Nvidia GTX 960 fan speed freakout

[Seamless in Northampton]

I just upgraded motherboard/GPU. Everything worked perfectly except for my Gigabyte Geforce GTX 960 4GB-- its fans seem to run at full tilt all the time. This is a major problem -- I do a lot of audio recording, and these loud fans are clearly audible through mics in the room. (Irony-- I got this in part because reviews said it was "silent"!)

When I boot up, everything is very quiet. As soon as I hit the login screen for Ubuntu, the fans gin up and never stop. The Nvidia X Server says the fan is at 0 RPM. I'm guessing the BIOS is controlling things fine, then Ubuntu takes over and isn't functioning correctly, but this is beyond my knowledge. Any help is appreciated!

[Autodave]

What Nvidia driver are you using and where did you get it from?

[Seamless in Northampton]

I'm using 375.39. I do not recall the original source-- it was already present in additional drivers from who knows how long ago.

[Seamless in Northampton]

I've poked around a fair bit now, and it looks like enabling Coolbits may be my solution. But weirdly enough, I can't seem to find xorg.conf anywhere.

[Seamless in Northampton]

Oh, and now I see indicated source-- nvidia-375

Going to try 378.

[Seamless in Northampton]

And same deal with 378. Further reading reveals that there is apparently no longer a single xorg.conf file. So how in Hades do you enable Coolbits?

[#&thj^%]

You first have to create the "xorg.conf"
By running this:

sudo -H nvidia-settings

Which will open the GUI setting manager.
On the left side of the window..you will see nvidia-settings Configuration at the bottom>>>Click that>>Now you will see "Save Current Configuration"
Save it As "/etc/X11/xorg.conf".
Now you have a xorg.conf file....that you can edit and add CoolBits options.
For example mine shows: **Warning**Do not copy mine it may break your Xserver.

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 367.35 (builduser@rw) Fri Jul 15 21:07:27 CEST 2016

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "HP w2338h"
HorizSync 24.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 48.0 - 76.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 560 Ti"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-1"
Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
Option "SLI" "Off"
Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
Option "Coolbits" "5"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection


I highlighted in red the only change you need to make.
I use the option 5 for mine which still gives me fan control options, along with some basic power options also. Use just "4" for your fan control only.
I also copied the xorg conf file into The Directory "xorg.conf.d"
But I renamed that one to "20-nvidia.conf" Just so if the rare chance that the xorg.conf file were ever to be over wrote, through an update, then the setting would not be lost>.
Reboot required to see the changes and options in Nivdia Settings.
Final warning Be careful of making big changes at first, You can Fry your chip.;)
I seldom run my fans any higher than 63%...

[Seamless in Northampton]

Thank you!!! I'll go give this a whirl now.

[Seamless in Northampton]

So I've made an xorg.conf file. Should I be concerned that it looks nothing like yours? I don't have those sections.


#
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf
#
# Configuration file for nvidia-settings - the NVIDIA X Server Settings utility
# Generated on Sun Mar 19 15:02:12 2017
#

# ConfigProperties:

RcFileLocale = C
DisplayStatusBar = Yes
SliderTextEntries = Yes
IncludeDisplayNameInConfigFile = No
ShowQuitDialog = Yes
UpdateRulesOnProfileNameChange = Yes
Timer = PowerMizer_Monitor_(GPU_0),Yes,1000
Timer = Thermal_Monitor_(GPU_0),Yes,1000
Timer = Memory_Used_(GPU_0),Yes,3000

# Attributes:

0/SyncToVBlank=1
0/LogAniso=0
0/FSAA=0
0/TextureClamping=1
0/FXAA=0
0/AllowFlipping=1
0/FSAAAppControlled=1
0/LogAnisoAppControlled=1
0/OpenGLImageSettings=0
0/FSAAAppEnhanced=0
[DPY:DVI-I-0]/Dithering=0
[DPY:DVI-I-0]/DitheringMode=0
[DPY:DVI-I-0]/DitheringDepth=0
[DPY:DVI-I-0]/SynchronousPaletteUpdates=0
[DPY:DVI-I-1]/Dithering=0
[DPY:DVI-I-1]/DitheringMode=0
[DPY:DVI-I-1]/DitheringDepth=0
[DPY:DVI-I-1]/ColorSpace=0
[DPY:DVI-I-1]/ColorRange=0
[DPY:DVI-I-1]/SynchronousPaletteUpdates=0
[DPY:HDMI-0]/Dithering=0
[DPY:HDMI-0]/DitheringMode=0
[DPY:HDMI-0]/DitheringDepth=0
[DPY:HDMI-0]/ColorSpace=0
[DPY:HDMI-0]/ColorRange=0
[DPY:HDMI-0]/SynchronousPaletteUpdates=0
[DPY:DP-0]/Dithering=0
[DPY:DP-0]/DitheringMode=0
[DPY:DP-0]/DitheringDepth=0
[DPY:DP-0]/ColorSpace=0
[DPY:DP-0]/ColorRange=0
[DPY:DP-0]/SynchronousPaletteUpdates=0
[DPY:DP-1]/Dithering=0
[DPY:DP-1]/DitheringMode=0
[DPY:DP-1]/DitheringDepth=0
[DPY:DP-1]/ColorSpace=0
[DPY:DP-1]/ColorRange=0
[DPY:DP-1]/SynchronousPaletteUpdates=0
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/RedBrightness=0.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/GreenBrightness=0.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/BlueBrightness=0.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/RedContrast=0.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/GreenContrast=0.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/BlueContrast=0.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/RedGamma=1.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/GreenGamma=1.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/BlueGamma=1.000000
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/Dithering=0
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/DitheringMode=0
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/DitheringDepth=0
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/DigitalVibrance=0
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/ColorSpace=0
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/ColorRange=0
[DPY:DVI-D-0]/SynchronousPaletteUpdates=0

[Seamless in Northampton]

Got it! Rather than the bottom entry, nvidia-settings configuration, I went to the second menu entry, X Server Display Configuration. Saving that created a similar xorg.conf.

[Seamless in Northampton]

So that got me the fan control slider! But now would you believe the slider has no effect? -sigh- Still says RPM=0. Fan control percentage can be changed, but speed doesn't change.

[Seamless in Northampton]

:redface: A lesson in never forgetting the obvious-- a cable inside the case was rubbing against the fan blades. I moved it back, and suddenly I'm getting RPM and power level, and my machine is unbelievably quiet!!!!

Thank you for the help with the xorg.conf-- that got me 99% of the way there.

[Yellow Pasque]

Please mark the thread solved (thread tools menu above the first pots).