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Re: Fan noise

 

Jimbo schrieb:
Hey Burkhard,
After reading your clarification it sounds like your fan noise is more
severe than what I'm experiencing. Mine doesn't sound like a real speed
up... it's hard to explain.
Can you exchange the machine easily under warranty? If possible, go for it!

As for BIOS, I've got 1.10, and I think I'll keep it there unless I really
have a good reason to upgrade. It seems to be working fine so far. The fan
is pretty constant, I haven't noticed too much difference between Fedora and
Win 7, but Winders seems to run a little quieter.

Out of curiosity what CPU did you get? I've got the Core 2 Solo, and under
Windows 7 get some mouse stutters, esp. when outlook is checking mail.  But
with Linux, performance is really great, Fedora seems to perform better than
Ubuntu...but it's a close call.
Anyway, do you get those mouse stutters at any point? Good luck with
figuring out that fan noise, let us know.

Jim

Hi Jim,

I've got the dual core version. I think I'll return the unit and exchange it for a different model. The reason why I originally chose the 3810TG is that it's dual core. I don't care about the ATI graphics card (I'd rather prefer the Intel card only) but I really wanted a laptop that's not completely underpowered by today's standards. Now I've noticed that there is a new model, the 3810tz, with a SU4100 dual core and I'd like to know how this thing compares to the SU9400 in the older 3810t models. Does anybody know? I've notices no stutters, the laptop runs pretty fast as it is; honestly, I really like it. It's just that the noise is nowhere near acceptable for me.

One last thing I might try before returning the laptop is to downgrade the Bios to 1.10. I'm a bit reluctant as, as I wrote earlier, I can't go back to 1.14 and the warranty/return policy is not clear to me in this case.

Burkhard


-----Original Message-----
From: acertimeline-bounces+jimbojones443=gmail.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:acertimeline-bounces+jimbojones443=gmail.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Burkhard Ritter
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 6:47 AM
To: acertimeline@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Acertimeline] Fan noise

Jim wrote:
I re-read your post and realized I might experience the same noise. The
pitch of the whoosh increases slightly whenever the hard drive is
accessed in short bursts.

Hey, also, have you used the machine in Windows and do you get the same
results?

Sorry I should have read your post better the first time.

Jim

Jose Baeza Noci wrote:
I have a 5810TG-dual core (9400) and would not say the fan is noisy at
all!!

Jose

Tuukka Hastrup wrote:
Are you sure you have the ATI switched off when using the Intel?
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/435906

Also, does the fan slow down as it should when you unplug the AC
adapter? In any case, you should check the power usage with powertop
to get an idea of the amount of heat produced. A 3810t owner should
be able to give you a reference for how many Watts is normal.


I have to clarify, the behaviour that I described in my first mail was with Windows 7 running on AC. However, I can't reproduce that behaviour now; I still get it when running Windows on batteries - the fan is running pretty quietly but spins faster every few seconds for a very short time. Running Windows on AC the fan's very well audible all of the time. Still on Windows it doesn't matter which graphics card I'm using (it also doesn't matter whether the BIOS setting is switchable or discrete).

Behaviour with Ubuntu is pretty much the same. Acceptable quiet when running on batteries (but still the fan is running all the time), without the bursts I've seen on Windows. Pretty noisy when on AC. This is with the proprietary ATI driver. For whatever reason this Ubuntu (residing on an USB stick) won't even boot properly now when the BIOS is set to switchabel graphics. I suspect that this happened after installing the flgrx driver.

CPU temperature reported by `sensors` is a very cool 29 degrees Celsius right now, the maximum I've seen is 39. Power consumption reported by powertop is somewhere between 12 and 15 Watts.

Lastly, what Bios version do you have? This here is 1.14, the latest available from the website is 1.10 and I've read at ubuntuforums.org that with the newer versions the fan spins up more often. I'm reluctant of downgrading the Bios as it seems that I can't go back to 1.14 afterwards.

As it is I'm at the point of giving up and returning the laptop. The situation is still not clear to me. It seems that users with models without an ATI card are definitely not experiencing this issue. I'm not so sure about models with these ATI cards, might be related to Bios version. I'll call Acer support and see if they can offer any advice, although I'm not too optimistic about this.

Burkhard

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