Very loud cooling fan and CPU noise on VPC-EB4 - help??!!

[peGGi7]

Hi,

I just bought a VPCEB4X0E/BQ (VPC-EB4X0E/BQ).

The running noise is very loud.  The cooling fan is ALWAYS on.  This isn't something I've experienced before (other laptops I've had regular use of in the past year include Toshiba Satellite A210, Acer Extensa 5220, an old Dell Inspiron, MacBook Pro, Samsung R510...).  Under light usage (browsing internet, listening music) the fan is loud and sounds like it's continuously speeding up and slowing down in a gradual, even manner.

Then when it's asked to do several tasks at once, the fan noise is incredible - it roars up like an accelerating vehicle.

I'm particuarly disappointed as I will be using the machine to record and edit music.  I really didn't expect a modern laptop to sound like this.

I always use it on a flat surface - I have a little laptop tray thingy for that purpose.  I'm using it in a normal room temperature environment. 

From reading other posts on similar models, both here and elsewhere, it seems like returning it to Sony for repair won't make much difference, that it's a design flaw.  I'm also reluctant to change the C3/C6 setting thing in BIOS as that affects power consumption or something, and seems to be a fix for the 'beeping noise' problem, which isn't the issue here.

I really don't want to return the laptop and replace it with another model as it's great in every other way.  The keyboard and design are lovely, and the screen is one of the best I've ever used, we're talking MBP standards.  Any suggestions?  Or fixes that I haven't found in my web research? 

[SamY_UK]

I know this is a very old thread, but I had this same issue with both my own and my wifes VPCEB4 laptops, and this page is what came up top in google searches for "VPCEB4 loud fan" - so hopefully this might help others running into the same problem.

Both our laptops started off fine when new, generally quiet, even under loads. It got progressively worse to the extent that we actually resorted to setting the max cpu speed to 70% in advanced power management (in windows) to stop the fan running very loud for even simple loads (like browsing the web).

After spending quite a bit of time googling, and trying various recommendations - software/configuration options, clear any dust from the air vents - I stumbled upon http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/456538-official-vaio-e-series-owners-thread... . Its a very very long thread with lots of other topics about the laptop, but interestingly a few post mentioned poor quality thermal paste between the heatsink and cpu/gpu.

I took the plunge and relapped the cpu and gpu with some thermal paste I picked up in a local computer store. This involves taking apart the laptop, removing the heatsink, cleaning off the old paste, applying a thin layer of the new paste and putting it all back to gether again. The result was dramatic - near silent when idle, and bareable even under load with cpu back at 100%.

On taking the heatsink off, it was clear that the original paste had dried out and not able to do its job of transferring the heat from cpu/gpu to heatsink effectively.

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