PS3 Fan Noise

Sareth said:
Gets as loud as it does in a game with DVDS for me.
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Mine never used to make a noise during DVD playback, before the upscaler was introduced.

Since the upscaler update though, and using the upscaler, causes the fan to spin up, faster than a game.

As I posted above, Sega Rally took about 30 mins to spin the fans up at all, so I guess it wasn't "pushing" the CPU very hard.

Upscaling a DVD makes the fan spin up after about 10 mins, so I guess the upscaling is more CPU intensive?

Can't remember about bluray playback, I think the fans spin up later than they do upscaling a DVD.

V1N.
 
Kreeeee said:
Heck yes. DVD upscaling is just running a complex algorithm as fast as you can while a game has varied load.
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That may well explain for people above then, who were wondering why the fans were spinning up while "just" playing a DVD.

I assumed that the upscaling was using a lot of CPU horsepower, hence the fans spinning up sooner (and faster when it was in my TV stands shelf) but didn't want to say it WAS the case, as I don't know the specific tech of what the CPU is doing.... except to say, I'm delighted with the results of the PS3 upscaler, so best to leave it on :)

V1N.
 
Ah, I see. And the Japanese Console has the hardware upscaler doesnt it?

I keep forgetting Euro and Jap consoles are quite different, Thats why this one is quieter.
 
wannabedamned said:
Ah, I see. And the Japanese Console has the hardware upscaler doesnt it?

I keep forgetting Euro and Jap consoles are quite different, Thats why this one is quieter.
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It does?

That could indeed explain why it's quieter then.
Otherwise, as I said above, the airflow around it (obviously) makes a difference, but I didn't realise how much of a difference until I took my PS3 out, and stood it on its side.

The TV stand I have isn't THAT enclosed. It has room to "breathe" around the sides, and holes in the back for cables etc, but, the PS3 did make a lot more noise in there, compared to the almost silent that it is now.

I seriously recommend to those people who are complaining of the "level 3" fans noise, that they just try to move their console to a better ventilated area, or maybe slightly more away from other electronic devices, and see if it makes a difference. As I keep stating, made a hell of a difference in my case, just standing on it's side beside the TV, rather than being under it.

V1N.
 
Just did another test, five minutes of Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo and whoosh, off it goes, let it idle at xmb for ten minutes, stayed on hoover level, restart and its back to just a low whirr. Its the not stepping down thats driving me mad.
 
Sareth said:
Just did another test, five minutes of Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo and whoosh, off it goes, let it idle at xmb for ten minutes, stayed on hoover level, restart and its back to just a low whirr. Its the not stepping down thats driving me mad.
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That's normal though mate.
 
Sareth said:
Just did another test, five minutes of Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo and whoosh, off it goes, let it idle at xmb for ten minutes, stayed on hoover level, restart and its back to just a low whirr. Its the not stepping down thats driving me mad.
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When I had my PS3 under the telly, I think it took longer than 10 mins to cool down enough for the fans to go back to Level 2 on their own.

V1N.

EDIT: It used to drive me mad too. I thought mine was faulty, and went mad reading forums around the net finding other people with the same problem. Then I decided, when I watched a DVD, to pull the PS3 out of the front of my TV stand, and stand it on a box, as far away as cables would allow. Problem solved. That's why I bought the stand, to stand it on its side now.
 
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V1N said:
When I had my PS3 under the telly, I think it took longer than 10 mins to cool down enough for the fans to go back to Level 2 on their own.

V1N.
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This morning I put Casino Royale in at 11:25am, it reached hoover level at 11:30, I stopped it at 11:35 then let it dile on the xmb till 12:10, it stayed on the high level all that time. Yesterday I left it for an hour on the xmb after playing Heavenly Sword and got the same result.

Putting it into perspective though I ran my twin 80mm fans in a vhs cassette box next to it and they drowned out its noise.
 
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Sareth said:
This morning I put Casino Royale in at 11:25am, it reached hoover level at 11:30, I stopped it at 11:35 then let it dile on the xmb till 12:10, it stayed on the high level all that time. Yesterday I left it for an hour on the xmb after playing Heavenly Sword and got the same result.
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Have you tried moving the PS3?

One thing that did help, while I had it under the telly, was spinning it around 90 degrees.

When "speed 3" kicks in, it starts blowing heat out of the right hand side of the console, rather than just out of the rear.

I span the console around, so the right hand side was facing into the room.

This helped, though not as much as moving it out altogether.

V1N.

EDIT: as a comparison, my PS3 has been on for about 2 hours today. I just checked, and the fan appears to be on level one... light air being blown out of the rear. When it was under the telly, it went to level 3 in 10 mins or so, and would stay there for ages
 
V1N said:
Have you tried moving the PS3?

One thing that did help, while I had it under the telly, was spinning it around 90 degrees.

When "speed 3" kicks in, it starts blowing heat out of the right hand side of the console, rather than just out of the rear.

