PS4 fan unacceptably loud

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PS4 fan unacceptably loud

Hi,

I have to stress that The Witcher III is a phenomenal achievement, a really wonderful title that has not only broken a gaming malaise that I've had, but a game that I genuinely look forward to getting home to play in the evening and to get absorbed in its world and characters...

Well that's what I would be doing if playing the game didn't make my PS4 sound like a hairdryer. I know the PS4 is the loudest of the three main consoles (which makes sense as it has so much, including the power brick packed into such a tight space), but my word does this game make it run loud. I cannot play it without headphones (and even at that, I've taken to using my close-backed ones I wear out and about, not my better open-backed ones I traditionally use on the hifi for all my home listening).

It's at a point where I fear for my PS4 as I've never heard a console run this loud before (that includes a launch 360 and Dreamcast). Most games have it ramp up on occasion and make a bit of noise, but this is constant. At worst before this, the PS4 has been cool and a bit noisy, but running The Witcher it's obnoxiously loud and you could fry an egg on it (and yes, it's well ventilated, I take the utmost care of all my electronics and my home is a pet and smoke free home).

I completely understand that CD Projeckt Red work within the parameters of what retail units can do, and ultimately this is all Sony's fault, but I just cannot fathom how this can get past Q.A.
 
Odd. The only time the Witcher got my Ps4 fan to be loud was when I was downloading 38 free PS Plus games at once. I have 14 disc games and only The Last of Us Multiplayer and Assassins Creed Unity (while the game is paused, which is odd) make the fan run louder than normal. Sometimes Second Son makes the fun run a bit faster than normal but not like AC Unity.

I do play long sessions and my Ps4 is not new, got it over a year ago. GTA, Driveclub, Ground Zeroes, Project Cars, Resogun, that are games supposed to push the ps4 run pretty nromal too just like the Witche, and it doesn't speed up even after 5, 6 hours of gameplay.

Are you playing in a quiet room? Close to the console?

Edit: Playing Planetside 2 beta did make the fun run louder than normal too. But again, the worst is AC Unity when I'm in the game's menus, during gameplay everything is fine.
 
Thanks for replying.

The fan going ape is not uncommon in menus as I think there's no framerate limiter active then (Transistor is also really bad for this, Far Cry 4 as well, ironically going into the menus on The Witcher is the only time the fan actually calms down). I've put ridiculous hours into GTA V,and not once did I notice the fan. Could barely hear the console when playing Driveclub. Could hear it a bit with Resogun (but it's not as if that game has atmospheric sections, moody, quiet music and dialogue to take in).

My head is between 7 and 8 feet from the console, and it was a white one purchased at Christmas (I've had a PS4 since launch week but got a slightly ludicrous deal in a local shop that saw me purchase the white one plus a game for the same amount of money as another shop were buying them in for, so I figured "why not"). The console is in an open space, so it is probably a bit more audible as a result, but the point is it's in the same spot it's always been and the only thing that is different between normal operation and the fan going crazy to the point where it sounds like it's going to break, is playing The Witcher III.
 
Is it summer where you live? Thermo fans like the 'Hair Dryer' powered one you mentioned are thermostatically controlled. So ones the GPU/CPU reaches a certain temperature they kick in until the desired safe operating temperature is reached. I live in a pretty temperate region, but it does get very hot during Summer months & quite cold during Winter months. Since TW3 has been release just at the very start of the Southern Hemisphere's Winter, I've not yet had this problem (I live in the Southern Hemisphere of course). However I have noticed many other games often getting my PS4 to do it's 'Hair Dryer' impersonation during the hot months in the past. Also, the longer a thermo fan runs the more wear & tear on it's moving parts, like bearings. They do get a bit noisier with of use.

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Just a follow up from a Google search I did... It seems a lot of people on the net are mentioning the poor quality of Thermo Paste Sony used at manufacture as being a cause of the problem. Thermo Past has varying quantities of silver powder in it, so cheaper ones have less silver in it. If your machine is outside of warranty there are quite a few guides on Youtube on how to change this yourself, but if your not comfortable doing it yourself you could buy a high quality tube of thermo paste yourself from a PC parts shop & pay a qualified service tech to apply it. Having done this in the past on a PC it's pretty straight forward stuff.
 
My PS4 is laying horizontally, I did experiment with it standing vertically but that blocks one of the intake ports - thought the console was taxiing for take off!

It is indeed summer here, but I live in Ireland - we're famed for our year-round miserable weather! It's a nice day here today by all accounts, but despite that (and the fact that it's not long after midday), it's 13 degrees outside (and the ambient temperature in my living room is about 10 degrees).

My PS4 is only six months old (we get a minimum of two years on warranties here), so there's no point opening it up at this point, plus if I want to resell it (which I may very well do if there's a hardware refresh revealed at E3), I need to keep the seals intact.

I guess I'll carry on playing the game with closed-back headphones, which certainly isn't ideal but at least I have that option.
 
I've never had this issue before, not with any game as far as I'm aware (although it may have happened), but certainly not with The Witcher 3.

I have a 7 year old 360 on the shelf below my PS4 which I use for a few of it's media functions and the PS4 is virtually silent in comparison. If my PS4 began generating noise in excess of my 360 like you mention, I would be very concerned.

I've heard it mentioned that this is indicative the PS4 is preparing to give you the blue light of death. So it may be worth contacting Sony technical support and seeing what the procedure is for getting a replacement.
 
Same here! aome guy here mention it could be the enviroment,but it has zero with the enviroment to do, cause i have my ps4 with me when i travel, and still it sounds like my ps4 is off to mars. and only when im playing witcher 3. There is plenty of bugs in this game, so maybe its related to that?

It happends atleast 2-3 each gaming session for me( approx 5 hrs/day the last week).
 
Ah the Dreamcast... when random encounters were not so random because you could hear the disk spin up and run away cancelling it out. Those were the days.
Sometimes play Skies of Arcadia because...yeah.

Oh, should also mention my PS4 is pretty loud too. Think that's a thing. Will look into after market cooling once the warranty expires.
 
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I am a PC gamer, and I can say from experience that it is completely normal. It is the exact same way in PCs. The more demanding a game is the more it taxes the hardware especially the graphics card and the CPU. So as a result the fans have to work at full speed constantly in order to keep the system cool. Both PCs and consoles run quieter and cooler when you are playing an Indie game that is less demanding on the hardware, but they run louder when you are playing an open world game such as the Witcher 3 that constantly keeps the GPU and CPU on their toes.

Neither CDPR nor Sony can fix this at this point. It is the compact design of the PS4 and the noise level of the fans that is the determinant, and Sony should have thought about when they were designing the PS4. But I am impressed with the PS4 nonetheless, because creating such a compact console is not an easy task.
 
it's only loud sometimes for me it's kinda up and down with this game

sometimes it's almost silent then other times it goes nuts ( i think it does it alot in cutscenes to)
 
your ps4 seems to be overheating... take caution, try installing those fan mods, it will keep your ps4 cool
 
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