Sony SB fan noise

Hello, I am thinking about buying a Sony SB but I have heard that people encounter problems with the fan and that it's very noisy. For the people who have a sony SB do you guys have any issues with the fan noise when surfing the web, writing documents or watching movies on the Stamina mode?

Thanks

 

IMO its inaudible when I'm doing light work like what you said, the fan only
kicks in when playing games, CPU gets hot due to heavy work loads.
The fan kicks in even when in stamina mode when you put the CPU under stress
of heavy work loads.

 

How heavy would the work load have to be when the fan noise starts disturbing because I am mainly going to use it for university work and my main concern is if some engineering program would cause the fan noise to be very loud. This laptop seems really good for me because I'm looking for a 13.3 inch and I'm not a big fan of the Mac Book pro, but the fan noise is the only thing I am worried about on this laptop.

Thanks

 

I have the most up to date BIOS and in Speed AND Stamina the fan is ALWAYS spinning at an audible rate (on the SC)...I have even tried Silent and the fan runs FASTER!!! ???

 

Nope, mine spins only when required. It powers off otherwise. The 'spinning' you may be hearing may be the harddisk, not the fan.

 

Nope...Definitely the fan. Put my ear right near the exhaust and intake ports and definite fan noise...

Think it is a bunk SC?

 

I doubt its bunk. Maybe you installed some software which does a lot of background work or some windows service which keeps running. Check resource monitor within windows system processes. If thats the case, its quite possible your processor is doing work when you dont expect to and thus the fan must kick in to keep the system cool ... or else you'll burn it out

 

Here is my resource monitor...I haven't used this to analyze my CPU usage...Does it look like it is "avp.exe" (kaspersky?)



How else should I look at what is using it? Chrome isn't the culprit because when I close all chrome windows the fan still runs strong...ugg...irritated by this damn fan!

 

So after killing kaspersky the fan still runs and the bottom is still getting hot and through resource monitor the next largest user are a couple of svchosts that pop up to 1.xx usage. Shouldn't the fan turn off when barely any load is on the CPU?

For reference the programs that I have installed since buying the laptop:
Microsoft Office Professional Academic (Whole suite)
Kaspersky
WinRAR
Dropbox
Chrome
Adobe CS5 (just two days ago)
Adobe Lightroom (just two days ago)

 

That's what I don't understand about this laptop, some people do not have any loud fan noise while others such as Draconius seem to have issues with the fan. I guess I will wait before making any decision.

 

Mine CTO SB is also loud only with demanding tasks, such as games, there it is really loud. It's silent for movies, silent for browsing, etc (stamina).
With Lightroom it spins only occasionally when exporting or so, Zune player in fullscreen (screensaver or whatever it is) makes it audible too. Definitelly better than with games though.

 

Peti, does yours spin 100% of the time or are tere times when it is off completely say while browsing the web, etc?

 

Note: sometimes, closing chrome doesnt kill all chrome processes. Some ghost chrome processes can still be seen in the processes or reseources tab (say under svchost).

This may not be the cause of your concern, but just making a note.

secondly: fans are temperature controlled by bios. If the laptop reaches certain temperature ranges, it WILL switch ON. Its put in bios for the only reason that a screwed up OS should not physically harm the laptop. So now if your fan is continously stirring up, obviously the CPUs or GPUs are somehow running all the time OR not doing voltage scaling by running at lower voltages when under light load. To check the latter, switch the power mode to "power savings" and check if you have the same behaviour.

Third: unlinkely, (but not impossible esp. if you work in dusty environements, or have pets around) - the cooling vents are blocked and need to be cleaned.

 

Mine also gets loud for games.

A question to those whose SBs are "silent" -- do you guys have a humming noise? It's somewhat high-pitched but doesn't sound like a fan. That's the main sound that bothers me. The other sound is a low, airy, spinny noise which I think is that fan?

Or maybe I have the two noises mixed up between the fan and hard drive, if that's what the other thing is. >>;

 

mmts15 do you get that noise even when you are using the laptop on stamina mode and just browsing and doing soft work, or only when playing games?

 

Honestly, my computer sounds exactly the same whether it's stamina mode or just lightweight work on speed. :/ Only when I play games does it get really loud.

I'm not sure whether the noises I'm hearing qualify as fairly loud, but they're definitely very noticeable in a quiet room and thus bothersome. When I have music on or a movie, though, I can't hear it anymore.

The higher-pitched humming seems to be coming from right above the keyboard near the Assist/VAIO buttons. The airy noise is more of a constant spinny sound that comes from the back and near the USB ports.

 

After the bios update, my old SB was slightly quieter during low loads.

The fan didn't start to sound like jet turbines until half way through a 720p video. (stamina)

Gaming wise, it took less than a minute for the fan to start rev'in up, and about
3-4mins for it to start soaring through the skies at mach 2 like a bloody F-16.

 

What did you do with your SB? Did you return it and pick another laptop?

 

Mine stays pretty quiet during videos, but I mostly use Speed.

And same here. Although today I put it on Power Saver mode and the fan behaved a bit better during Assassin's Creed. Only in serious fighting scenes did the fan get mach loud... but you know, it's still pretty loud.

 

So its normal, the temperature sensor is working. Well what do you expect - its a thin laptop with a high-end processor and GPU.

 

I don't hear anything while surfing. It's silent, don't know if the fan is on, but I can't hear it (in a rather quiet room). Really, outside games it's silent or nothing annoying, it gets louder only when more CPU power is needed and only for shorter periods of time. Still much better than in games. At least for me. BTW, I replaced HDD with Intel's SSD, and have the BIOS updates.

What I noticed though is that the fan is loud with Angry Birds under stamina (intel graphics) and silent under the second mode (forgot the name; with the cheaper amd card).

And I don't have the high pitch sound. Perhaps I'm deaf

 

Yeah, I'm probably overanalyzing everything, lol. I still love my SB to death, regardless of any noises it likes to make.

Right now the high-pitched humming is gone... I just started the laptop and am doing regular surfing. Gosh, what is that thing.

 

I also have an SC and the fan is on all the time. I think it depends on how quiet the room is in which you are using your laptop. I think everyone has about the same audible fan noise but some people are using it in business environments where their location is extremely quiet. When I got my laptop i was using it at home and I didn't hear a thing and now I'm at work and i definitely hear the fan. Its strange that the laptop is ice cold when the fan is running.