Yeah I know I'm far from the only one that has this problem but there doesn't seem to be any real consensus on this issue from what I've read on various posts and youtube videos. I have an old school fat PS3 (around 2nd or 3rd revision, when they took out PS2 game support) that really winds up fan noise after being used for a short bit. It's not so annoying when playing games because usually the game drowns most of it out. But when I'm watching movies it's a real pain in the ass especially if it's during scenes where there's mostly dialog and not much action. I've gone to the length of completely taking the unit apart and thoroughly blowing it out with a can of air (not much dust, but what the heck) to no effect. It's sitting on a shelf of a stereo cabinet with a glass front. The back is completely open and there's a good few inches in each direction from the PS3 to either side of the cabinet walls. Any other things that I should look into trying?
PS3 fan noise, best solutions?
- Thread starter nsafreak
- Start date
You could probably clean off the old thermal pad/paste and add something nicer like AS5. I've heard that helps if youre willing to do it.
mmntech
Lifer
- Sep 20, 2007
- 17,501
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A sure fire way would be to sell it and get a Slim. The Talismoon fan would be a good choice though. If you're really hard core, watercool the sucker. lol.
The fat PS3s are quite noisy I'm afraid. Just too many hot components crammed into a small enclosure. That's why the 90nm models die. Not just the processors either. The power supply throws off a ton of heat, and is passively cooled. Not good.
The fat PS3s are quite noisy I'm afraid. Just too many hot components crammed into a small enclosure. That's why the 90nm models die. Not just the processors either. The power supply throws off a ton of heat, and is passively cooled. Not good.
I actually did that while I had the unit apart a couple months ago, thanks for the suggestion though.
Yeah watercooling is a bit overkill
. I'll look into the Talismoon and see what the general consensus is on how quiet & how efficient it is before I go through disassembling & re-assembling the unit though.
mmntech
Lifer
- Sep 20, 2007
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Yeah watercooling is a bit overkill
Hey, if it's worth doing, it's worth over doing. :awe:
Disassembly is a bit of a PITA, especially the first time through. You have to lift out the motherboard to get at the fan. So that means having to remove the disc drive, hard drive, and PSU. There's A LOT of screws so definitely get a bunch of tins to keep them organized. Oh, and once you break the seal, Sony will refuse to do any repairs to it even if it's out of warranty.
Mine was extremely loud but the noise subsided significantly when I disassembled it and did a thorough dusting of everything. Depending how much time you put into it you may want to give it another go; especially make sure all the vents (which are all over the case) are unobstructed and take everything apart and give it at least a once over with air.
Also depending on how you sit your PS3 you may want to try it vertically/horizontally instead to see if that makes any difference.
Once it heats up mine is definitely still audible, but much less intrusive at least.
Also depending on how you sit your PS3 you may want to try it vertically/horizontally instead to see if that makes any difference.
Once it heats up mine is definitely still audible, but much less intrusive at least.
I went to the Talismoon site and one thing that worried me is the fine print says the stock fan is 1.7 amps but their replacement is 2.6 amps. The PS3 motherboard might or might not be designed to feed that much power to the fan connector.
Might want to try it again, maybe with a different TIM. I had the same issue once, and reapplying the TIM with AS5 only made the fan louder! To be honest, I don't think I've fixed it either. The fans were mostly loud because of the summer heat and poor A/C at my parents' house. I haven't stayed at their house over the summer for the past couple of years, though.
Dankk
Diamond Member
- Jul 7, 2008
- 5,558
- 25
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I can't imagine why they'd sell a fan that isn't designed to work. Wouldn't it?
Nyko sold an external cooler for old 360s that allegedly cooked them to death by messing with the designed airflow.
The fact that they added the disclaimer to their website to warn you the fan specs don't match might be all that they feel they need to do.
Redinit
Member
I have the fatboy model as well, but it never really bothered me, I'd rather deal with the noise than to have heating issues. As long as it doesnt drown out movies or video games. I've gotten used to it though.
