Please read if you have a noisy PS3...

Sumanji

Sumanji

Sumanji

Soldato
Joined
12 Mar 2003
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Location
USA
Hey,

I'm wondering if you can take part in a little survey for me.

Please let me know if you have a quiet or noisy (I'm defining noisy as fan level 3 while idling and level 4/5+ when loaded), then stand your PS3 vertically and do 2 things for me:

1) Feel the base of the console (i.e. right hand side) and tell me where the hottest part is.

2) Feel the air flow in three areas - i) top vents, ii) bottom half of rear vent, and iii) top half of rear vent.
Click to expand...

The reason I ask this is because my console has loads of air coming out of the bottom half of the rear vent, and barely anything out of the other two areas. Also the hottest part is the curved edge of the base of the console, here:




Would be interested to know if this issue is down to the newer 15-blade fan causing poor airflow as suggested a while back... (I've opened mine up and it does have a 15-blade fan)

Cheers,

Suman
 
I got my console on GTA4 launch day so I'm not sure what fan it has, didn't even know they changed it! Idling on the XMB it is near silent and cool all over to the touch with only a tiny amount of air coming out of the rear lower vent.

After a good spin in Burnout Paradise the fan has gone up 1 step, though it sometimes goes up 2 in warm weather. It's throwing a fair amount of heat out of the rear lower vent and a fair bit less heat out of the rear top vent. Mine doesn't have vents where your red highlighted area is. The bottom of the console is warmest slightly down from the middle, basically between the 4 rubber feet, the curved bit at the top is not warm at all.
 
dbmzk1, you'll have a one of the newer consoles with a 65nm Cell and/or 65nm RSX (probably just the former).

Basically there was an issue with the first run of consoles (60GB, backwards compatible version with both chips at 90nm), where some consoles totally at random make a lot more noise than they should - mine included :(

Just working on a little theory involving the fan...
 
i have the original 60gb one and it is definatly a lot louder now than it was when i first bought it, its got to the stage where i have to turn the tv up after the ps3 has been on for about 10minutes as the fan kicks in.

is this common?
 
My 60GB launch is very noisy. Didn't used to be, i think it's just that it's full of dust, it has nowhere to escape either so that's my theory why it's getting hot and loud...
 
Yeah dust is certainly a factor - have you tried vacuum it out?#

And could you tell me if the part I highlighted in the picture feels hot on your machines?

Cheers,

Suman
 
Logsi said:
My 60GB launch is very noisy. Didn't used to be, i think it's just that it's full of dust, it has nowhere to escape either so that's my theory why it's getting hot and loud...
Click to expand...

Same here. Must suck out any dust later with the vacuum.
 
Sumanji said:
Easily done with an ear (or two) - starts at Level 1 then ramps up... funny that :p
Click to expand...

There's only 3 levels is what i think he was getting at, level 1 (silent), level 2 (faint whirring noise) and level 3 (boeing 747).

60gigs kick out more heat than the 40 and 80gigs due to parts being made on a different manufacturing process. If the sounds levels have increased over time all i can think of it being is dust as people have mentioned. Some units can be faulty however and the heat diode or heatsink itself are inproperly fitted, in the case of the diode it will mean it is incorrectly detecting the temperature of the unit and spinning up when not needed or in the second case it will be inefficiently cooling the unit.
 
Streeteh said:
There's only 3 levels is what i think he was getting at, level 1 (silent), level 2 (faint whirring noise) and level 3 (boeing 747).
Click to expand...

There are definitely more than 3 levels mate - if you have a newer console, do the fan test (hard power on with eject button held down) and you can see this for yourself. Mine has gone up to level 6 whilst gaming in summer... not cool at all :(
 
Vacuum does nothing as the dust will be stuck inside on the fan and on the grooves of the heatsink. It'll be that hairy dust holding all the other dust in place! :p

I may go buy a compressed air can and see if this helps.

The main heat on mine comes out of the bottom rear (or the left hand side rear however the PS3 is standing) The top does get hot aswell on the part you highlighted also.
 
Cavallino: some of the older 40GB models are affected by the same problem. My working theory is that those consoles with a 90nm nVidia RSX chip are more prone to NFS (noisy fan syndrome :p) as the part I highlighted on the picture is roughly where the heatsink for the RSX lies.

See HERE to compare all the hardware revisions.

I have a CECHC Euro 60GB console which is noisy, and a CECHG 40GB which is amazingly quiet (doesn't ever go above level 2 even when folding).
 
Where are the model numbers read from? (Havent looked but I assume from the back somewhere :))

Also how would I know if mine is supposed to be "quiet"?
 
I think the model number is on the box (under a big barcode iirc). It will probably also be on the back of the console itself I imagine.

All consoles turn out at fan level 1 which is practically inaudible at 10 feet.

A quiet (i.e. normal) console ramps up to level 2 which is a very faint whisper, and stays there about 90% of the time - maybe going to level 3 in summer or when running the F@H client.

A noisy console will ramp up at idle to level 3 or even 4 which is very noisy, then go even noisier when you play a game or run F@H. Obviously you expect the fan to ramp up when it's loaded, but level 3 is too loud (subjectively) for quiet dialogue when watching a DVD, hence my beef with it!

Cheers,

Suman
 
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mine gets really noisy when playing certain games (e.g gta 4)and even during dvd playback sometimes (havent had it during blu ray playback though, strangely)

for me, room temperature seems to play a big part in whether the fan comes on
 
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