Vaio S2XP fan runs even with lowest performance settings

[sebastianb2]

Hello,

I've got a question concerning my Sony Vaio S2XP Notebook. Since I use it mostly for Office applications I'm really a little bit annoyed that the fan runs steadily. Even with the lowest performance and battery friendly settings the fan keeps running.

Has anybody the same expiriences? Is it maybe supposed to be like that?

Looking forward to your answers

Sebastian

[kee-lo_]

Yeah it is very compact in that case.

[sebastianb2]

Ok, you all are right, more or less, but I what I noticed in the last days is really strange: When I'm using the computer with my power cord, the fan runs always! When using it with the battery pack (and with the same settings as with power cord, I said the same!!!) it's quite! Almost the whole time, unless I'm executing some bigger processes. Is there a reason for that? I would be surprised, cause why should a fan set to lowest fan noise be louder when using the power cord? Or why should a CPU, set to battery saving, perform higher?

What I else noticed is, that there is a process running in the background that is called VZFW.exe It's using the CPU almost all time with almost all power. So, does anybody know this process? Try it, if you end it via task-manager the fan-noise will decrease dramatically!

Sebastian

[jeje38]

To lower the fan speed, you can use this tool, called CPU MSR :
http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/BetaVersions/CPUMSR_0_88.zip
found on this page : http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/CPUMSR_main.htm
In fact, this tool lower the processor speed.
I use it on my VAIO notebook (PCG-FR215H) with a range from 300 Mhz to 1.67 GHz.

For the VZFW.EXE process :
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/VzFw/

"VzFw.exe is a process belonging to the Sony GigaPocket multimedia entertainment center. This program is non-essential process to the running of the system, but should not be terminated unless suspected to be causing problems."

Perhaps, you could try to rename the EXE file (after killing the process)
to prevent the system to run it on boot.

[kee-lo_]

I wouldn't suggest changing the fan speed you could cause damage to the CPU

[sebastianb2]

I wouldn't suggest changing the fan speed you could cause damage to the CPU

If you would read the comments more intensive you would have noticed that he wrote that it lowers CPU speed. For some tasks I wouldn't mind to have less processor power...

[Fuzzillogic]

The tool is made for the AthlonXP and Intel's NetBurst architecture. I haven't run the tool on my S2XP, but since the Dothan CPU isn't a AthlonXP or a NetBurst CPU, I guess it won't work.

Would be nice tho. And lowering the CPU to 300MHz might do the trick to stop the fan.

[jeje38]

You're right. It's a Dothan but some people reported it to work in this page in italian (I used "babelfish" to translate and understand even if it was a bad translation) : http://www.canusiumfood.it/mess_106209_951507.html
They say it is stable at 600 MHz and 0.7V.

And lowering the CPU to 300MHz might do the trick to stop the fan.

And surprisingly, on my Athlon XP-M, provided you don't run too many applications, 300 or 600 MHz could be enough for using a word processor or basic web surfing (for pages without Java applets of course, who is very power consuming)
When you need more power, you can go back to max frequency or any of your choice that is working.
Hope this works on your S2XP Vaio "sebastianb2" and "Fuzzillogic". Please report your results.

[Bugge]

Any new experiences with the fan-problem?
My S2XP most of the time only starts the fan for a few seconds, but doing this every 10 - 20 seconds.
Would it be better to start at higher temperature and cooling longer, but less often? Can this be regulated?
cheers Bugge

[Fuzzillogic]

Same here. I wonder whether it is the BIOS which controls the fan, or some Windows app. The setting "fan noise" in Vaio's power managment is of no use, as it only seems to lower or limit the maximum CPU speed in order to keep the temperature down, which of course results in a less hard-working fan.

But indeed, would be nice if it could be more controlled. Say, fan on at 45 degrees, fan off at 35 degrees. Now both fan on and off limit is 40 degrees. CPU at 41 degrees? Fan on. Back to 40? Fan off.

[fraheato]

When my fan was running noisily I was advised to go to Control Panel, Power Options, Sony Power Management, and changed System Power Control (at the bottom) to Adaptive. It makes a big difference.
I have PCG-K315M by the way.