The best is use your home vacum to remove any object close to the fan.
If dosen't solve the problem you need to replace the fan
If dosen't solve the problem you need to replace the fan
When I had my first Xbox 360 I was scared it would overheat and die of RROD. Many people said that having a better fan would get the heat out and fix the problems. I went out and bought the Nyko fan. My Xbox never overheated, but I found out after some time that the connector in the back had melted significantly and there was a plastic smell. I removed the fan and I could barely connect the power supply after that, but I never had any problems. It just didn't clip in 100%.
viivo
Diamond Member
- May 4, 2002
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Pr0d1gy
Diamond Member
- Jan 30, 2005
- 7,774
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Horrible suggestion.
Your best bet is to build a gaming PC with quiet cooling, otherwise you are using MS & Sony's cost cutting fans and cooling which means all these consoles are obscenely loud. My Reach Xbox was almost just as loud as the old 360's I had and all my slim PS3's are clearly audible even with any device with audio playing (except my stereo of course).
You could always drop it once down the hallway stairs. That will possibly get rid of the fan noise. Just kidding! Follow what others are saying. Maybe you can replace the fan. MY xbox 360 sounds like a small vacum LOL
American Gunner
Platinum Member
- Aug 26, 2010
- 2,399
- 0
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I've never heard a loud slim PS3. And you have no way of knowing if the Wii U will be quiet or not...
Fallen Kell
Diamond Member
- Oct 9, 1999
- 6,143
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I have one of the original 1st gen fat's (the 60GB model which essentially had everything), and have yet to run into a problem. It may be that I am lucky, or more likely that I keep it clean. I replaced my thermal paste about a year ago (3-4 years and most pastes are done). Every 4-6 months I take it apart and clean it out, checking that the fan can still spin freely without ball-bearing noise.
You need to think of it more in terms of a PC than a console... If the fan is spinning up that high, there is probably a reason. You either have poor air flow, bad contact on the heatsinks, or a failing thermal sensor.
You need to think of it more in terms of a PC than a console... If the fan is spinning up that high, there is probably a reason. You either have poor air flow, bad contact on the heatsinks, or a failing thermal sensor.
I took a look at the Talismoon site as well. I read it as "While this fan is designed to work on the specified model it will also fit others, however please be aware on those other models the voltage is different". I've got an 80gb model I bought cheap on Ebay to fix and sell on. It had YLOD which I've repaired, however the fan jumps up to max speed within a minute of the console being switched on. I can't detect any heat coming from the console and it has had fresh gold thermal paste applied (old thermal paste was cleaned off using alcohol wipes first) and shims between the cpu/gpu and heatsinks so that isn't the problem. I removed the heatsinks and fan completely and blew them out so there isn't any dust blocking things out, and the back of the ps3 you could just about use as a hairdryer the air comes out that strong. I can see 2 more possible ways to fix this; first is to strip it back down to the board and take off the heatsink/fan clamps, bend them and replace them to see if that forces the connection between the heatsinks and the chips to be better, and if this fails replace the fan with a 19 blade one. I'll let you know the results.
i just was in another thread about PS3 noise here.. I find it strange.. I used to repair RROD on 360's, the originals where all loud. The newer slims are much better. I have fixed a few phat PS3's too.. and i never noticed any that where horribly loud, a few where noticeable but none where even half as loud as the 360's. I must admit i only fixed about 10 of the phat Ps3 (no where near as easy to fix as 360RROD's) My lunch day Phat is almost as quiet as my slim.. but its maybe got 200 hours of Blueray movies and netflix on it.. and 10 or so hours of gameplay.. I wonder if the fans are just getting loud as they age? the 360's are loud because of speed.. and I know my Phat can spin pretty fast too, but when it was new even full speed wasn't something i noticed. Maybe just pure use.. I replace PC fans on a pretty regular basis.. cheap, expensive.. they all fail with heavy use (my pc is on 24/7) most work, but grow louder over time..
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