[Pi] Revving fan

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breweruk
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[Pi] Revving fan

Postby breweruk » Mon Jan 15, 2007 20:34

Hi,

I have two Scaleo P machines.

They are both revving when doing simple tasks.

One is a year old, the other is two years old.

The newest is Pentium 4, 3.40 GHZ CPU, 2.78 GHZ, 2.00 GB of RAM
The older is Pentium 4, 3.20 GHZ, 3.19 GHZ, 1.00 GB of RAM

I have had them apart, cleaned the fans and they are well ventilated.

I have read a worrying thread here about overheating and motherboards being damaged.

Any advice about what I should do?

I went back to PC World and they were hopeless. They sold me two new fans that didn't fit.

Both are working okay, but the noise is extremely loud and annoying.

Is it doing damage and what can I do about it?

I have backed up both PC just in case everything goes pear-shaped.

Any help most welcome.

Regards

David

olshevch
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Postby olshevch » Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:45

Did you check your temperatures without annoying fans?

breweruk
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Postby breweruk » Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:09

No, because I don't know how to check the temperature and I don't know how to turn the fans off.

I am afraid that if I turn the fans off the thing will blow up.

:?

David

Mike_26
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Postby Mike_26 » Tue Jan 16, 2007 20:16

You can check the temperature by downloading Everest Home Edition from Lavalys (search on Google), and clicking on Sensor. It'll then tell you your temperatures.
Bad idea to turn the fan off, it may overheat and will probably turn the PC off.
If the temperature is high and it's worrying you then maybe you should buy a new fan or heatsink.

My Scaleo P runs at 50-63 degrees (that's when the fan comes on), it did bother me but I learnt to live with the revving fan, although it only revs when doing high power tasks eg transcoding a video.

Hope that helped a bit.
Mike

breweruk
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Postby breweruk » Tue Jan 16, 2007 20:18

Hi Mike,

Thanks for that. Will give it a try and report back.

So it's fairly normal for the Scaleo P to rev? I have had Dells before and they are really silent.

David

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Nephitis
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Postby Nephitis » Tue Jan 16, 2007 22:15

Intel's high-end Pentium 4 processors produce a lot of heat. If your CPU fan regularly runs at maximum speed despite being regulated by the motherboard, the CPU cooler might be insufficient. My Scaleo X with AMD 5200+ X2 (Dual-Core) had an idle temperature of 40-45° Celcius and could peak 58-60° on load with the stock CPU cooler, AVC Z8UB015. The maximum temperature AMD's AM2 processors may reach is 65° Celcius.

Anyways, The cooling capacity of the AVC cooler is very bad, and the CPU fan has a maximum fan speed of 4500 RPM, which results in high noise level. After replacing the CPU cooler with CNPS9500 the idle temperature dropped to 26° Celcius and load temperature dropped to 35° on lowest fan speed (1350 RPM with fan controller).

I would recommend high performance fans and a fan controller, like the Zalman Fan Mate 2. That way you can choose your fan speed, and hence the noise level too. Replacing CPU cooler may help too. If the cooling capacity is good the CPU fan won't need to run at maximum speed.

Astaroth
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Postby Astaroth » Sun Feb 11, 2007 23:24

I have a Scenic P320 running an Intel P4 2.93GHz. When I first got it, it was stupidly silent and running at very reasonable temperatures with great performance. This went on for several months, but at some point I started having this incredibly loud revving sound from the processor fan as described in this thread.

It really is VERY VERY loud, to the point that i sometimes cannot hear my music over it (and i play my music loud, ask my housemates). The fan speed is obviously regulated directly by processor usage, but I wonder how come it was COMPLETELY silent at first and now, a year later, its so loud.

Yes, I have cleaned the dust out of there, but the processor just seems to run pretty hot no matter what, and the fan speed isnt regulated by temperature anyway, its regulated by processor usage, so even if it isnt running hot the fan still revs.

Is there any way to control this? Is there even any way to install a different fan? The fan is inside the power supply casing so I don't know whether I'd be voiding my warranty if I installed a different fan. Also, its so ridiculously cramped in there that i cant just kill that fan and install another one, there is physically no room for it.


Help will be greatly appreciated!
Scenic P320 (Intel P4 2.93 GHz, 1GB RAM)

This is what my computer looks like. I have the D1961 model.

