high pitch fan noise

[Genoo]

I´ve just got my deck today and so far i´m happy with its performance

but the fan noise is driving me crazy, in fact, its so annoying i cant use it in bed right next to my wife

after browsing through the web, ive found out that there seems to be two different fans, one of them responsible for the high pitch sound

https://boilingsteam.com/steam-deck-whistling-blame-the-fan/
you can hear clearly the difference in the video

anyone else got this problem and requested a RMA? how likley would it be to get a version with the less noisy fan? i´m really upset about this now

[IceGoalie31]

Unfortunately, you cannot get a different fan unless you replace it yourself.
(Do note though that this is based off of what I remember seeing in other posts so this may still be possible)

[squirrel]

Same here, that high pitch noise is killing all the fun. It's unbearable, but i'm still hoping there will be a fix for it. Not requested a RMA yet, but considering it.

[Genoo]

Originally posted by kerstin:

Same here, that high pitch noise is killing all the fun. It's unbearable, but i'm still hoping there will be a fix for it. Not requested a RMA yet, but considering it.

did you update your deck? since the last update the noise got WAY better, before the update the fan kicked even in desktop mode in, now even in heavy load AAA games the fan is barely active and temperatures are still in a acceptable range and in emulation mode or even not so demanding games the fan is not starting

[SIR LIONEL GHOULMAN]

thank u gabe for giving me the good fan.

[ugafan]

Another tip is to lower your TDP. I've had good results by lowering it to 7 watts and adjusting the gpu clock speed.

[IceGoalie31]

Originally posted by Jimmy Rustles:

Does anyone know if this fan issue has been fixed yet? I just got the pre-order confirmaiton to buy, and am on the fence about it.

BUY IT If you don't like it you can always sell it on ebay and hey maybe you could be nice and sell it for under $1000 also read this https://www.theverge.com/23047412/valve-steam-deck-fan-tape-fix-noise-whine
Also supposedly valve has fixed noise a lot with new settings

[Citizen]

Download the beta profile and it will be very quiet; believe me I know, because my fan was very loud and high pitched out the box.

[RoyalMetalKnights]

My son has the 256GB with the good fan and it doesn't make any high pitch noise. I got the 512GB and it screams like a banshee. Noise really messes with your head. I did the Beta update and it seems to change the temp thresholds for when the fan ramps up, so it helps in the menu and easy to run games, but in more graphic-intensive games it still whines.

It's definitely something Valve should have never allowed. Hoping to get a replacement from iFixit, I don't want to deal with RMA bs.

[Marlock]

Originally posted by IceGoalie31:

Originally posted by Jimmy Rustles:

Does anyone know if this fan issue has been fixed yet? I just got the pre-order confirmaiton to buy, and am on the fence about it.

BUY IT If you don't like it you can always sell it on ebay and hey maybe you could be nice and sell it for under $1000 also read this https://www.theverge.com/23047412/valve-steam-deck-fan-tape-fix-noise-whine
Also supposedly valve has fixed noise a lot with new settings

Here is another link for the electrical tape fix for the whiny Delta fan:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/uckns3/how_i_fixed_my_whiny_delta_fan_with_electrical/

It's quick and easy to do, and doesn't harm thermals in any way!

Valve themselves started shipping new units with a similar fix (engineered foam), so chances are hight that buying a new unit you won't even need to do this fix.

Until now Valve was tweaking fan profiles to balance between too much noise and too much heat, but this is better because it actually eliminates most of the annoying noise without sacrificing the cooling efficiency like those software tweaks.

[LA_Expat]

Just got a new steam deck and booted it up to hear the disappointing high pitched whistle of the fan... a bit bummed they are still shipping devices with this fan in it.

Off to ifixit I go...