PS3 fan speed problem...

Joebob · 10 Feb 2010 at 22:09

...some of you may remember I posted a while ago that I opened up my PS3, cleaned it out from dust and re-applied the thermal paste to improve cooling and thus quieten the noisy fan.

Well this worked for a while but now it's noisier than ever. When I hold my hand over the side of the console the air being blown out is actually quite cool though so I think the fan may be cranking up to high in error.

Anyone have any ideas how I fix this?

Joebob · 13 Feb 2010 at 08:59

bah - looks like I'm gonna have to strip it down again!!!

Anyone know of a good guide for how much Artic Silver 5 to use on the PS3's CPU & GPU???

Joebob · 13 Feb 2010 at 13:00

GolfBryan said:
Mines is extremely noisy also, is it pretty easy to take apart and clean?

Yeah really easy - you can find full instructions online to help.

Sareth said:
The amount they put on in manufacturing is criminal, great big pieces of it were hanging off the sides of the two chips on mine.

I put in a dab about the size of a grain of rice and smoothed it across the surface of the chips repeatedly, removing any excess till it was almost translucent. I was going to put a tiny amount on the heatsink as well and wipe as much off as I could to help with imperfections in the heatsink surface but I forgot and once all those screw were back in....

I know what you mean about how much they use in manufacturing - there was loads of the bloody stuff!!!

Got it stripped apart again now and from looking at the pattern made from the thermal paste it looks like there wasn't enough contact in the middle of the chips... seemed to have had plenty of contact around the edges but the paste I applied last time looks almost untouched in the centre.

Is there a correct way to put the heatsinks back onto the chips to make sure they have even contact?

Joebob · 13 Feb 2010 at 15:06

I ended up just putting a blob of AS5 in the middle of each chip and putting it back together again - didn't use the spread method this time.

Seems to be quieter and it's definately kicking some heat out again which is a releif

Joebob · 13 Feb 2010 at 17:20

OK - this is now starting to really annoy me... still blowing out cold air and fan seems to be ramping right up high!!! Been playing Borderlands for the past couple of hours and it's not over heating or locking up etc but it's still too noisey and I'm worried that it may overheat if it's not expelling enough heat!

Anyone know of any fixes if the heatsink isnt connecting to the fan properly?

I'm thinking about maybe buying some copper sheeting and cutting a small square out to place inbetween the heatsink and cpu - not sure if i need to put thermal paste on either side of the copper or not though!

I think the heatsink isnt making enough contact with the chips heatspreader - is there a way to get the screws to tighten more?

Joebob · 18 Feb 2010 at 18:36

Demon said:
If it looks like the centre of the CPU isn't making a good contact with the heatsink, perhaps too much 'pressure' has been applied to the heatsink, and it's bending up in the middle..

How does it attach to the motherboard? Screws/Clips?

I guess the next question is where does the fan control gets it's temperature readings? If it's an on-die type temperature sensor, then it's defo a heatsink issue, but if it's an external sensor, then perhaps that could be looked at/replaced?

I had 2 noisy PS3's, and luckily had them done under warranty, My first imported PS3 was whisper quiet all the time..

Uses screws which go through two metal plates on the back of the motherboard and screw into the heatsink to bring it tight into the cpu.

It's definately not making proper contact with the cpu. I'm thinking of buying some thin copper flashing and placing a cut peice in between each cpu and heatsink.

(got the idea from here http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=techcentral&message.id=127028) - wonder if i need to put the thermal paste on both sides of the copper?

I'm hoping I havent dislodged the heatspreaders from the top of the die's on the CPU and/or GPU. They look ok, but no way of knowing if they are making good contact inside.

Joebob · 20 Feb 2010 at 07:42

Mark A said:
If you are going to be putting in spacers then you will need to use thermal paste on each side. I'd be worried about them sliding out of place over time.

Could you not use thermal pads instead?

Didin't think of that. You mean something like this?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=TH-001-CL&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=27

Shame OC don't seem to have the game console sized ones!!! Incidentally, I'm using a citrus based cleaning solution on the CPU/GPU etc before applying the AS5 but it feels quite oily - I wonder if this effects anything?

Joebob · 20 Feb 2010 at 08:06

Mark A said:
That sounds like it could be just what you're after. Ive not used it myself but it sounds good from the description. Might be worth waiting for someone who has used it to confirm if it works or not before purchasing though.

Regarding the citrus cleaner, I doubt that will be affecting your temps tbh. I also use a citrus cleaner (Akasa TIM cleaner) and Ive never had any problems. I did actually follow up with some 99.8% ISO propanol alcohol the last time i refit my heat sink and it didn't affect the temps at all.

Cool. Think it's the same cleaner I'm using tbh.

Been looking everywhere online and it seems nowhere does the game console sized pads

I want the next PS3 strip down to be the last so I'm gonna take my time and research heavily before I do anything.

Joebob · 28 Feb 2010 at 20:27

I'm still waiting on the copper flashing I bought off the bay (over a week now) then I'm going to have one final attempt at repair... wether it works or not though I have decided to get a slim and transfer my data - I'm on my last activation of console so I really don't want it to YLOD on me as I would have to start everything all over again

Joebob · 28 Feb 2010 at 20:38

Sareth said:
Woah, no deactivations ?

not really - I was on my third PS3 by the time I realised you had to deactivate them

I sold my 20GB Jap import and my 40GB without deactivating so I'm buggered - the other two are being used by my bro and a friend so I Guess I could get one of them to deactivate but would rather not!

Joebob · 1 Mar 2010 at 20:16

right... got the copper in the post and I have cut out squares and popped em on. Now when I boot it up it goes into fan overload almost instantly, beeps and shuts down!!!

I think the copper is too thick (about 1/2mm). I'm round my mates who is a stone mason and he has some gold leaf. Am i right in thinking that gold is a great heat conductor?

Reaching the end of my tether with this now so I really just want the ****er sorted!!!

Joebob · 2 Mar 2010 at 07:49

Finally got it sorted. It's still a bit noisy but it's a lot quieter than it was and it's finally blowing out some hot air

After much tinkering last night we discovered that the heatsinks were definately not making proper contact with the chips. Took a fair amount of fiddling to get it to sit properly but we got there in the end - guess it was just an awkward one.

Joebob · 2 Mar 2010 at 07:50

Mark A said:
Did you apply the thermal compound to each side of the copper? Unless that copper spacer and the heat sink are perfectly flat, it wont be making 100% contact.

If it was me I'd flatten the copper on my diamond stone and then apply some MX-2 thermal compound to both sides. I'm not sure how effective this would be though, I think some sort of thermal pad would be a better solution.

Yeah we did - both sides. Got the copper as flat as we could but when we took it back apart the copper was almost completely clean so it wasn't making a decent contact with the thermal paste on the top or the bottom :confused: