How noisey is your laptop?

frobisher

I have an Acer Latop. It's a newish one, 3ghz P4, 512ram and oh my god is the fan noisey!! I only started noticing it when my ears where actually ringing after i use it. I use it for work and recreation. many hours everyday, I can't take it any more!! It's like there is a hairdryer in the room!

Can I do anything about this problem? Am I alone here?

Karoma

You can underclock or control the fan; but TBH, it's a powerful fan for a reason.. "3GHz P4"...
Has it got noisier over time? (Try cleaning the fans, and move the laptop to a location with better air circulation)
How old is it?

Endurance Man

Iv found with my bros Acer that if you have the power cable plugged in the Fan spins a lot more, like constantly even if the CPU is cool, perhaps just unplug the power cord and see if it helps?

dazberry

I used Speedfan to slow down the fan on my old laptop. Its fan I think ran about 50%, at 100% it does sound like a hairdryer, I normally run it between 0 and 20% (auto adjusts). That was fine however for my old laptop, might not be such a good idea with a p4 based system.

D.

muletide

Yea same problem here with an acer it is especially noticeable when in a quiet room

Karoma

muletide wrote:

Yea same problem here with an acer it is especially noticeable when in a quiet room

And which model / spec... ?

Endurance Man

The one i have here is a 1650 WLMI, with a 1.7 Centrino thingy. When we dont have the power lead in it is silent about 75% of the time and only spins up now and then, doesnt bother us but if it was doing it all the time it could get annoying.

frobisher

Karoma:
It's hard to know if it has got noisier or I have I got more sensitive to the noise. The model is Acer 1670, I'm amazed to read that i can actually control the fan. there's hope for me yet.

Dazberry:
Great link. I'l be looking into that.

muletide

Karoma wrote:

And which model / spec... ?

Travelmate 252LC_DT 2.6Ghz 40GB. sorry I am not technical minded so thats the best I can give you It is about 2 years old

Endurance Man

Both of you have pentiums which in a laptop get very hot, that is probably your problem. Im not sure turning the fan down is very wise though . You could damage the chip if its not getting cooled enough, they do get very warm.

Karoma

Aye - you got powerful chips: the trade-off being silence, battery life, and temp.

Reducing the operation of the fans is unwise. If you do it- ensure that the unit is placed in a well-ventilated location with a the fan(s)/holes unrestricted & clean the fans (Can of compressed air,or vacuum cleaner) + you can get things that raise the laptop + reduce the heat somewhat...

TempestSabre

My Sony P4 2.8 started getting noisy. But the compressed air sorted it out. Also use the power saving modes, even when plugged into the AC. It gives the machine a few minutes to cool down when you are not using it for a while. Helps keep the overall temps down.

johnnyrotten

DON'T mess about with the fan speed. It will damage the Innerds

Creamy Goodness

johnnyrotten wrote:

DON'T mess about with the fan speed. It will damage the Innerds

not if you know what you're doing.

Karoma

huh huh. innerds. huh huh.
Using the manufacturers' utilities like Sony notebook setup/VAIO Control Centre is safe enough. If you're using a 3rd party app. -check the manual / web for operating temp's for components + decrease fan activity gradually to be on the safe side.

johnnyrotten

Cremo wrote:

not if you know what you're doing.

Your risk!

SpitfireIV

Just to add to the topic here. I have a Toshiba notebook, which also has a P4 processor and up until yesterday was getting extremely hot (I couldnt even run Norton without the computer shutting down due to overheating) after a short time and thus the fan running at full speed and so being very annoying.

I think its a trait with the Toshiba notebooks, that you cant get in at the fan to clean it, so, I got one of them blow up bed pumps, the ones Aldi were selling (Powerful blast of air out of them!) and blew it in around the fan, at first a puff of dust came out, then a bit of fluff and hair appeared, I got a tweezers and grabbed it and eventually pulled out a load of dust, hair and fluff!! :eek: :eek: , I was amazed that so much of it was wrapped around the fan wall. But now that its gone the lappy aint heating up and the fan is barely running , I'm happy!

Get a can of compressed air, or a powerful pump and try it, you could be amazed.

CroppyBoy

frobisher

Compressed air it is!!

Now, where did I put those beans.

Sparky

frobisher wrote:

Compressed air it is!!

Now, where did I put those beans.

lol

yeah i have a dell 9100 (dont ask, it just saves a good bit of space)
and the fan noise is really loud.
but unlike my i6000 which is silent

TempestSabre

If your using compressed air or indeed any air. Make sure the lappy is off and unplugged.

Karoma

TempestSabre wrote:

If your using compressed air or indeed any air. Make sure the lappy is off and unplugged.

I'm worried now that that had to be pointed out...
/loses all faith..

mikeruurds

I have a Dell Latitude D810 with a Pentium M processor and it's incredibly quiet

Wertz

insp 8600 2.1mhz P-M and the only time I hear it is when I'm gaming on it or when an AV scan is running....ie not very often.

Neil3030

Not being an expert on laptops, I assume the cooling fans operate on a temperature measurement and not a timed cycle of operation?

To that end would any of these do-dads help that you sit your laptop on to keep them cool, thus eliminating the need for the noisy fan?

http://www.pccasegear.com/category142_1.htm
http://www.mycableshop.com/3rd_Level/Fans-Notebook.htm
http://www.hardwarecooling.com/default.php/cPath/33

I may wander in to peats some day and see if they sell em, I know for a fact that I'd be pissin everyone in the library off if I went in with my hairdryer of a yolk!

Or are there places you can send you laptop to have the cooling system upgraded internally?