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bubblegum
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Postby bubblegum » Mon Feb 12, 2007 23:59

My advice, is to set the alarm to go off in the bios. As suggested previously in this forum.

Astaroth
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Postby Astaroth » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:02

I don't see how that will make the fan any quieter, as I said the fan is constantly in operation, ALWAYS, no matter what the temperature. The speed of the fan has nothing to do with the temperature, it is directly related to the activity of the processor.
Scenic P320 (Intel P4 2.93 GHz, 1GB RAM)



This is what my computer looks like. I have the D1961 model.

olshevch
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Re:

Postby olshevch » Tue Feb 13, 2007 8:55

Astaroth wrote:I don't see how that will make the fan any quieter, as I said the fan is constantly in operation, ALWAYS, no matter what the temperature. The speed of the fan has nothing to do with the temperature, it is directly related to the activity of the processor.

Is your processor always at 100% load? :shock: Try to keep your computer running idle for some time. This should be ~1-3% CPU load max. Is your fan quieter then?

Astaroth
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Postby Astaroth » Tue Feb 13, 2007 13:46

I should clarify - the fan is NOT always running at full speed and my processor is NOT always at 100% utilization. However, it is clear that fan speed and processor utilization are directly correlated, i can start up a monitor for my processor and the fan speed will be fluctuating along with processor utilization with no delay whatsoever. Perhaps I should post a video showing a processor monitor for you all to see how the fan gets louder as processor utilization increases. Would that help?

So, yes, when my processor is at 1%-3%, the fan is (relatively) quiet. It's still not inaudible, and it's most definitely MUCH louder than it was in the first year I had the computer.

Should I be suspecting a faulty fan?
Scenic P320 (Intel P4 2.93 GHz, 1GB RAM)



This is what my computer looks like. I have the D1961 model.

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bubblegum
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Product(s): Scaleo T: Esprimo D9510 (work):Scaleo P
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Postby bubblegum » Tue Feb 13, 2007 20:20

Astaroth, I was replying to the original poster. breweruk.

"I have read a worrying thread here about overheating and motherboards being damaged"

He can see the temp in the bios, & an alarm can be set if the temp goes above a certain level.

Astaroth
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Postby Astaroth » Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:58

Ok. Any ideas on my problem?
Scenic P320 (Intel P4 2.93 GHz, 1GB RAM)



This is what my computer looks like. I have the D1961 model.

User avatar
bubblegum
Posts: 1011
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2006 15:39
Product(s): Scaleo T: Esprimo D9510 (work):Scaleo P
Location: London

Postby bubblegum » Wed Feb 14, 2007 20:17

Astaroth,

Thinking out loud. If the processor speed goes up to 100% then I'd expect the temp to have gone up. Even if the fan speed increases, it shouldn't sound as loud as you indicate.

I phoned up fs support about my pc switching off. The guy on the phone said it was probably dust. He said that wasn't covered by the warranty. He suggested I clean it out. I had to remove the clips holding the fan, then clean off the dust from the heat sink.

If you are worried about invalidating your warranty, speak to fs & ask them, if there is no seal on the pc cover, how will they know you have opened it.

If you are concerned about removing the fan, (when I did it, I pulled the cpu out,) get a can of compressed air, & blow through the fan. If after you have cleaned out the dust, & it's still noisy. For a couple of quid, you can buy a fan. The noise, could be a faulty bearing, in the fan.

Even if you don't think this is related to your problem, cleaning the heat sink & fan can't do it any harm.

thebigball
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Postby thebigball » Wed Nov 21, 2007 18:20

response to Astaroth...
Did you get any further with this? - I have a Scenic 320 which is reminiscent of a concord taking off - it used to be fine, nice and quiet, but one day the fan zoomed up to 100% at power on, and it is now always running flat out whenever the system is powered up.
I attacked it with a vacuum cleaner, and it briefly went back to normal, but on the next power on it resumed the turbo-jet function. It certainly keeps the CPU nice and cool, but you just can't sit next to it for any length of time.
I looked into the bios but couldn't find any relevant settings - and F-S response was "this is not covered by the warranty"! I am wondering if there is a sensor which has become loose or clogged with dust...


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