EU Playstation 3 - Fan speed?

[Jesus2006]

Hello,


over the past few weeks since the Euro - PS3 launch i read lots of stories about the fan speed of those EU PS3s as there seem to be large discrepancies between different models.

Some users report that their PS3s' fans never slow down, instead speed raises from unnoticable to "level 3" which is quite noticable.

Others report that theirs adopt fan speed according to the actual load (e.g. high speed in F@H, slow in the XMB).

My PS3 does not slow down the fan anymore once it reach this "level 3" speed. But how about others (US/JAP)?

Rumors say it's because of wrongly applied thermal sinks or fluids but ´noone can really confirm yet.

Is this a known issue among you (Sony still does not seem to know anything about it ...)

 

[DJ12]

My fan is either on or off.

I cannot say I've noticed it ever getting louder than when it originally starts spinning.

 

[Rolf N]

What's "Level 3"? Is there any way to monitor the fan speed that I'm not aware of?

My PS3 takes maybe 10 minutes to reach its final fan speed and seems to just stay at that level. I figure it's just warming up to a relatively constant operating temperature. My power measurements have shown that the PS3's power consumption isn't load-dependent (always in the 170W~190W range, no matter what you do), so it does make sense that its temperature doesn't change once its warm, and hence its fan speed should stay constant.

I don't think it's noisy. My laptop is louder, and my big PC* kills them both combined, in terms of noise.

*90nm A64 3200+ w/boxed fan at 40% pwm, HEC Windmill 385W, one Yate Loon DSL-92 fan at 30% pwm, passive graphics card, passive mobo, two 7200rpm hard-drives, heavy steel chassis

 

[hey69]

i remember my japanese 20gb was more quite then those 60g's i had/have

 

[dskneo]

i dont have references from other ps3's.....but i do measure the temp from the air exit, always between 49ºc and 54ºc
Its more quiet than my watercooled Pc though

 

[Rainbow Man]

My PS3's fan speed rises when it's folding compared to when it sits on the XMB.

Not sure when it's playing DVDs. I have no BR movie(s) yet.

peace.

 

[patsu]

My fan is either on or off.

I cannot say I've noticed it ever getting louder than when it originally starts spinning.

Same here. For me, it's still soft with the fan spinning (softer than my laptop and I hardly notice it).

 

[BoardBonobo]

Pratically silent. When I first switched it on I thought it wasn't working, I'd gotten pretty used to the 360's annoying whine by then!

 

[Jabjabs]

When doing a slide show, it starts off near silent but after about an hour or so it will speed up a little but it slows down after about another hour. The loudest I've gotten it was after leaving it on for 16 hours and even then it wasn't that loud, my 360 is twice the volume without a disc in it. Basically it's not all that loud overall.

 

[inefficient]

Adventures in the Void!

I voided my PS3's warranty today in an effort to make it more quiet. Because I hate it when it goes to fan speed 3. Plus it was occasionally freezing up during Folding or playing movies. I thought about sending it in but I decided it would be more fun to try to fix it myself.

It was smoother that I expected taking it all apart and getting to the heat sinks. But it's not like just opening up your PC. There are a lot of screws and levels of components to lift off. And of course putting it all back together correctly is much harder than taking it apart.

But anyway I took it apart, cleaned off all the thermal paste that had generously spread in there. And then I put in my own Arctic Silver 5 and put it back together.

Unfortunately, so far it seems to work about the same as it did before I opened it up. So I guess the problem is somewhere else and not in the paste. Maybe I was just unlucky to get chips that are hotter than your average PS3. I might just have to buy another one for the living room and just use this one as a dedicated Linux box.

Original paste - chips

Original paste - heat sink

All cleaned up

 

[Kaotik]

What's "Level 3"? Is there any way to monitor the fan speed that I'm not aware of?

The "levels" are noticeable jumps in fanspeed due noise differences.
There has been three noted levels, some speak of 'em as 0-2 (0 being virtually silent, 2 challenging in worst cases even XB360's DVD drive)

Is this a known issue among you (Sony still does not seem to know anything about it ...)