TempestSabre

Adds a lot of bulk. However a laptop, even a desktop replacement shouldn't be THAT noisy.

Elessar

12' iBook here and it's quiet as a mouse. The only time the fan turns on is when im doing some processor intensive stuff and when the HD is running consistantly for a while, which isn't very often. And even then, it's pretty quiet.

TempestSabre

Only destop CPU's in laptops really have this problem. Portable CPU's are generally much much cooler and thus quieter. At least any recent ones.

toiletduck

i've a packard bell with a celeron processor, tis very quiet

event

iv the new aldi one, dead quiet

wheresmybeaver

I have a Vaio A-series Centrino that can run at 1.6Ghz at full speed, but the Sony powersaving software lets you run at "Adaptive", whereby the processor speed drops to 600Mhz when ur just arsing around and not doing anything processor intensive, but leaps back up to fullspeed whenever required (opening Photoshop, encoding a video etc). So, it runs really quiet and very cool. Feckin brilliant. I used to run it at full speed before I discovered the adaptive option, it got pretty warm.

Cleared out an unreal amount of dust and crap from the fan too, it made quite a difference. One of my buddies Dell notebooks is about 3 years old and that thing sounds like a hoover and heats the living room.

Dave

steppen

Neil3030 wrote:

Not being an expert on laptops, I assume the cooling fans operate on a temperature measurement and not a timed cycle of operation?

To that end would any of these do-dads help that you sit your laptop on to keep them cool, thus eliminating the need for the noisy fan?

http://www.pccasegear.com/category142_1.htm
http://www.mycableshop.com/3rd_Level/Fans-Notebook.htm
http://www.hardwarecooling.com/default.php/cPath/33

I may wander in to peats some day and see if they sell em, I know for a fact that I'd be pissin everyone in the library off if I went in with my hairdryer of a yolk!

Or are there places you can send you laptop to have the cooling system upgraded internally?

anyone have an answer to this?

is there a place you can send the computer to have the cooling system upgraded internally?

Ballboy

my laptop starts of sort of noisey then it gets silent as a mouse and after about an hour or some game playing it gets so loud!!!

TempestSabre

steppen wrote:

anyone have an answer to this?

is there a place you can send the computer to have the cooling system upgraded internally?

1) temperature measurement
2) Yes they help. But your adding "more" fans. Which also create noise.
3) None that I've heard off.

The laptop came with sufficent cooling. Thats the way its designed. If you have a hot CPU like a desktop CPU then its going to need more cooling than a cooler CPU like the mobile chips, or a slower CPU. You can reduce the amount of fan noise by keeping the vents, fans and heatsinks dust free. If you can't do this yourself, somewhere like http://www.computersunlimited.ie/ would probably do it for you.

If after the compressed air the machine is still noisy I suggest you consider selling it and buying a cooler quieter laptop.

ambro25

Fujitsu Point 1600 (P166MMX) - totally noiseless, save for HDD disc accesses (and even then, you'd have to strain to hear them)

Samsung Izzi Pro (MIPS 3000) - totally noiseless at all times (RAM/ROM based, no moving parts)

DELL D600 (Centrino 1.6) - noisier than my old C600 (PIII 750), which was itself noisier than my old Portege 7020CT (PII 300). But not deafeningly so, unless I'm having a 30mins+ session of War Rock (that Radeon chip gets awful hot in there).

frobisher

Should I blast the compressed air from the outside in? that seems like it might send dust further into the machine. That said, trying to blast from the inside might be impossible!

secret_squirrel

2 suggestions for laptop users :

Speedfan - control fanspeed
Centrino Hardware Control - underclock/undervolt better than most manufacturers utilties. Less heat and longer battery life.

Any there's very little risk in using Speedfan contrary to what some posters on this thread would have you believe. It automatically brings the fan speed back to full, if you exceed at max 70C if I remember rightly. thats well before your cpu turns into a molten puddle. Most intel cpu's will shutdown safely and survive even running with no heatsink.

frobisher

Speedfan didn't work for me. It could only find control for the harddrive and that didn't do anything.

Shiny

Yeah same here.
None of the programs worked for me either.
They just told me temps, clock speed etc... wohoo

(Acer Ferrari 4005 WmLi)


Probably dont work due to AMD Turion being a
minority brand etc etc.....

TempestSabre

frobisher wrote:

Should I blast the compressed air from the outside in? that seems like it might send dust further into the machine. That said, trying to blast from the inside might be impossible!

Under normal conditions air is drawn in some vents and exhausted out other vents. All you are doing is pushing strong air through the same route. Its only dust and should blow clean though.

Usually only mobile CPU's can take advantage of all these power saving measures, speed step etc. Those of us with desktop cpus in out laptops like Celerons and P4's are pretty much stuck at default speeds.

To be honest if you can't blow some air though a laptop, you're probably not the most technical of people. So mucking around with fan speeds and fsb speeds is asking for trouble.

hamster

wheresmybeaver wrote:

Cleared out an unreal amount of dust and crap from the fan too, it made quite a difference. One of my buddies Dell notebooks is about 3 years old and that thing sounds like a hoover and heats the living room.

Dave

Sounds like my dell mobile P4 1.8Ghz T'is 3 years old this month. Would not trade her for the world... but yep, run celestia or seti on it and on comes on the hoover.

rainbow kirby

Elessar wrote:

12' iBook here and it's quiet as a mouse. The only time the fan turns on is when im doing some processor intensive stuff and when the HD is running consistantly for a while, which isn't very often. And even then, it's pretty quiet.

Same laptop here... it's fantastically quiet!