massive and should dissipeat heat enough. I assume the frontal fan is here mostly to dissipate heat from the PC case. If the brackets at the rear are left open (in a clean environment), natural ventilation should be sufficient.
    – OuzoPower
    Commented Sep 22, 2023 at 12:38

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