I span the console around, so the right hand side was facing into the room.

This helped, though not as much as moving it out altogether.

V1N.
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Trouble is, I first noticed it when it when I ran it straight out of the box, it was sat in front of the tv stand on a wooden floor with the nearest obstruction 3 feet away (if you dont count the cables hanging out of the back)
 
Sareth said:
Trouble is, I first noticed it when it when I ran it straight out of the box, it was sat in front of the tv stand on a wooden floor with the nearest obstruction 3 feet away (if you dont count the cables hanging out of the back)
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Fair enough.

Obviously in your case, I'm not sure what the problem is, and I can't see where your PS3 is now, with regards to ventilation.

All I can do is tell of my own experience.

When mine started going to level 3, and staying there, I was reading various PS3 forums, and convinced there was something wrong with it, and you could read other posts of other people with the same problem.

You've already posted that if you turn it off, and turn it on again, when it's already warm, the fans immediately start at a higher level, so I'd take that to mean they're working depending on the temp. If the fans are spinning up, it's getting hot, so try using it in a better ventilated area? Even just in a temp location, as a test, so you can rule out whether it's a fault or not?

V1N.
 
V1N said:
Fair enough.

Obviously in your case, I'm not sure what the problem is, and I can't see where your PS3 is now, with regards to ventilation.

All I can do is tell of my own experience.

When mine started going to level 3, and staying there, I was reading various PS3 forums, and convinced there was something wrong with it, and you could read other posts of other people with the same problem.

You've already posted that if you turn it off, and turn it on again, when it's already warm, the fans immediately start at a higher level, so I'd take that to mean they're working depending on the temp. If the fans are spinning up, it's getting hot, so try using it in a better ventilated area? Even just in a temp location, as a test, so you can rule out whether it's a fault or not?

V1N.
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I have a plan now, but i cant put it into action today as the living room has been taken over and the 360 is in use as an extender, I'm going to sit the PS3 on top of the laptop cooler I have the 360 sat on to give the side vents some clearance from the stand and see if that helps.
 
V1N said:
You've already posted that if you turn it off, and turn it on again, when it's already warm, the fans immediately start at a higher level, so I'd take that to mean they're working depending on the temp.
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But they never reduce in speed unless I reset it, so its only half working....
 
Sareth said:
But they never reduce in speed unless I reset it, so its only half working....
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I'm trying to remember how long it took my fans to spin down from level 3, as I generally used to turn the PS3 off for a bit, and back on to get them to spin down, rather than wait.

Now I think about it, I wonder if they didn't stay at level 3... maybe a safety feature, if the fans get that high, to prevent overheating?

Maybe the fans only spin down from level 2 to level 1.
Not sure.

V1N.

EDIT: Anyway, if you get it into a better ventilated area, hopefully they'll never reach level 3. If, as you say, you need to move it to give the side vents some clearance from your stand, maybe that's it? Can you not just pull the PS3 out and put it on its side for a short amount of time, to see if it still does it? (Making sure to put it on its left side ;) ie with the Bluray drive at the top) ;)
 
V1N said:
I'm trying to remember how long it took my fans to spin down from level 3, as I generally used to turn the PS3 off for a bit, and back on to get them to spin down, rather than wait.

Now I think about it, I wonder if they didn't stay at level 3... maybe a safety feature, if the fans get that high, to prevent overheating?

Maybe the fans only spin down from level 2 to level 1.
Not sure.

V1N.

EDIT: Anyway, if you get it into a better ventilated area, hopefully they'll never reach level 3. If, as you say, you need to move it to give the side vents some clearance from your stand, maybe that's it? Can you not just pull the PS3 out and put it on its side for a short amount of time, to see if it still does it? (Making sure to put it on its left side ;) ie with the Bluray drive at the top) ;)
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I'm going to try the lot, when I regain control of the lounge.
 
Kreeeee said:
That's normal though mate.
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Not so, everything I have read states the fan should increase when the machine is at load, and decrease when not. People on AVForums have even had units swapped for this reason. In fact they used to have a long thread on there just about the Fan noise and quite a few started that their fans worked in a similar way (slowed down after left idling in XMB). I am certain there was some official text from Sony clarifying this, as they were quite proud of their cooling solution, compared to the 360 one (rightly so).

Unfortunately there are other factors such as airflow and ambient room temperature. Mine too does not cool down when in the XMB, but it has not been a big an issue for me as I thought it would be.

As a lot of 360/ps3 owners will concur, the PS3 on loudest is quieter than the 360 just in the dashboard.

All the regions have *** same cooling etc on them. Imports are not quieter than EU models or vice versa, although obviously there will be a small amount of variance between consoles (regardless of origin).

The JAP version does not have a hardware scaler that makes it quieter.

Finally: Noise is such a subjetive thing that it is hard to do a fair comparison.


rp200


Edit: Will try to find the info later to back this up, as I read this a while back and my memory is a bit hazy on the specifics.
 
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