Sony HT-RT3 Sub-Woofer Cooling Fan Noise

[Bladevane]

There is an annoying whining noise coming from the sub-woofer whenever the unit is switched on. The fan speed increases when audio output from the TV is heard and during lulls in TV conversation the fan can clearly be heard spooling down as the speed decreases. I am on the second sub-woofer unit and Sony have ordered a third one as a replacement. To be honest I am not expecting this one to be much, if any, better than the first 2.

Clearly someone in the Sony organisation has missed the noisy fan issue or decided customers will have to put up with it.

The noise is distracting and totally unacceptable.

[es0001]

Hi everyone,

I did contact Sony support and the fix they offered was to do a master reset of the system. I tried that and as expected it made no difference. The next thing they offered was to send my unit to the service center. I asked the support team if the service center was actually going to fix the problem (replace the fan, update the firmware, etc.) and they told me to contact the support center myself. I don’t see much point sending my system in if they are going to do nothing because this is how the product is intended to operate.

@Bladevane – I see you have sent yours back a few times now but the fan noise issue is still there.

Has anyone reading this forum ever sent their HT-RT3 in and had the fan noise issue actually fixed?


thanks

[SteveBrailsford]

After reporting the issue to Sony and chasing it numerous times, they have
come back to me and said that they have a partial fix (it will apparently
reduce the fan noise but not remove it completely) and I need to take it in
to a service centre.
I am due to drop it in tomorrow, so I'll keep you informed of how I get on.

[Bladevane]

This is welcome progress. I suppose I should not be surprised Sony have not been in touch with me to inform me about the "upgrade". Let us know how it goes.

[es0001]

Well, its a step in the right direction hopefully. Thanks for responding SteveBrailsford and let us know how things go for you.

[Auster52]

Shortly after posting my last comment, I took the unit back to the supplier and was given a full refund, no questions asked. My friend, who installs sounds systems professionally, was amazed that a cooling fan was necessary in such a small, low end product.

I now have a HEOS system - no fan - perfect!

[daffiegirl]

we bought our HT-RT3 from currys where did you purchase yours from that gave you a refund ? did you still have the box it came in we have thrown ours away so not sure they will refund without it

[Auster52]

Hi,

I bought mine from Currys/PC World at Crawley - I had also thrown the box away, but that didn't seem to matter.

There seems to be quite a large number of issues with these units now, so perhaps Sony will take notice.

Good luck!

[Bladevane]

Update from Sony Customer Support:

The technical team has now reconfirmed that the fan noise issue has been addressed by a firmware update, however this update can only be applied by an authorised service centre. Please kindly contact the nearest service partner in order to arrange for the update to be performed.

Well, good news, of a sort. My nearest Service Centre is over an hour away so more expense to me personally for an error on Sony's behalf.

[Bladevane]

Peace at last!!

I took the complete unit to a Sony Service Centre (J.F.Associates near to Oxford) for a firmware upgrade. This was done within an hour. I have set the system up and am pleased to report the annoying fan noise has been largely sillenced. The upgrade appears ot have set the fan to run at a fixed speed which is slower than the original so there is no spooling up and down in quiet moments. To be honest the fan noise is now hardly pereceptible. I am now a happy bunny but just wonder why it has taken countless emails to Sony and a wait of 9 months for this to happen when it should have been resolved in the product design/development stage.

[Ajlongfield]

Excellent news!

Few questions; what did you need to bring in? just the sub woofer? did they charge? assuming not as if its within warranty?

I have been in contact with Sony who gave me a number of my nearest center about an hour away but worth it for the fix as I got it in sale anyway.

Nice to know Sony actually listened and changed the firmware although a bit miffed how they couldn't tell me that during my numerous conversations with them. Also seems strange how it can't be done from home but any who a win for the customer!

Thanks