Available resolutions restricted to 640x480 following fan tweaking [NVIDIA issue]

[Caravaggio]

Hi all. I have been struggling with my laptop fans for a while, having them going on at full speed at random moments with constant usage despite a lack of temperature increase (I have been testing the fans keeping an eye on the temperature with sensors and cannot find a reason why my fans go mental at times).

I have looked here and there for guides on how to keep them under control, without any major success. After a few attempts, I rebooted my machine and discovered that all the resolutions had disappeared, with the highest available being 640x480. I tried to work out a solution through xrandr and xrandr --newmode but I kept incurring into errors of some sort. I eventually "fixed" my resolution by switching the gpu from NVIDIA to Intel, which not only restored my resolution but also put a leash on my fans.

Now, I'd like to undo whatever it is that I have done so that I can go back to NVIDIA and keep working on a solution for my fans activity, but I have no idea what caused the problem. The following is a list of codes gpu-related that I have ran, hoping that someone has some idea of what could have happened.

sudo nvidia-xconfig
sudo nvidia-xconfig --cool-bits=4
sudo gedit/etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo apt-get install nvclock
nvclock -f -F 70

Moreover, when I run inxi -Fxz I get an error under "Graphics" that wasn't there before:

Code: Select all

Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Skylake Integrated Graphics bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA GM107M [GeForce GTX 950M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) FAILED: nouveau
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 530 (Skylake GT2)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes

EDIT: Okay so after switching the gpu back to NVIDIA the resolutions reset themselves (?) and the abovementioned error disappeared. Not sure what fixed what but it all seems to be fine now. I would still love some input regarding fan management, but perhaps I should open another thread.