On the biggest finnish hardware forum, some people have these problems, some don't (or then the ones who don't don't have ears )
At least one of them, whose PS3 indeed got loud even while just sitting on XMB, sent the PS3 to Nordisk Film, the official importer of PS3's in Finland, and they just boomeranged it back saying "There's nothing wrong with it"

 

[Kryton]

The "levels" are noticeable jumps in fanspeed due noise differences.
There has been three noted levels, some speak of 'em as 0-2 (0 being virtually silent, 2 challenging in worst cases even XB360's DVD drive)


On the biggest finnish hardware forum, some people have these problems, some don't (or then the ones who don't don't have ears )
At least one of them, whose PS3 indeed got loud even while just sitting on XMB, sent the PS3 to Nordisk Film, the official importer of PS3's in Finland, and they just boomeranged it back saying "There's nothing wrong with it"

Given the XMB draws as much power as the box does during the middle of a game, it's not very surprising. I've never had an issue with it myself though (UK PS3).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Given the XMB draws as much power as the box does during the middle of a game, it's not very surprising. I've never had an issue with it myself though (UK PS3).

Much big fans should be running slower and quieter. BRD drive doesn't spin so fast either. Overall PS3 should be quieter and has been reported as such. From the sound of it, there are dodgy PS3's that are functionally correct but have issues. And I would expect there to be some problems! So far I haven't heard any scare stories with PS3. XB360 had a lot of Rings of Death posts. Wii's had it's complaints. PSP had the dead-pixel stories and worse. PS3 seems to be a perfect device given the lack of complaints I've heard - and that can't be true!

 

[Rainbow Man]

There has been three noted levels, some speak of 'em as 0-2 (0 being virtually silent, 2 challenging in worst cases even XB360's DVD drive)

I have a hard time swallowing that. The 360 with fans on full tilt and DVD going is just horribly noisy. What I've heard of PS3 (or rather: NOT heard one should probably say) indicates it's pretty much impossible for the machine to be that noisy.

Either there's some grevious hardware problem with those PS3s (fan bearings shot etc) or they're just lying to make waves on the interwebs.
Pewace.

 

[ADEX]

Mine makes a bit of noise after it's been doing something busy and this will continue for quite some time, it will eventually quieten down though.

That said even at it's noisiest you wont notice it unless the TV volume is very low.

 

[Kaotik]

I have a hard time swallowing that. The 360 with fans on full tilt and DVD going is just horribly noisy. What I've heard of PS3 (or rather: NOT heard one should probably say) indicates it's pretty much impossible for the machine to be that noisy.

Either there's some grevious hardware problem with those PS3s (fan bearings shot etc) or they're just lying to make waves on the interwebs.
Pewace.

Considering one of them could pretty much be categorized as "PS3 fanboy", I doubt he would be mocking the thing for nothing
I do admit that "challenging xb360 dvd drive" is probably exaggarating (spelling?) but loud anyway.
Also the noise complaints are always similar, only times are warying on how long it takes for the fan to speed up and PS3 to take off and fly through nearest window back to Sony's HQ so you would buy a new one
But fan bearings fubared or not, the official representatives in Finland said there was nothing wrong with one of the said machines.
Fake or not, this is supposedly one of these machines with a clear problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L5P2Y5gfhQ&NR=1


Oh, and even though there aren't any "omigad my piiesthrii is broken" whines around the net, there have been some broken consoles out there too, but there will never be a perfect product in those terms.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Fake or not, this is supposedly one of these machines with a clear problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L5P2Y5gfhQ&NR=1

Without any known noise for comparison, the video is pretty useless. Sounds loud, but then not if I turn my volume down. Sounds worse if I turn it up. How close was the mic to the PS3? Lots of variables...

 

[Kaotik]

Without any known noise for comparison, the video is pretty useless. Sounds loud, but then not if I turn my volume down. Sounds worse if I turn it up. How close was the mic to the PS3? Lots of variables...

Usually in those camcorders or whatever the mic is just a bit further away from the target than the lenses, to give you some perspect to it

 

[Skrying]

Without any known noise for comparison, the video is pretty useless. Sounds loud, but then not if I turn my volume down. Sounds worse if I turn it up. How close was the mic to the PS3? Lots of variables...

The mic was most likely on the camera, as the volume changes as the person movies around and gets louder as the camera nears the PS3. It is clearly a loud sound, I'm not so sure why you'd dancing around it, judgment skills on this are not unique.

Most likely a issue with the fan occurs and the fan forever gets stuck on this level. I am sure the fan is variable and could reach this level as Sony would know that the PS3 would be used in a wide variety of environment. If the units get replaced then there's really no issue here.

 

[Sis]

The fan can certainly get loud--I was shocked when I had it running F@H for a couple hours. However, during DVD/BD playback, the machine is quieter than my set top DVR and receiver ( I tested it). And during game play, I never once noticed it. I can't compare it to the Wii, because Nintendo is purposefully withholding stock in my area purely to spite me personally, but it is head and shoulders above the 360 at its loudest. But the fact that I found it more quiet than a couple of my other electronics tells me that Sony did a great job isolating the noise in the system.