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

[slysy]

Interested to hear from i5 owners. When do you hear the fan and what were you doing at the time?

 

[lrwrx]

For me, the fan triggers on things as simple as long youtube videos, manual defender scan, etc. Definitely when I launch a VM. I have two i5 256G. The fans trigger under the same load but on one the fan is virtually silent, the other can be heard from across the room. It sounds like too small of a fan that is spinning too fast.

The unit with the silent fan has a lot #1542. The loud unit is from lot #1541. I plan on exchanging the loud unit. Hopefully I can find another lot #1542 or newer.

John

 

[MobileVortex]

My fan has turned on twice, Once with the first Firmware Update, the other was with the most recent Win 10 upgrade. Other then that, I havent noticed the fan once, or the device even feeling warm to the touch.

 

[dkp23]

Been using sp4 for a week, i dont have much on the device. The only time the fan went on was during 10586 update, i haven't had it come on since.

I longest time i've used it in one sitting is probably 1 hour with general internet use, so nothing crazy.

 

[TheCudder]

Basic web-browsing in Edge with nothing else running occasionally turns mine on. The first firmware release fixed the issue where it would over heat and power the fan up while charging in sleep.

 

[GatsbyGlen]

It kicks on when I play Candy Crack Saga on Crack Book.

 

[ttsoldier]

My fan turned on once. During the firmware upgrade.

 

[TheAsbo]

Why doesn't anyone mention the ambient temperature when giving their account?

 

[Liam Lenihan]

I find the fan was turning on for no reason at random times. It turned on last week when the surface was in sleep mode and charging. I took it back and they gave me a new unit.

The fan turned on again during the "threshold update" and was very loud.

 

[badMojo69]

Open the Edge browser or HearthStone.

 

[A_Pieman]

The The Edge browser for me, and ironically for me it seems to be this site that causes the problems. There seems to be some sort of memory leak so memory usage goes shooting up along with 30%+ cpu usage. Closing this sites tab stops it...

 

[boltman2013]

I remember fans... don't miss them at all..and pocketed the extra $100-500

Do not underestimate the joys of fanless versus unused cpu cycles and unused ram and cost savings.

 

[onesreality]

How do you see the lot number of your surface pro 4?

 

[GatsbyGlen]

How do you see the lot number of your surface pro 4?

It's on the box it came in.

 

[slysy]

It kicks on when I play Candy Crack Saga on Crack Book.

I LOL'ed

 

[GatsbyGlen]

Bluestacks will also ramp it up. I wanted to try that to see if I could get rid of my Android tablet, but I don't think I'm going to. So now I have 4 devices ...

Lenovo W541 - for work
SP4 - home
Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - it's just a bathroom magazine now
iPhone 6s - WTF was I thinking

I got the iphone recently, after using Android for so many years, because I was tired of the Apple Fan Boys saying it was a much better phone, and yet they had never used an Android. After using it for a couple of months, there is nothing significantly better or worse about it. You can do the same damn stuff on it. I'm actually considering ditching it, and getting the new Lumia 950 ... if only Verizon supported it.

I'm also contemplating getting rid of the i5 and getting an i7 with 16GB Ram, and see if it could possibly replace my Lenovo (i7/32GB). Just concerned with the memory consumption, as I use 64bit Excel now and deal with monstrous data sets (10's of millions of rows) thrown into Power Pivot. It's a beast of a laptop that's been problem free. It will be hard to get rid of.

 

[John M Beauchemin]

I've had my i5 256/8 for two days now.So far my fan has only noticeably kicked on twice.

1. First time was when it was fresh out of the box and I was installing loads of apps and programs and syncing lots of information to/from various clouds.
2. Second time was when I watched a youtube video.

Now, the youtube video event was especially interesting, because later that night I direct streamed a 12GB 1080p bluray rip from my NAS through emby for Kodi, and the fan did not kick on once. I would have figured if anything, that would have stressed the machine a bit more than streaming a lousy 5Mbit youtube video, or whatever their data rate is.

And for the poster who asked for ambient temps, this was at room temp. mid-60's.

 

[Dix Laughlin]

Hi, I am 2 weeks into my 30 days. So far this thing (i5, 256G) has been bloody silent save 20 seconds on the tail end of the major update. And even then it was rather quiet. My old vaio sounds like a leaf-blower. I was actually hoping to get annoying fan noise so I could take it back and save $400. I write notes with the pen in real time all day (onenote), watch youtube, work with Gimp--less than 10 layers so not large files, and have a couple of large onenote files so I could probably get by with the m3. My lot # is 1543.

Update: While I was writing this reply, the fan came on! Second time I have heard it in 2 weeks. Edge and Chrome were opened. Stayed on for about ~40 secs. Silent again so, all in all, I have to say it has been about 95% fanless. I still have 2 weeks to put it through the paces.
My lot # is 1543.

 

[boltman2013]

Bluestacks will also ramp it up. I wanted to try that to see if I could get rid of my Android tablet, but I don't think I'm going to. So now I have 4 devices ...

Lenovo W541 - for work
SP4 - home
Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - it's just a bathroom magazine now
iPhone 6s - WTF was I thinking

I got the iphone recently, after using Android for so many years, because I was tired of the Apple Fan Boys saying it was a much better phone, and yet they had never used an Android. After using it for a couple of months, there is nothing significantly better or worse about it. You can do the same damn stuff on it. I'm actually considering ditching it, and getting the new Lumia 950 ... if only Verizon supported it.

I'm also contemplating getting rid of the i5 and getting an i7 with 16GB Ram, and see if it could possibly replace my Lenovo (i7/32GB). Just concerned with the memory consumption, as I use 64bit Excel now and deal with monstrous data sets (10's of millions of rows) thrown into Power Pivot. It's a beast of a laptop that's been problem free. It will be hard to get rid of.

Apple fanbios don't do math and are not STEM scholars why would you listen to them on a tech purchase?

I myself grabbed a $29 Lumia 640 yesterday... $10 cheaper than my previous two 635/520. I am helping the Windows 10 Mobile cause.

 

[eran says]

Fan turns on for me only when playing Fallout 3 at full spec. But I barely even notice it. Seriously who is bothered by the noise of that weak fan?

Anyone remember the Xbox 360, or ever use a desktop pc for gaming?