Activating Thermal Throttling on Acer Aspire 5
Activating Thermal Throttling on Acer Aspire 5
Just The Facts, Ma'am:
Acer Aspire 5 A515-51
Intel Core i3-8130U 2.2Ghz
Intel UHD Graphics
8 GB DDR4
1 TB Hard Drive
Living in Canada, I should know – summer here isn’t just a myth. It’s hot, humid, and the temperatures can climb quickly. Right now I’m at 32.6°C (about 91°F), which is quite warm for this time of year. I’ve noticed the laptop’s top-left corner gets quite hot, even feeling it through the keys. Checking the underside fan and aft vent, I see they’re clean – just need monthly vacuuming. I’m using a Targus cooling pad that draws power from the USB port.
The laptop stays between 40°C and 45°C on both cores, but it spikes to around 90°C during intense use. The Acer Aspire 5’s maximum safe temperature is 100°C.
I’ve found that lowering the processor usage from full to 90% on balanced or high performance settings helps, but the effect isn’t significant. I’m hoping for an app that can throttle the system when temps hit 85°C or more, or at least gives me control over the fans. Speedfan and Notebook Fan Control don’t seem to support my Acer model.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
David.
Consider taking a closer look at the laptop by disassembling it and noticing the clogged vents. It's a good opportunity to clean the internal components and upgrade the thermal paste to a better quality, such as Noctua's, Thermal Grizzly or Arctic. After reassembly, you might want to experiment with ThrottleStop and lower the processor and iGPU voltages.
What games are you using that put a strain on your laptop?
Hi Lutfij, thank you for your quick response.
I don’t have the technical skills to handle laptop disassembly or thermal pasting. I’m more comfortable with software—20 years in IT as a programmer and systems admin. While I’m quite familiar with computers, I’m not an expert in hardware.
I could bring it to a repair shop for the job, and I’m okay with spending money for that. But with the ongoing situation from COVID-19, I might not be able to visit a shop for a week unless I have a spare.
Raid: Shadow Legends and City Of Heroes: Homecoming are my main interests (on medium graphics). I enjoy Steam titles like Cosmoteer, Star Traders Frontiers, Shapes.io, Airships Conquer The Skies, and Simple Rockets 2 (recommended settings). Except for SR2, the rest aren’t too demanding on graphics.
ThrottleStop sounds like a good option to lower the laptop’s voltage while gaming, or when things get hot and humid. It might affect performance a bit, but I wouldn’t risk damaging my device.
I downloaded the program and experimented with it for a few hours. It is quite complicated to understand, and many options are hidden, even when using the admin settings. The software didn’t affect the heat from the laptop during a Raid: Shadow Legends session. It might be that the Intel chip settings can’t be adjusted.
There are numerous YouTube videos demonstrating how to set up ThrottleStop on a laptop. The process of undervolting becomes straightforward once you understand it. Additional options include restricting the CPU's boost speed, which can also be achieved through ThrottleStop. Another method involves employing an FPS limiter. By limiting the frames per second below the system's capacity, you can decrease the CPU's workload.
Hi Sizzling. Thanks for your reply.
I looked at the games I mentioned earlier. It seems the setup adjusted my settings to 30 FPS for Raid: Shadow Legends, Simple Rockets 2, and City of Heroes: Homecoming—two that I really enjoy.
I’ll watch some YouTube videos, but there’s still the issue of half the settings being hidden and not editable. This isn’t surprising, as I’ve seen other tools that can’t modify the built-in chips on laptops like this Acer Aspire.
I noticed that regularly restarting the laptop during the day helps ease the heat problem. This logic follows since heavy paging to the hard drive and memory buildup increases usage, which then raises the amount of power used.