ASUS UX533F temperature too high and fan off on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Question

After installing Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, my laptop's temperature goes fairly high without intensive CPU activity. The fan(s) remain off under heavy CPU load and the temperature goes very high.

I don't suspect a material failure since I didn't have such overheating issues anymore with my previous Ubuntu (19.04).

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EDIT: at the moment, after random attempts such as Uninstall/Reinstall the NVidia propietary driver, Downgrade/Upgrade the Linux kernel... The only issue left is sensors still sees the fan off (0 RPM) though I can hear it. No more overheating with my ASUS UX533F, hurray! but I don't know why so the problem might as well reappear some day...

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Config

• ASUS UX533FN

• BIOS version 304 (up-to-date)

• Kernel: 5.4.0-31-generic (same issue with 5.4.0-29)

• NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (with latest NVIDIA driver)

Low CPU load

Without running anything special, I get the following figures with sensors command:

...
pch_cannonlake-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +49.0°C
BAT0-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0:          15.60 V
asus-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
cpu_fan:        0 RPM
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +50.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:        +49.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:        +48.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2:        +48.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3:        +50.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1:        +49.0°C  (crit = +103.0°C)

These figures are a too high in my opinion for low CPU load with a room temperature of 20°C.

But here come's worse:

Heavy CPU load

When the CPU is under load, for instance when running sysbench cpu run in loop, the temperature increases to 90°C, and no fan is triggered!

To get a repeatable CPU load test, I run

while true; do echo "One more time..." && sysbench cpu run; done

Here are the figures I get in this case (from sensors command):

...
pch_cannonlake-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +65.0°C
BAT0-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0:          15.60 V
asus-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
cpu_fan:        0 RPM
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +88.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:        +88.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:        +70.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2:        +72.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3:        +72.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1:        +86.0°C  (crit = +103.0°C)

Note 1: The temperature in the room for this test is 20°C.

Note 2: I reported almost the same issue one year ago with Ubuntu 19.04.

What I already tried

• installing the latest NVIDIA driver, including selecting intel with prime-select ameliorated the situation but didn't tackle the issue

• running sensors-detect (YES to all questions) resulted in coretemp to be added to /etc/modules

• running pwmconfig didn't work:

/usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed

How would you tackle this overheating issue?

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Your case is interresting and looks like mine

Config

• Asus UX480FD
• Intel UHD 610 x NVIDIA GTX 1050 Max-Q

About fans

My fans don't seems to work proprely, my computer have very high temps quickly and won't cool down

$ sensors
asus-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
cpu_fan:        0 RPM

Did you check this GitHub ? I tried for my Asus but it doesn't work, I'm still working on it https://github.com/dominiksalvet/asus-fan-control

There is maybe a reason why your fans doesn't trun on when your computer is hot Fans have multiples speed levels, and maybe your first level start at 52° (like me)

More info here : https://github.com/dominiksalvet/asus-fan-control#custom-temperatures

I'll keep you informed if I find more info about it

Answer 2

I had the same problem. After updating the BIOS it solved. download link: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ASUS-ZenBook-15-UX533FN/HelpDesk_BIOS/

Answer 3

I was facing that very same problem with my ASUS ZenBook 15 UX533FTC-A8304T where I'm dual bootinf Windows 10 and Ubuntu. Starting Ubuntu, temperature shoots up to 50+°C when laptop is left on idle and up to 60+° when using chrome with just 3 tabs on.

The solution that worked for me was to cut off power (I'm assuming that's what it meant) to the NVIDIA gpu. I'm not gaming or doing any graphic intensive activities on the Ubuntu so this is fine for me. But if there's a reason that someone knows why this works or has to be done, please share. Now the temperature sits around 39°C when left on idle with no programs running and 43° with chrome and spotify open. Battery life expectancy has also doubled.

I realized the command the solution provided needs to be manually run on every boot. So, you need to write a bash script file with the command and include it on the root cron job scheduled with @reboot. So, you can add a line at the end of your root crontab file like so. @reboot /path/to/script.sh

Solution is based on: https://askubuntu.com/a/1245236/1097045

1. Get the PCI address of the NVIDIA GPU; it's 02:00.0 in this case.

$ lspci | grep "NVIDIA"
02:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile] (rev a1)

2. Create a bash script file to include the following command and replace the PCI address if needed (preceded with a colon).

#!/bin/bash
echo auto > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:02:00.0/power/control

3. Add the following line to sudo crontab -e
@reboot /path/to/script.sh