PS3 lousy fan control

Flaccus

Have my PS3 a few days....played resistance, ratchet and clank, ridge race etc.., watched a few blu rays. Pretty quiet overall. Today I put on Uncharted. After about half an hour in the fans go at it 100%. Easily as loud as my 360 if not louder. The problem is after I quit out of the game and just leave the PS3 idle, the fans are still at 100%!! Is there any fan control ? Do the fans just come on when the system gets hot and stay on. Right now the air coming out the back is warm not hot as it was when playing Uncharted. Room is not warm and PS3 is well ventillated. Its idle now 30 minutes. Still at 100%. Only way to reset fans is to restart system. Total pants. I suppose I will bring it back tommorrow to the shop and say the fans come on 100% when playing games and stay on.....to avoid the "that's the way it's supposed to be", I'll add the thing shuts down too. Balls.

GrumPy

I can NEVER hear my ps3. My 360 however.... Is so bad that if I want a certain movie, if it's on blu ray I buy that first, cause the 360 noise levels are retardedly high.

tman

I'd definitely bring it back.
Mine has barely made a whisper since I got it... it's so refreshing when you just want to chill out with a game without the 360's fans putting you off

Flaccus

Did a bit of googling. Lots of 40gig users with this problem on Sony's forums. The thermal monitor adjusts the fan from level 1 to 4. 1 being whisper quiet, and 2 being what most people experience when gaming (about the same noise level as a sky box roughly). Mine went to level 4 as the ambient temp in the bedroom was high. Not sure how high, but some people have reported max speed at a mere 15 degrees, some at 25. Turning off the rad and opening a window for a couple of minutes caused it to drop back down to 2. About same noise level a 360 dashboard. I only see level 1 which is noticeable from abot 10cm away after just turning the unit on. Just after playing Uncharted for an hour and the noise level stayed arond level 2 which is fine by me. However I don't think my room was that hot originally. So I am guessing I have a PS3 that runs full whack when the ambient temp is even moderatly warm. Not happy about that. I'll still bring it back and tell them the fan runs at full speed after 15 minututes of gamig and the system freezes intermittently. Should get a new one cosidering it's less then a week old.

ongarite

One thing I have noticed myself is the Ps3 fans will kick in louder when in horizontal position; the thermal design of the PS3 has to force the hot air out the RHS of the machine.
When in vertical position, the fans run slower and quieter and the hot air naturally escapes through the top of the unit.

There is nothing noiser than 360 when playing a game except maybe Dreamcast. The DVD drive is horribly noisy when playing Mass Effect or Assasin's Creed. Its comparable to PS3 when playing idle in dashboard, playing videos.

skywalker

tman wrote: »

I'd definitely bring it back.
Mine has barely made a whisper since I got it... it's so refreshing when you just want to chill out with a game without the 360's fans putting you off

Ditto. I couldnt stand the noise level of the 360, theres no need for it. Only have my ps3 about a week myself but so far so good in relation to noise levels.

Flaccus

ye all must be deaf or sit far back Got my replacement anyway. Turning it on it's whisper quiet. Fan is moving at level 1. After settig up the internet, browsing a bit, and watching some divx's it goes to level 2. Still very quiet. Quieter then 360 dash. But not whisper quiet by any means. Neither was the original 60gig I had or my mates 40gig. At night it could be slightly annoying watchig Blu Rays at low volume. Hence alot of complaints on avforums. Still quiet enough for me, about on par with a pc built with quiet components in an Antec p182 case. Hope it stays that way. Going to try Unreal Tournament 3 now, and see if the fan kicks up a notch to level3. I think alot of this has to do with the ambient temp in the room and what way the temp sensor is setup on the PS3, plus whether the PS3 is generating a lot of heat anyway (say when gamig). When gamig for exampe, once the temp passes a certain level (seems to vary by ps3), the fan kicks in to cool the system. Level2 is what most people experience. Level3 if the room is really warm. Level4 if the system is overheatig or at least the temp sensor thinks the system is overheating. I read 1 report where I guy had 2 40gig ps3's. 1 would go to level 4 fan speed which is hairdryer loud when the room temp was around 25 degrees and it would stay there at level4 even in the XMB. The other ps3 only went to level3 max, but quickly dropped down to level2 after quittig the game. I have also read other reports from people where Sony did admit it was most likely a faulty temp sensor in situations where fans are extremely audible over watchig a BD movie for example.