Looking for laptop fan control or fan speed control for Windows 10 because you want to change or control the fan speed on a laptop or desktop PC. In this article, you will learn easy solutions on how to increase the fan speed on a PC.
Every PC and laptop has built-in fans that blow off the heat generated when a process is running through. While running multiple applications on Windows OS or tabs on chrome you might feel hot air coming out of your system.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a high-end gaming rig or gaming laptop you will hear a CPU fan noise when you boot up your PC and sooner the startup process completes the noise goes on to decline.
The problem only starts when you constantly hear CPU fan noise or nothing at all when running tasks.
What type of CPU fan you can control on PC?
The method to control the fan speed on a laptop and PC is highly dependent upon how your PC fans are powered.
You can control only those fans that are connected to your PC motherboard but if these are connected to the power supply then you can’t manually adjust their speed.
You can also check the end of the fan cable to know if you can control the fan speed on the PC.
- Molex fan connectors take power from the PSU. They cannot be manually controlled but can only be limited using a resistor cable.
- 3-pin DC fan connectors are connected to the motherboard, so you can alter its speed by limiting the voltage via BIOS.
- 4-pin PWM (pulse width modulation) can be controlled using fan control software easily.
Why is it important to monitor CPU fan speed in Windows?
The purpose behind the CPU fan is quite simple. They regularly check your PC’s temperature and adjust the CPU fans peed by turning them on and off accordingly. Every PC case has air vents to allow the heat to escape.
If you find your CPU fans to be running constantly, it’s a sign that your system is overheating and that may cause problems with your power supply. Thus, it can be very important to maintain a balance with the CPU fan speed while also keeping your PC’s temperature in check.
How to control fan speed on laptop Windows 10?
To check, control, change, monitor, or increase the fan speed on Windows 10 PC or laptop, apply the below-mentioned methods. If you have a gaming laptop you should keep a close eye on your CPU fan RPM.
- Control CPU fan speed via the Control Panel
- Use BIOS/UEFI to control the CPU fan speed
- Control CPU Fan speed using SpeedFan.
Method 1. Control CPU Fan Speed on Windows 10 via Control Panel
Use a built-in laptop fan control Windows feature to change the fan speed. Open your Control Panel and follow the instructions for laptop fan control.
- Open “Control Panel” and click on “Hardware and Sound,” and then “Power Options.” A new window will appear.
- Click “Change Plan Settings,” and then “Change Advanced Power Settings.” The “Power Options” dialog box will appear.
- In the “Advanced Settings” tab click on the “Processor Power Management” associated with a plus symbol to open an options submenu.
- Select “System Cooling Policy” from the submenu.
- Click the down arrow under “System Cooling Policy” to reveal a drop-down menu.
- Select “Active” from the drop-down menu to increase the speed of your CPU’s cooling fan.
- Click “Apply” and then “OK.”
Method 2. Laptop fan speed control using BIOS/UEFI
The second best method to control the fan speed on Windows 10 PC is using BIOS. Depending upon your PC or laptop model and motherboard manufacturer they have fan control settings in the BIOS/UEFI.
To do that you have to dive into the BIOS, and follow one of these two methods.
How to open BIOS settings
- Either, restart your computer, and when it boot-up press and hold the “Delete” or “F12” key.
- Or, press Windows + I to open Settings > Update & security >Recovery > Advanced Startup >Restart Now > Troubleshoot >Advanced options > UEFI Firmware settings >Click Restart.
How to change fan speed in BIOS Windows 10?
- Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to locate Fan Speed Control options. This option may vary but you can always find system fan speed control settings.
- Go to Monitor > Status > Fan Speed Control.
- Look for RPM settings for your computer fan. Select the fan to increase its speed i.e. 400 RPM or 500 RPM, and press Enter
- Repeat the same step No. 4 for all the fans you would like to increase the speed for.
- Press Esc repeatedly until you find the Exit menu.
- Select the “Save Changes and Reset” option to confirm the fan speed changes; your computer will now automatically restart.
Alternatively, you can also find fan control settings in the BIOS here,
Locate the Hardware Monitoring screen or Advanced Tab then find PC Health Status. Here you will find
In the BIOS typically you can adjust the optimal CPU temperature range at which the fan will speed up, and often the speed itself.
