SZ fan noise?!!

officially joined the sony vaio club with purchase of the Sz340p.
sexiest lappy i've ever own

but i notice the fan almost never shut down!!
i did read the review by Swisstoni on his SZ2, & his seems to be the same..
though its not a big problem, it can be annoying after a while since i'm always in a very quiet environment...
went into power management & even when the "Cpu Fan Control" is set to
Level 1(quiet), it doesnt help to calm the fan down.... note:I'm always set on stamina mode.
my dell e1505's fan only comes once in a while....
any suggestions???

 

The fan does run quite a bit, but if there are no obstructions around it, it always seems reletively quiet to me. Sometimes I check just to make sure it is running.

 

Hahaha. Don't be so picky!!! My current laptop sounds like a desk fan. However if it really irritates you pop some headphones in your ears like ear plugs =).

 

When I run my SZ340 on Stamina mode, I hardly ever notice the fan. Speed mode definitely kicks everything up several notches.

 

first, try to reduce abundant background processes if you not use them at the time. in my own experience just closing skype and AV (nod 32) leads to a significant drop in temp and my fan virtually stops when on battery/with wireless off. not speaking jump in battery life...

second, you may try to change the stock thermal compund on the CPU for something like arctic silver 5. in some cases the stock thermal compund has not been applied 100% evenly on the CPU core surface. however, i did not notice any radical drop in core temp after I applied AS5. maybe 2 deg after 2 weeks of break-in period but not anywhere near 10 deg drop reported here by one member...
btw, when I opened the cpu lid on my computer i've noticed a lot of dust buliding around the fan&cooler grid, which also decreses effectivity of the cooling system. it was only after 3 months of indoor use in a pretty low-dust hardwood-floored environment (compliments to my wife)!

 

i'm not a heavy user....& usually only msn messenger is running in the background.

this lappy is only 1 week old but will take your advise on the arctic silver compound.....but how do you take it apart & locate the CPU core??
i was trying to upgrade the hard drive & took all the screws off the back cover but can't seems to prey the cover off!!
tips & pics would be great!!!

 

Well you're in luck!
http://www.laptoplogic.com/resources/detail.php?id=43&PHPSESSID=7d858e8b7cc6eb7a3c322a4c4c61011b

 

did I ever tell you you're my hero....

 

Use the laptop logic instructions. The screws around the back are simply a candy trail. I have now done more reading on the fan issue with the SZ and it seems that it is the algorithm used to control the fan and not an actual overheating issue. The algorithm simply has the fan running nearly all of the time. It seems to be a pretty standard comment about recent SZ's. There was one comment about this being a planned fix for the next generation of the SZ. Hmmm...

 

It's waaay easier than replacing HDD in SZ....

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=52359

Unscrew those few screws holding the CPU and heatpipe lids, unscrew 2 (if I remember well) srews that hold heatpipe over CPU, now lift gently the heatpipe (watch out the fan end of the heatpipe remains where it is!!!), clean heatpipe and CPU core surfaces with xylen (it desolves nicely the original green thermal compound), repeat that 2-3 times so you have shiny surface on the CPU core, put a drop of AF5, spread it, put the heatpipe back and fix it back with 2 screws to the core.
You may want to leave the lid open during the test. Boot on and watch closely core temperature. If the CPU temp remains stable you're done!

 

Indeed i think fan noise could be so much better if it would be controlled differently. It ramps up and down like mad. And high-up way too soon.
Ive spent a night and some more hacking around in the embedded controller, trying to get the fan under control. But sony of course uses some non-standard thingies, making this very difficult and of course undocumented.
But there is hope that there will be a working solution for fan control on the sz, once the next version of nhc is out . or a few days after that. if i have not returned my sz till then yet, that is. which is somethin im considering at the moment.

 

Thanks. But all I'm doing is passing on the information one wise person shared with me a month ago on this forum.

 

I don't know why some people get all worked up over fan noise...
I don't mind...
Other than being annoying, does it take up battery life or something?

 

Yes. It is inefficient. Just trying to eek more time out of this compact machine.

 

just put some music on to cover up the fan noise

 

i reckon everytime the fan runs, it'll drains power.... so yah! in addition to being
annoying its darn inefficient too...........
anyway can't complain too much.... i only got my sz340p for $850 brand new

 

Do you think Speedfan would help?

 

How did you get it for just $850?

 

craigslist is my friend

but sony currently has this trade in program..... $600 for old sony, $400 for other brands.
got a bx series then traded in a $50 dell laptop from ebay over a month ago.
sold the bx for cost, & got my $500 rebate check in the mail in 40-45days(last week)
easiest $450 i've ever made!

too bad i cant do the same for this sz as seller dont have receipt

 

I shutdown Windows Sidebar on my new SZ650 and the fan noise went down by over 50%. What a relief!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here is a $100 advice from me. Use WD40 with your SZ fan and it will become silent.

 

Anyone got a SZ61WN? What's fan noise like on this machine? I have one on the way.

 

Are you serious ??

Is WD40 really electrically safely for use on electronic products ...???

 

Here is the solution for this fan problem:

1. Down load the latest bios: R0112N0.exe and extract the R0112N0.WPH file
2. Using Phoenix bios editor to open the R0112N0.WPH

Sony apparently set ACtive strip point to 55C (that explains why most sz fans turn on at 40C + 15 offset = 55C)

Core 2 also have a built Thermal control circuit TCC, that will throttle the CPU down when it pass certain temperature. Sony also turn this off!

I will turn the TCC back on + set active strip point to a higher (60C+ maybe) and see if that will help with the fan problem!

 

There's only one solution - Clean the dust pileup that occurs between the fan and the vents and the noise will be gone.

I had terrible fan noise and high temperatures on my Vaio SZ laptop for the longest time. I opened up my laptop and cleaned it several times. I used the NHC also and that didnt help. Finally, I checked the CPU cooling unit and could not believe what I found there. The pileup was preventing the heat to escape and the fan was working extra hard to cool the cpu. Best of all, this unit can be accessed just by opening the four screws at the bottom left.

Now, I barely even notice the fan running. My CPU temperature is also 10 degrees cooler. BUT KEEP IN MIND, on the Vaio SZ, the fan always runs due to the design. There's only fan for the CPU and the graphics processor to keep the system compact and light weight. But even then the noise level does not have to be higher than any other notebook.

Hope this helps, I found the solution the hard way.

 

best advice I've ever received on these forums...

 

^^

I'll remember that when my fan get loud.

The SZ2 I owned last year had an annoying fan which never stopped.

The SZ7 I now own has a much quieter fan, even when it's running at full speed it make a pleasant wooshing sound.

 

Can you please advise me on where to apply the wd40?

I get it, the fan, but, the center, the micromotor, the bearings?

 

my SZ750 fan runs all the time but is REAL quiet surfing the net
when processor intensive its higher but doesnt make any noise besides the rushing air noise of a fan