Hey all....

I have a Sony Vaio PCV-RX580 1.8 Gig., that has some kind of proprietary fan control driver that I have tried to load a 100 times. It was working fine until I upgraded my BIOS to from V.1003 to V. 1004 per Sony's website and their tech support. I have even reimaged my hard drive and installed a fresh copy of the XP Pro operating system along with the fan control drivers and the fan is still friggin loud!!! It used to kick in right as XP was loading and Sony's only response is to reimage the hard drive with their Recovery CD. Yah right. "Headlamp went out on the Fiero so I sent it to the junkyard".
http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/support/pc/pcvrx580/

Has anyone ran into this issue before? There has got to be a way to get the driver to work....

Here is a copy of the OEM SonyFanC.inf file if that might help...

Thanks.....
Sean

;; ********* PLEASE READ ***********
;; The wizard cannot create exact INF files for all buses and device types.
;; You may have to make changes to this file in order to get your device to
;; install. In particular, hardware IDs and logical configurations require
;; intervention.
;;
;; The Win2K DDK documentation contains an excellent INF reference.

;--------- Version Section ---------------------------------------------------

[Version]
Signature="$CHICAGO$"
Provider=%ProviderName%
Class=FAN Device Control
ClassGUID={ff646f80-8def-11d2-9449-00105a075f6b}

;----- add by yasu -----
[ControlFlags]
; All PnP devices should be excluded from manual AddDevice Applet list
ExcludeFromSelect=*
;----- add by yasu -----

;--------- SourceDiskNames and SourceDiskFiles Section -----------------------

; These sections identify source disks and files for installation. They are
; shown here as an example, but commented out.

;[SourceDisksNames]
;1 = "Install Disk",Disk1,,

;[SourceDisksFiles]
;SonyFanC.sys = 1,,

;--------- ClassInstall/ClassInstall32 Section -------------------------------

; Not necessary if using a standard class

; 9X Style
[ClassInstall]
Addreg=Class_AddReg

; NT Style
[ClassInstall32]
Addreg=Class_AddReg

[Class_AddReg]
HKR,,,,%DeviceClassName%
HKR,,Icon,,0
HKR,,NoDisplayClass,,1

;--------- DestinationDirs Section -------------------------------------------

[DestinationDirs]
SonyFanC_Files_Driver = 10,System32\Drivers

;--------- Manufacturer and Models Sections ----------------------------------

[Manufacturer]
%MfgName%=Mfg0

[Mfg0]
%SONY_FAN_CONTROL.DeviceDesc%=SonyFanC_DDI,SONY_FAN_CONTROL

;---------- DDInstall Sections -----------------------------------------------
; --------- Windows 9X -----------------

; Experimentation has shown that DDInstall root names greater than 19 characters
; cause problems in Windows 98

[SonyFanC_DDI]
CopyFiles=SonyFanC_Files_Driver
AddReg=SonyFanC_9X_AddReg
; LogConfig=SuperIO

[SonyFanC_9X_AddReg]
HKR,,DevLoader,,*ntkern
HKR,,NTMPDriver,,SonyFanC.sys
HKR, "Parameters", "BreakOnEntry", 0x00010001, 0
HKR, "FanModeSetting", "CpuFanMode1", 0x00010001, 0x00ff
HKR, "FanModeSetting", "CpuFanMode2", 0x00010001, 0x0088

; [SuperIO]
; ConfigPriority=HARDWIRED
; IOConfig=295-296(2ff:

; --------- Windows NT -----------------

[SonyFanC_DDI.NT]
CopyFiles=SonyFanC_Files_Driver
AddReg=SonyFanC_NT_AddReg

[SonyFanC_DDI.NT.Services]
Addservice = SonyFanC, 0x00000002, SonyFanC_AddService

[SonyFanC_AddService]
DisplayName = %SONY_FAN_CONTROL.SvcDesc%
ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType = 1 ; boot
ErrorControl = 1 ; SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL
ServiceBinary = %10%\System32\Drivers\SonyFanC.sys

[SonyFanC_NT_AddReg]

; --------- Files (common) -------------

[SonyFanC_Files_Driver]
SonyFanC.sys

;--------- Strings Section ---------------------------------------------------

[Strings]
ProviderName="Sony Corporation"
MfgName="Sony Corporation"
DeviceClassName="FAN Control Device"
SONY_FAN_CONTROL.DeviceDesc="SONY FAN Control Device"
SONY_FAN_CONTROL.SvcDesc="FAN Control Device Service"

In Short.... There IS NO FIX.

I've been in the PC business 20+ years. I've fixed allot of craptops and what came before them.... They all suck. Deal with it or get out of the laptop market. The manufacturers don't give a crap what you think, they already have your money.

Fan control is almost always a BIOS function and ALL laptop makers are having cooling problems of one type or another. Toshiba just became the target of another class action suite over this kind of problem. (Last one I know of was over floppy controllers and affected other craptop and desktop makers.)

Your problem is not at all unique. All the laptop fans are loud. What the hell do you expect from a fan the size of a quarter or smaller? The only way to cut noise is to chop the fan speed which also means lower system performance.

It doesn't matter what "driver" you load. When the system is hot the fan MUST run full speed and IT WILL make a hell of allot of noise when it does. XP is WinNT6 and unless you know how to stop it, loads all sorts of sh_t wether you need it or not. The system is going to run full CPU speed and heat most of the time.

People ask me all the time what laptop is best... My answer has been and continues to be... They ALL suck. IBM Sony Compaq Dell Toshiba etc. They all suck. There are a long list of reasons for this... You've just discovered one of them.

If you want a quite laptop.... I think NEC is working on using a "water" cooled system. It turns the entire back of the LCD into a radiator. No Fan.

------------------
11-Sept-01, The day the world as we knew it ended.

With a sony viao you definitly want the fan. I have one and the big complaint about them is they heat up twice as much as most laptops. I mean I can't even sit with it on my lap or I swear it's going to singe the hair off my legs. lol okay maybe not that bad but you get the point...

------------------

Some of the newer Dell models have the fan opening on the bottom. Put them on anything soft and they are likely to go nuclear....

HAHAHAHA!! I am laughing right now because It's NOT A LAPTOP! I'm sorry if I didnt specify this earlier, but just curious...what made you all think it was a laptop?

It's a tower unit. The fan speed also worked before the upgrade and you could hear it kick in to higher speed whenever you used CPU intensive apps...Is there a way to downgrade a BIOS? Even if I could, I'm not so sure I could even find the software version 1003 anywhere.

Thanks,
Sean

sorry ...assumed that because most viao are laptops. Sony does make a few desktops though...sorry.

quote Originally posted by firstfiero: sorry ...assumed that because most viao are laptops. Sony does make a few desktops though...sorry.

Really? I always thought it was the other way around. Still broken though!!! POS!!

Fan control in the desktops is becoming more common as PC makers try to meet tighter Energy Star guidlines from the U.S. EPA and similar programs for other countries.

It has some of the same problems as the laptops. Be glad the fan works at all....

Heat management in desktops is almost universally done with fans and heat sinks. Many machines have multiple fans on motherboard and periferal cards.

The increase in fans is a major problem to reliable long term operation. It often takes only a few months for the fans to plug things up with dirt.