ASUS UX533F overheating and fan off with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

[Sylvain Vedrenne]

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 notice such overheating issues anymore with my previous Ubuntu (19.04) (after using sudo prime-select intel).

**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 got almost the same issue one year ago with Ubuntu 19.04 and used the sudo prime-select intel workaround.

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

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: linux-image-5.4.0-31-generic 5.4.0-31.35
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-31.35-generic 5.4.34
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: sylvain 1710 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: sylvain 1710 F...m pulseaudio
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu May 21 20:58:45 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-05-08 (13 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 13d3:56cb IMC Networks USB2.0 HD IR UVC WebCam
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0aaa Intel Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ZenBook UX533FN_UX533FN
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 i915drmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-31-generic root=UUID=1fba935a-ac77-4cdb-bc3a-d3ce26e567d9 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-5.4.0-31-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-5.4.0-31-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.187
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/16/2019
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: UX533FN.304
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: UX533FN
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrUX533FN.304:bd10/16/2019:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnZenBookUX533FN_UX533FN:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnUX533FN:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.family: ZenBook
dmi.product.name: ZenBook UX533FN_UX533FN
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Sylvain Vedrenne (bludzee)]

The fan is working when booting with the Live-USB I used to install Ubuntu 20.04

The Linux kernel from the Live-USB is
Linux ubuntu 5.4.0-26-generic #30-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 20 16:58:30 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
in case it makes any difference.

[Sylvain Vedrenne (bludzee)]

Attaching ubuntu-style information for the case that works fine where the laptop was booted from the Live-USB.

[Sylvain Vedrenne (bludzee)]

Since then, I more or less remember the operations I performed with my laptop Ubuntu 20.04 install, I think it might be:
- uninstall and purge NVidia proprietary driver
- (re-)install the NVidia proprietary driver
- downgrade then re-upgrade the Linux kernel

and the overheating and fan off problem mysteriously vanished.

Now I find the temperature of my ASUS UX533F is fine, even with high workload, and I can hear the fan running when needed (when the temp. is higher than 50°C or so).

But I still have the following (minor in my opinion) issue: sensors still shows the fan RPM 0 all the time.

Since I don't know how the problem disappeared, I cannot say it is "fixed" and it might come back.
Still, I thought it was worth mentioning.

[Colin Ian King (colin-king)]

I suspect the fixes may have landed with 1.9.1-1ubuntu0.5, I'll mark this as fixed released for now. If the issue occurs again, please feel free to re-open the bug.