PS3 fan speed problem...

Joebob

Joebob

Joebob

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...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?
 
Might take mine apart the fan will come on at stupid high noise and never shuts up till you turn the console off getting annoyed with it, as it affects gaming with it, i haven't used it for a while because of this :(
 
In all honesty that suggests to me that your thermal paste application wasn't great, especially as it's blowing cold air (it would be warm if the heat was being effectively transferred from the chips). I would take it apart and re-apply it, it can be a PITA to get right due to the large heatspreaders on the cell and RSX.
 
Maybe the contact between chip and heatsink isn't tight enough or the temp sensor is borked/in the wrong place?
 
DreXeL said:
In all honesty that suggests to me that your thermal paste application wasn't great, especially as it's blowing cold air (it would be warm if the heat was being effectively transferred from the chips). I would take it apart and re-apply it, it can be a PITA to get right due to the large heatspreaders on the cell and RSX.
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This is the most likely cause, the fact its blowing cold air out is not a good sign.
 
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???
 
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....

To others, if your PS3 never reduces the speed of its fans after ramping up and seems to ramp them up without reason it is a fault thats been around since day zero, reapplying the thermal paste might help but it might not.
 
GolfBryan said:
Mines is extremely noisy also, is it pretty easy to take apart and clean?
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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....
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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?
 
Not a clue, I tightened the backplates up by giving each screw a single turn at a time so the pressure was applied evenly but I doubt that would help with a lack of contact in the center of the chips, only thing that will get you out of that is enough paste to bridge the gap or lapping.
 
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 :)
 
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?
 
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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..
 
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..
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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.
 
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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?
 
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