Solution to 5760 Fan Noise

A week ago I posted asking for help with the small fan in the center of our 5760 notebooks. Thank you to all that participated in that little venture. Well after some work I've developed an effective solution to completely silencing that fan. This method does have some drawbacks however.

As we all know, the main, larger fan cools the CPU and GPU through a set of heatpipes. It is a "waterwheel" fan in that it pulls in air from the side (relative to the fan, not the notebook) and then exits air in the horizontal axis out the back. This fan does a great job of ramping up when necessary and keeps pretty good control on temps even when you Overclock the GPU.

The small fan in the center (known from now on as the "peanut fan") also uses this concept but cools only one thing...and it's not what I expected. It is a dedicated, active RAM cooler (as confirmed by Hypersonic tech support). So no matter how you undervolt your CPU (with nhc or rmclock, etc) the peanut fan will still kick in eventually. I am using 2GB of Mushkin DDR2 and have no way of measuring the voltage or changing it so results could vary.

With that in mind I tried a couple things.
1. The first was to find a fan control program. None that I've tried can accuractly ID the motherboard to find the fan control headers.
2. I then took every screw I could find out of the laptop in an attempt to replace the little 40mm bugger with a "silent" one. Even if a top brand would have been quieter, I could not separate the molded casing from the motherboard. The crowbar only pried the system open until I heard some cracking and popping from the frame so if you're more adventerous than I you may yet find your laptop in pieces on the floor (or out the window where mine almost ended up!) .
3. Finally I bought the Coolermaster W1 notebook cooler (also sold under the Akasa brand in the UK at PcWorld). This little puppy works great and fits the 5760 like it was built for it. However I could not stop the fan completely until I took the following steps...
either:
remove the cover from the bottom side of the laptop to expose the RAM to the fan directly and game away or...
use a Dremmel to slice multiple slits in the cover under the RAM area for the same affect.

I elected to do the second but mostly play with the plate removed. To completely remove the noise I unplugged the fan completely. Now having tried this previously I know that the laptop will protect itself with a persistent warning beep if you unplug the fan and start up the system (after the RAM gets to some pretermined temp). I confirmed that the beep was for the RAM and not the CPU or GPU through NHC and RivaTuner monitoring those temps at their normal levels. Yes I know it's dumb to intentionally overheat your system but it's all in the name of SCIENCE!

The disadvantage is that if you do unplug the fan, you will always need the notepad cooler in order to keep the system running for any length of time.

The advantage is no more whiny fan and reduced ramping up of the main fan even when playing Oblivion (which I still cant believe I'm playing on a laptop). I must say though that the main fan even on high is not all that bad.

I hope this helps those of you, like me, who dont like the noise generated from the peanut fan.

Cheers,

Domaq

System: Hypersonic Aviator CX7 (Clevo M570U), Core2Duo T7600, 2GB Mushkin DDR2, 512MB 7900GTX, 100GB Seagate Momentus 7200RPM

 

good work mate im going to order a rock laptop this week based on the same clevo as yours i think is there really no fan controlling software for these ?

i love the way ive got i8kfangui working on my inspiron i dont think theres any features it needs its perfect in both manual and auto modes

would we just need to find the ic that controls the fans to control there speed ? well find out the ic and software that works with it

failing that i will just have to make a tiny little switch to the back or side of the case and cut into one of the fan wires , i will only ever need it completely silent when downloading so i will underclock and undervolt as much as possible and have no other programs running so it shouldnt be stressed atall and i always stand the laptop vertical or upside down so heat can escape when its left churning away

 

clean out your fans, read this:
Guide to Cooling Down Your Notebook Computer

I cleaned my center fan (for the RAM), it was very dusty and made some noise, but was good after i swabbed it and aired it out.

And you should always use the Fn+F2 command (toggles all fans to go Auto or to Max) on your Clevo while gaming to pretty much guarantee the prevention of heat issues, the sound increases about 5 dB but its a constant flow of air which is not notcieable at all, especially when gaming.

 

Domaq,

Where did you find the W1? I went to the Coolmaster website and all i saw was the P1, the Widescreen and the Notepal. Is the Widescreen the W1? Do the fans match up? From the Coolermaster website pics it looks like the 2 fans ont he back would be blocked.

 

I got a Cooler Master W1 as well, it didnt sit well with my notebook, because prolong use of it scratched the front of my notebook.

I recommend the Vantec LapCool4 for the 17" Clevo notebooks, they seem much more portable and less likely to damage the surface of your notebook.

Thread about Cooler Master W1 problem, and alternatives

Review of Sager 5760 Accessories (w/ pics)

 

Good advice Gophn. I did indeed clean the fans out and gave it a try before going through the litany above. However the laptop was less than a month old so the fans were still very clean.

The 2 fans on the W1 dont exactly match up. However I arranged it so that the left fan was blowing directly on the RAM and then allow the right fan to simply blow on the GPU heatpipe...but then, like I said, I usually play with the base cover removed. I did see the reviews of the Vantec one as well but honestly bought the W1 due to availability.

