Optimus IV Fan Noise

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Simi

Member
I received my Optimus IV about two weeks ago and the fan has been driving me spare from day one. I'm not talking about while gaming or under full load, I'm mean when it's at its lowest setting, browsing or watching videos.

It's low rumbling sound, reminds me of an old psu I had which was on it's last legs. It's almost constant from the moment the computer gets warm enough to activate the fan. Its not so much the dB but the frequency of the sound which makes it incredibly annoying and impossible to ignore. It's gotten to the stage where I want to take a hammer to the thing at night, when there are no other sounds to drown it out.

So, Is this normal behaviour for the fan, or will replacing the fan solve the problem? I don't want to go to the hassle of sending the laptop back if a replacement is going to behave in the exact same way.
 
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Keithg

Enthusiast
When I am just browsing the net my optimus is virtually silent. Have you monitored your cpu / gpu temps as there should be no reason for the fans to be blowing while on the desktop.
Also look at the optimus lights on the top right of the keyboard to confirm that the intel graphics is in use.
 
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Simi

Member
Yes, it's using the intel gpu for everything except gaming. When browsing or watching netflix, temperatures average around 40-55C. The max temperature i've recorded is 73C after running 3D Mark 11 a few times in a row. At idle it's 35-40C.

My issue is not the fan activating. It's the noise it makes at it's lowest setting. Even though the dB is obviously lower than while gaming, the low frequency makes it far more annoying. Once it passes a certain speed it sounds like a normal fan should. If there was a way to control the fan speed or the threshold for when it activated, this would be a very easy problem to solve.

What does your fan sound like when it's on its lowest setting? Is it a low pitched or high pitched sound?
 
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Keithg

Enthusiast
Well I had to put the laptop close to my ear to hear anything.
Around the top left of my keyboard I would describe as silent, a very very low rpm fan noise. In the top right I can hear the second HDD spinning which sounds like static from speakers.
But to get these noises I had to get my ear to within 1inch of the chassis, from 10inches all I can hear is a very low drone of the HDD. During this time my temps are 40-45C

Other than that nothing. Hope this helps.
 
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Simi

Member
Thanks for that. Much appreciated. Definitely a problem then, as I can hear this from over 1m away.

Guess I'll ask for it to be replaced and hope for the best. I've tried it with the bottom cover off and it makes no difference, after a few minutes of operation it kicks in and gets louder and louder until it's unbearable.

The only solution I've found is to tilt the laptop back onto it's screen. When resting veritcally like that the rumble goes away and it sounds like a normal fan. Obbiously not a realistic solution though! ;-)
 
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Kreeeee

Active member
Simi said:
The only solution I've found is to tilt the laptop back onto it's screen. When resting veritcally like that the rumble goes away and it sounds like a normal fan. Obbiously not a realistic solution though! ;-)
Click to expand...

Mine also exhibits this behaviour. There is a rattle when the fan kicks in (it's not the HDD as I have 2 SSD's) and become much more pronounced as the fan speed increases.

After reading your post I tried orienting the laptop chassis vertically and the rattle completely stops!

Please let us know how you get on when you contact PCSpecialist.
 
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Simi

Member
Just thought I'd share my progress on this issue. I rang PCSpecialist and they offered to send me out a replacement fan to install myself. That was about 2 weeks ago, no sign of it yet.

Since then, the noise has actually gotten a little better. It's not quite as loud as before and more importantly the frequency of the noise has increased, meaning it no longer penetrates headphones.

It's possible that the fan just needs some time to wear in and will continue to improve. Either way if the replacement fan ever arrives, i'll swap them out and see if there's any difference. I've also read rumours of an upcoming bios update from clevo with fan support. If true, it'd mean you could use speedfan to figure out which speeds are noisey and skip over them entirely.
 
Rakk

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
Simi said:
Just thought I'd share my progress on this issue. I rang PCSpecialist and they offered to send me out a replacement fan to install myself. That was about 2 weeks ago, no sign of it yet.
Click to expand...
If they said they'd sent out a replacement to you 2 weeks ago and you still haven't recieved it I'd let PCS know, they probably think you've got it already and its fixed the problem.
 
Corfate

Corfate

Author Level
Rakk said:
If they said they'd sent out a replacement to you 2 weeks ago and you still haven't recieved it I'd let PCS know, they probably think you've got it already and its fixed the problem.
Click to expand...

+1. They must have sent it out with DPD, which is next day delivery. I'd deffo get in touch with them :)
 
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Kreeeee

Active member
Kreeeee said:
Mine also exhibits this behaviour. There is a rattle when the fan kicks in (it's not the HDD as I have 2 SSD's) and become much more pronounced as the fan speed increases.

After reading your post I tried orienting the laptop chassis vertically and the rattle completely stops!

Please let us know how you get on when you contact PCSpecialist.
Click to expand...

My fan has started rattling again :( Been getting progressively worse over the last few week where is used to come and go, but now it always rattles when the fan is running.
 
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