How to make the i5/i7 SP4 fanless

[Jack Black]

Hi everyone! I am wondering, is there a way to make the Surface Pro 4 with i5/i7 processors fanless?
Sometimes my SP4 (I do not know why) even when just surfing with opera (not even playing videos) or reading PDFs starts to heat and turns on the fan. This can be pretty annoying and even embarrassing while in the library, with many stone-cold MacBooks around. Is there anything I can do?

The task manager says I am using only 1%-20% of CPU and 38% of RAM (I have the i5, 8GB of RAM version). Somewhere I've read that it should be possible to enable some hidden W10 feature and create a special power consumption mode, with the CPU limited in GHtz, so consuming less battery and heating less, to be used in normal surfing, basic Word usage and so on. DO you know how to do it? Is there anything else I could try?

Thank you very much, and have a great day! xD

Jack

 

[hughlle]

All i can say from my experience is this is not normal. While at university, my fan has never come on. Not once. Only time i've ever had it come on are during a system update, playing a game, or when playing a fullscreen flash video on an ultrawide secondary display.

 

[pharkas]

You can reduce the 'Max Processor State" % in power settings, which will help with the overactive fan. The option is not available by default, so you have made a modification to make it appear. If you don't mind tweaking your registry slightly, you can use the registry key referred to in this article:
Four ways to improve Surface Pro 4 battery life

I have experimented with different percentages, starting with 99%, as recommended in the article. I currently have mine set at 75% which seems to have given me a significant increase in battery life in addition to making the Surface much quieter and cooler. Ever since implementing this, I rarely if ever hear the fan start up during typical browsing and office tasks.

Hope that helps!

 

[jnjroach]

We need more info about what is loaded and running on your machine because unlike those quiet MacBooks you are able to install almost anything from the vast Win32 Library dating back over 20 years....

 

[leeshor]

The 2 times my fan has come on so far I wondered where the noise was coming from

 

[Zkyevolved]

My fan never comes on, really. I can even have about 10-15 tabs open, as long as they're not all flash youtube videos, my fan never comes on. I did leave like 3 YT videos open with 1080p on them and my fan turned on, but that isn't normal to have 3 open at once. Lol.

I'd check to see what is using your CPU before you limit it. Something is causing your CPU to rev up or to stay high when it shouldn't. I have the i5 256 model as well.

 

[surfacebookinuk]

You can reduce the 'Max Processor State" % in power settings, which will help with the overactive fan. The option is not available by default, so you have made a modification to make it appear. If you don't mind tweaking your registry slightly, you can use the registry key referred to in this article:
Four ways to improve Surface Pro 4 battery life

I have experimented with different percentages, starting with 99%, as recommended in the article. I currently have mine set at 75% which seems to have given me a significant increase in battery life in addition to making the Surface much quieter and cooler. Ever since implementing this, I rarely if ever hear the fan start up during typical browsing and office tasks.

Hope that helps!

Hey I 've seen this before and I 'm interested in using it cause I get the fan kicking in quite often when I 'm charging and using my device (rarely when not charging but still annoying as it gets really warm sometimes when I use google maps in the google app).
Which is the best % value for my SP4 i5 8Gb? I currently had it set to 75% but don't want to lose all that power because of my inability to calculate the best % value
My usage is mainly office, browsing, pdf editing and some MS store apps, nothing too intense.

 

[pharkas]

My fan never comes on, really. I can even have about 10-15 tabs open, as long as they're not all flash youtube videos, my fan never comes on. I did leave like 3 YT videos open with 1080p on them and my fan turned on, but that isn't normal to have 3 open at once. Lol.

I'd check to see what is using your CPU before you limit it. Something is causing your CPU to rev up or to stay high when it shouldn't. I have the i5 256 model as well.

I definitely agree with this. I have the same model as you, and I noticed the fan kicking at some points, before I adjusted the Max processor state. Now I almost never hear it. My main concern wasn't really the fan; it was the battery life. The fan was just an added bonus.

 

[pharkas]

Hey I 've seen this before and I 'm interested in using it cause I get the fan kicking in quite often when I 'm charging and using my device (rarely when not charging but still annoying as it gets really warm sometimes when I use google maps in the google app).
Which is the best % value for my SP4 i5 8Gb? I currently had it set to 75% but don't want to lose all that power because of my inability to calculate the best % value
My usage is mainly office, browsing, pdf editing and some MS store apps, nothing too intense.

You can play around with different percentages. I don't notice any real performance difference with 75%, but below that you may start to experience some undesirable slowing of the device. At 75%, I get anywhere from 6-7.5 hours out my Surface, depending on what I am doing with it.

FYI, I just changed the percentage for "On Battery". Mine is still at 100% while plugged in. So the fan definitely can get going pretty frequently while I am connected to a power supply.

 

[surfacebookinuk]

You can play around with different percentages. I don't notice any real performance difference with 75%, but below that you may start to experience some undesirable slowing of the device. At 75%, I get anywhere from 6-7.5 hours out my Surface, depending on what I am doing with it.

FYI, I just changed the percentage for "On Battery". Mine is still at 100% while plugged in. So the fan definitely can get going pretty frequently while I am connected to a power supply.

Yeah tha's what I did as well. Let's see how it goes. No performance hit so far..

 

[Compusmurf]

Start at 99 and work your way down. That being said if u don't notice a performance hit, you probably bought more cpu power than you really needed for your workload. ☺

 

[surfacebookinuk]

Start at 99 and work your way down. That being said if u don't notice a performance hit, you probably bought more cpu power than you really needed for your workload. ☺

Well that's the thing. If I go and exchange it for a m3 it's like needing a volkswagen golf and buying a mercedes c-class and then going to the golf even if it does the job it has to feel different (in a bad way)