This weekend I put the system through a brutal (but typical) 24 hour gaming session and I never saw CPU temps above 43 (according to NHC). It wasn't until after I was done, however, that I realized my GPU temp monitor wasn't turned on at all. Still no artifacts, screen freezing, or fires so I think everything is still working!

 

well ive finally got my clevo based rock laptop and its a 2ghz c2d with the 7950gtx 2gb of ram and 100gb hd with the 1900x1200res screen

the fans are a pain in the arse! i sure hope someone can come up with something like i8kfangui for these machines as its about the only thing stopping me from leaving the thing on overnight or just casually messing about with it as im quite picky about noise but hopefully a decent notebook cooler will help

 

So every Clevo M570U has that annoying little fan? Is there still no solution for this problem? How about undervolting the memory, is it possible?

 

that little fan might be the memory fan. You can use a good notebook cooler, like the new Zalman.

The notebook cooler would prevent the fan from coming on because the temps dont get high enough to need the fan to turn on

 

The Zalman u mention is this?

'cause it is only 30x30 cm whereas the 5760 is 40x30...
What is your opinion about these?:

Bytecc cooler

The LianLi

 

The Lian Li is not sufficient because the stage size is not deep enough, which would cause the Clevo M570U (Sager 5760) to fall backwards.

The Bytecc cooler seems ok, but looks flimsy compared to the Zalman.

I really would recommend the Zalman ZM-NC1000
Read this review of it from a Sager 5760 owner
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=92167

 

domaq

Did you try to keep the system running Without "notepad cooler"and without small fan?

I bought 570U couple days ago when I turn mine on, it's quiet. Then after 5 min of non-gaming activities, the middle fan comes on with a rather annoying sound and it DOESN'T stop its run all the time!!! even if I leave notebook for 30- 40 min middle fan still running, but I read someone review said that fan sometimes turns on and off again?

Is there anyone whose middle fan turns off automaticaly if you dont play games? or its suppose to stay on all the time?

Any solution?

 

The middle fan is the memory fan. It is automated to come on when the RAM gets warm. The best solution for this is to get a good notebook cooler with a center fan (so that the middle fan wont need to go on), the Zalman ZM-NC1000 is a great solution for that exact notebook.

Here is a review of it with a Clevo M570U:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=92167

 

ok I did test:
I run 3dmark06 for 15 min and also touched RAM but it NEVER gets warm.
HDD was also slightly warm.
there is nothing to cool down!?

 

When gaming or benchmarking, you should use the "Clevo fan feature" (Fn + F2) to toggle the fans to Max Speed or to Auto.

When I am gaming, i toggle the fans to all max, its not annoying, its a constant flow of air... noticeable but not noisy. And when I am in-game, I dont even notice the fans since I am focused on the game itself.

I always use my Vantec LapCool4 at home and on the go. I was think of getting the Zalman ZM-NC1000 for home use.
You should monitor your temps:
- use Notebook Hardware Control to monitor: CPU, HDD
- use RivaTuner to monitor: GPU

-Gophn

 

where is the middle fan sensor located? its in the ram ? or under middle fan plate?

 

it should be near the ram on the motherboard... so almost impossible to modify

 

I bought Zalman ZM-NC1000 for $42 shipped - no more middle fan noise!!!!!!!!
(actually I turn it off )

 

I too have wondered why the fan comes on even though the RAM isint even warm (and with no temp. sensor in sight).

I think the peanut fan's main function is not to cool the ram, but whatever chip is underneath, aswell as blowing a stream of air at the RAM.

If you remove the RAM and look carefully at whats underneath the metal plate the small fan sits on, you can barely make out a high pin count chip on the motherboard, which I suspect is the main chipset chip.

If anyone is poking around their 5760's in the near future, try to determine if
the large chipset chip just above the mini pci-express slot is the main chipset chip, or just some southbridge. If its just a southbridge, then it looks like the main chip sits right under the peanut fan, and thus fiddling with the RAM will have little effect on how much the fan goes.

Of course I cant verify this without cracking the fan off (which I wish I could do to dollop on some Artic Silver), but it would make sense given that desktop motherboard chipsets require active cooling these days (due to higher FSB - DDR 667 on the 5760!), and that big chip just above the pci express slot doesnt even have a heatsink!


Aside from its annoying whine, i also think the peanut fan could have used some sort of cowl to force air in from outside the case. I feel no suction at all from the peanut when I run the fans at full blast, which means oh oh! its pulling all that hot air from the 7950GTX!

Maybe im just missing some vital piece of foam, because my fan runs all the time (except for 5 min after cold boot) whereas my friends 5760's fan only comes on the odd time. It also sounds much weedier, and finally if I poweroff the laptop then power it on again, the fan wont come on for a while again, which makes my think its running unnecessarily most of the time. Anyone else notice this?


While Im at it, I may aswell ask if anyone else notices a screechy buzzing electrical noise from under the keyboard when running very high framerate stuff, like Quake 3 timedemo or especially the OpenGL Extensions Viewer tests (<-- its *very* loud for this). Its sorta the same noise as when you plug in a USB mouse into the laptop when running from batteries.


Or maybe I just have a very FUBAR'd 5760