UKC

I'm guessing no but just wondered. In case what I'm asking isn't clear I'm talking about taking HDD out, attaching to PC and formatting it while attached to PC then re-connecting to PS3 versus just using format options within the PS3 menu system.

Despite having taking PS3 apart, cleaned very carefully and replaced thermal paste it's still making excessive fan noise. Last role of the dice was to format HDD, restore factory default settings and apply latest firmware update. Just wanted to make I did most thorough format possible.

Cheers.

In reply to ksjs: If you've not already I'd recommend googling "noisy ps3" - you'll see a range of suggestions from raising the ps3 off the floor in a way that maximises airflow to doing a 'fan test' that should help clear any dust from the unit.

Noisy fans are most likely caused by the unit overheating (and thus the fans spinning fast to cool the unit down) or a build up of dust on the fans themselves which causes them to spin unevenly and vibrate excessively. It's pretty unlikely that formatting the hard drive will have any effect unfortunately, instead you're looking at ways to clear out dust/keep things cool.

As for the formatting question, I think the PS3 expects drives formatted at Fat32 so you'll be fine to format it with a PC but I doubt it'll make any difference compared to formatting through the PS3!

In reply to johnpuddephatt: Cheers John, just did the PS3 format. A bit of an improvement i.e. got blu-ray to run for 10 mins before noise kicked in and the machine will idle with no noise for hours. It didn't do this previously. I think this has nothing to do with format, it's just the newly applied thermal paste settling down (I applied this 2 days ago).

My understanding was that the fan test can damage the machine?

I have the machine raised off the floor and I was meticulous when I took it apart: used canned air, brushed the fan blades with a toothbrush, pulled string back and forth through all the cooling fins / radiator structure coming from the heatsink.

I think, as many do, it's a manufacturing defect. I bought the machine used so have no comeback against Sony.

In reply to ksjs:

Is your PS3 standing on end or laid down?

I noticed mine was pretty noisy recently and as part of a change around in the living room stood it on it's end. It seems to be much quieter now.

Sounds like you've already done quite a bit to try and get it more silent so I suspect you'll already have tried this... But if not, it's free and worth a go!

In reply to Onion: Have tried both and it makes little difference. Have read that the 'on end' set-up is counter intuitive i.e. fan will not work as efficiently as it wants to clear warm air upwards and this makes that less possible. Seems to make sense to me.

Have emailed Sony asking if they'll fix it - definitely a design / manufacturing fault (unless of course the aim was to have really noisy boxes in people's houses) but I'm guessing the fact that I'm not the original buyer / owner makes this a very long-shot. Maybe they're tired of negative PR though and have unofficially accepted there's a problem and they'll sort it out regardless. We shall see...