Methods 3. Control CPU fan speed using SpeedFan [Fan controller software]
Among other best fan control software, the SpeedFan is the most popular and easy-to-use tool. It searches your computer for informative chips and puts up voltages, speeds, and temperatures on display. SpeedFan uses S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) sensors that run through your motherboard and video cards to extract accurate relevant data.
Here’s how you can use it.
- Download, install and run the app on your PC
- When the app’s main window opens, select Configure
- Now, visit the Fans tab and wait for a list of all the fans on your PC to show up
- Select the CPU fan and use the Response curve to adjust its speed
SpeedFan is the best third-party solution to control the fan speed on Windows 10 PC and laptops. While Mac users can download smcFanControl software to monitor their mac fan speed.
This PC fan control software lets you check accurate CPU temperature readings. You can also see your current fan RPM. You can manually control and increase the fan speed on a laptop with these tools.
Note: Speedfan supports a wide variety of computer motherboards and sensor chips. If this laptop fan control software lacks support then you can download Argus monitor or MSI Afterburner.
Another disadvantage of this fan speed control for windows 10 is that it only supports built-in CPU and Case fans.
If SpeedFan not detecting fans then you might have additional PC fans in your system. This fan control software doesn’t control them.
If PC fan controller software doesn’t let you control, change, or increase the fan speed on a laptop PC then don’t worry you have a plan B.
Method 4. Buy an External Fan Hub To Control CPU fan Speed on a PC
Most of the software that increases fan speed only support built-in CPU fan and case fans. What if you have installed additional aftermarket PC fans. Buying an external fan controller for the PC will be the best option in this case.
Of course, this method is only applicable on a desktop computer because the laptop doesn’t support fan speed controllers. For laptops, buy the best laptop cooling pads.
Here’s our list of the best PC fan controller hubs that you can currently find. These hardware components fit in the computer drive bay and have knobs that allow you to manually control the fan speed on the PC. You can increase the fan speed up to 100% or lower.
You can also see the current PC fan RPM but you can’t monitor CPU temperature or GPU temperature on these devices. For that, you should download the best CPU temperature monitor.
How do I fix CPU Fan Speed errors?
The CPU Fan error is usually triggered when you’ve turned on your PC. As such, the fan error on the boot occurs due to some hardware issue, and It may not be due to CPU overheating. The most common cause why a CPU fan would run at full speed is that its sensor is not working properly. The solution here is to replace the fan itself. But you need to see that the processor is not always hot.
Increase CPU Fan Speed – FAQ
There are sensors placed on the motherboard when the CPU or GPU generates heat these sensors turn on the computer fan. The only purpose is to maintain the ideal PC temperature.
Apart from using SpeedFan, multiple hardware monitoring programs that also let you control PC fan speed. Here is our list of the best PC fan control software.
In case the software doesn’t let you control the fan speed then there are hardware components that let you do the part. Here’s our list of best fan controllers hubs.
You can use BIOS settings to change the fan speed on a laptop because most fan control software lack support for laptop fans.
Yes, laptop fans always run during normal use. The idea is to cool down internal hardware and prevent overheating. But when your laptop fan runs loudly it’s not normal.
To check at what speed your CPU fan is running download SpeedFan or Argus Monitor. These tools will show you the exact RPM of your PC fans.
To decrease your laptop fan speed then you can download HWInfo64. This tool supports most laptop fan settings. Use the HWiNFO fan control option to manually decrease or increase laptop fan speed.
If you don’t know how to change fan settings using BIOS then download third-party fan control software.
The ideal CPU fan speed of a laptop depends on a host of things but if you run it at 70% then it’s good. If you want to know What RPM is normal for laptop fans then 3000 to 4000 RPM is considered to be the best range.
If your computer fan is constantly loud then it may be a problem with your fan bearing or your PC is full of dust. Try to clean your PC intakes that are clogging fresh air.
Go to Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > Change settings that are currently unavailable.
Scroll down till you see Processor Power Management, expand it and click on Minimum Processor State. Type the new desired percentages and Apply.
You can get into BIOS settings and there locate fan control options. Use these options to lower to turn down the fan speed.
