Fan Noise (i5) - Which Usage Scenarios Trigger the Fan to Come on?

eran says

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Haha, I forgot how bad the 360 was. I was over my ex-wifes house a few weeks back and she turned on her Xbox360 while I was there and I thought it was going to explode.
Did you know that the XB360 has that name because Microsoft realized it was 360 (that's an exact number derived by highly trained scientists using many precision things) times louder than the projected (and what turned out to be actual) fan noise from the sp4?

So much foresight from Phil and Panos...

Haha I don't know how I ever heard any dialogue from my TV with my 360 on. Maybe that's why I used my headphones so often...
 

C_Bom

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The fan kicks in when downloading big files like SC2 or streaming high quality movies to my TV.

Can I limit the CPU so the fan wont kick in? Would love to have a silent device while watching TV...
 

Grimmric

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What batch/lot do people have that has fans that you can hear?
My i5/8/256 id lot #1544 and i cant hear the fan from 30 cm from the screen.
If i lift it up and hold it to my ear i can hear the fan as a soft whisper.
 

Jan777

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What batch/lot do people have that has fans that you can hear?
My i5/8/256 id lot #1544 and i cant hear the fan from 30 cm from the screen.
If i lift it up and hold it to my ear i can hear the fan as a soft whisper.

I also have lot 1544 and the fan noise is extremely loud. Comes on after watching videos or on websites with lots of ads, and lasts for minutes at a time.
 

Grimmric

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I also have lot 1544 and the fan noise is extremely loud. Comes on after watching videos or on websites with lots of ads, and lasts for minutes at a time.

That is strange. Then i guess i'm just lucky.
I did stream youtube for over 4 hours in a row and i had to hold my hand close to the vent to feel the air flowing from the fan. For me its just a whisper.
I hope i havent jinxed it now.
 

eran says

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The fan kicks in when downloading big files like SC2 or streaming high quality movies to my TV.

Can I limit the CPU so the fan wont kick in? Would love to have a silent device while watching TV...
Yes you can. The sp4 limits changes to processor and gpu states out of the box, but you can unlock the ability to change those settings via different power plans using this guide:

http://www.windowscentral.com/how-max-intel-hd-graphics-surface-pro-4

The guide is how to make your sp4 more aggressive, but you can just as easily change the settings to make it less so.
 

Jan777

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That is strange. Then i guess i'm just lucky.
I did stream youtube for over 4 hours in a row and i had to hold my hand close to the vent to feel the air flowing from the fan. For me its just a whisper.
I hope i havent jinxed it now.
A surefire way to trigger the fan is the maps app. Locate a city, turn on satellite or city view and spin a little around, the device will become hot and the fans will scream.
 

slysy

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It seems feedback is very mixed on this. Some people saying it's quiet and others saying it's loud. Some saying it hardly ever comes on and some saying it comes on a lot.

It must either be luck of the draw with the hardware, or maybe people's usage is different?
 

WildKarrde

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The only time I semi-regularly hear the fan is when the SP4 is plugged into a power source. When on battery power, the only time I ever hear the fan is during gaming sessions. And it's really not that loud, IMHO.

My power plan basically turns my i5 into an m3 though, I only run the CPU at 50%, and the GPU at minimum performance about 90% of the time. Even when using the stock power plan though, I almost never hear the fan.
 

ttsoldier

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Again, I thought my fan was broken because I never heard it.

Downloaded a cpu stress program to carry up the %. It's working alright :)
 

slysy

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The only time I semi-regularly hear the fan is when the SP4 is plugged into a power source. When on battery power, the only time I ever hear the fan is during gaming sessions. And it's really not that loud, IMHO.

My power plan basically turns my i5 into an m3 though, I only run the CPU at 50%, and the GPU at minimum performance about 90% of the time. Even when using the stock power plan though, I almost never hear the fan.

Could you post a bit more information on how you created that power plan please?
 

WildKarrde

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Could you post a bit more information on how you created that power plan please?

First you have to disable Connected Standby, there are a few how-to's for that online.

Then I edited the power saver profile on battery to 15% display brightness, 5% minimum CPU usage, 50% maximum CPU usage, maximum battery life on the GPU, adaptive brightness off and Bluetooth disabled.
 
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ttsoldier

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Are you doing anything demanding usage-wise? What about when it's charging?

Demanding? I don't think so.

But from what i've been reading on this forum is that people seem to have the fan kicking in from using edge, browsing, watching movies etc.

That is definitely not happening.
 

slysy

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I've switched out my M3/4gb for an i5/8Gb. Let's hope the fan noise is not too annoying :p Will let you guys know how I get on with it!
 

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