/tcc-g15

Thermal Control Center for Dell G15 - open source alternative to AWCC

Primary LanguagePythonGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

Thermal Control Center for Dell G15 5511 / 5515 / 5520 / 5525 / 5530

Open-source alternative to AWCC*

Download link (Note: the app requires to be run as administrator)

*AWCC - "Alienware Control Center" is an app for thermal control that Dell ships with their G-series notebooks.

Target platform

OS: Windows 10/11.

Supported Dell G15 models: 5511, 5515, 5520, 5525, 5530.

May also work on other Dell G15 notebooks.

Please report if it worked / didn't work for you. Your feedback is highly appreciated.

Big thanks to @T7imal, @cemkaya-mpi, @THSLP13 for testing and debugging.

What it can do

  • ✔️ Switch thermal mode between G-mode, Balanced and Custom
  • ✔️ Shows GPU/CPU temperature and fan speed
  • ✔️ Semi-manual fan speed control
  • ✔️ An option to automatically enable G-mode when GPU/CPU temperature reaches critical

Limitations

  • Requires Admin system privileges (in order to access WMI interface)
  • Manual fan contoll is not really manual. If you set fan speed too low the BIOS will takeover and raise the fan speed automatically when the GPU/CPU temperature reaches certain point to prevent overheating.
  • "Autorun on startup" feature may not work for you. The autorun adds a task to the Windows Task Scheduler that should start the app on first sign-in after a reboot, but it may fail to run the app due to the system's security policy. You can try other approaches to make the app to autostart on your system. Checkout this issue.
  • On rare occasions, the driver may report bogus GPU temperature. See this issue.

Why AWCC is BAD

  • ❌ AWCC has no in-program option to enable/disable G-mode
  • ❌ AWCC manual fan control is broken as per this moment
  • ❌ AWCC is bulky, slow and visually noisy app that can't even handle basic functions
  • AWCC is spying on you
  • ❌ AWCC sometimes randomly crashes and throws crash reports

If this alternative works out for you, you can safely remove from your PC:

  • Alieanware CC Components
  • Alieanware Command Center Suite
  • Alieanware OC Controls

TO-DO

I'll implement these things if the project receives sufficient number of stars*

  • ✔️ Minimize to tray (10x ⭐)
  • ✔️ Save settings between restarts (20x ⭐)
  • ✔️ Autorun on system startup option (30x ⭐)
  • ✔️ Adjustable fail-safe threshold temperature, drop out of fail-safe mode after the temperature returns to normal (40x ⭐)
  • ✔️ Patch for G15 5511 / 5525
  • ✔️ Proper Windows installer (50x ⭐)

*or maybe I'll do it regardless, who knows.

How it works

It is a PyQt based GUI for WMI Dell thermal control interface.

I somewhat documented my findings on the WMI here.

How to run from the source

python3 -m pip install -r ./requirements.txt
python3 src\tcc-g15.py

About the AWCC telemetry

I know it's probably not gonna surprise anyone, giving the times we're living in, but AWCC silently sends some telemetry without the possibility of opting-out.

The telemetry is being sent to these URLs:

https://tm-sdk.platinumai.net
https://qa-external-tm.plawebsvc01.net

License

© github.com/AlexIII

GPL v3