Sony Vaio VGN-SZ770N: fan noise

Ive had this laptop for 3 months and Im quite dissapointed about the fan noise - it is running constantly. My experience is that the fan is running in 3 modes: minimum (always), medium (short time) and max (when using graphics ex.). Sony Support told me that it is normal that the CPU fan is running when the computer is swithed on (=CPU on). My experience with laptops though is that they are quiet all the time, but eventually starts the fan when using many applications (graphics ex.). The symptom is the same in Windows XP, Linux and FreeBSD. Is it normal behaviour - I mean, should it run constantly or occasionally? Thanks in advance, Nikolaj G., Denmark, Copenhagen.

PS Ive see a lot of people around on forums talking about the problem. Some of them solved it by cleaning the fan. This computer is new, so it should not be the problem.

 

What power option do you use when your laptop is plugged in? In power saver mode using stamina mode i find that this laptop is pretty quiet. If you put your ear to your laptop of course you will hear something but that is normal in a laptop of this nature. I have sensitive hearing and in terms of noise using power saver is completely acceptable to me. Also, you can adjust the cpu activity using Vaio power management tools.

When my laptop was about a year old i changed the thermal paste on it to AS5 because the fan did start up a little bit more in power saver than it had been time over time and with use. However, your computer is only 3 months so you shouldn't really have to do this. After about a year i also changed my cpu activity from level 5 to level 3. I had no need to do this before.

 

Hi Rachel,
Thanks for answering. Im using stamina mode. When you say "you will hear something but that is normal in a laptop of this nature" I guess the fan should be running all the time (minimum mode). I simply have to accept it then Thanks again. Nikolaj G., Denmark, Copenhagen

 

You can also change the thermal mode of your laptop. In the vaio control centre, under the power options tab, there are 3 thermal control mode that you can change: Balanced, Performance and Silent mode. Silent mode will, make your fan go silent. However, it is not a recommended mode if you switched over to your nvidia card. I had a 3d application crash on me if I use silent mode + nvidia because of overheating.