stirrell Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 My Atari VCS from Best Buy arrived today. I’ve installed Windows, got the VCS Companion app working and played some Vault games. So far I am enjoying it. I really like the controllers. The only complaint I have so far is the fan noise and some of the interface being a little less than intuitive. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_JaguarVCS Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Have you installed all the updates to the firmware and bios?. I had a similar issue regarding the fan with my VCS it was so loud back in January I thought the unit was faulty but over the last months and after quite a few updates my unit is more or less silent with the fan only ramping up on a few games in the Atari OS!, Windows 10 mode the machines silent even when doing light tasks in 4k. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Best Buy sells woodgrain models? Nice. I thought everyone was selling the black onyx model. I agree with @Atari_JaguarVCS that the updates changed the fan behavior, and the fan comes on much less often after the updates 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stirrell Posted September 9, 2021 Author Share Posted September 9, 2021 Thanks for the feedback. I did install the updates when setting up the machine but I will make sure I have them all. The fan doesn't run all the time but it seems to either be off or really noticeable. I was also sitting right next the the machine, though, since I was plugging and unplugging USB stuff in getting everything ready. @zzip Best Buy and Microcenter both sell the woodgrain all-in bundles. I think the only places to get the Onyx are Gamestop or directly through Atari in the States. I did notice that the All-In Woodgrains were showing as sold out at Atari when I was looking to buy but they appear to be back in stock. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockduck Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 The All-Ins are woodgrain, the standalone VCS is the Onyx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockduck Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 I got so used to the PS4 that the VCS seems quiet in comparison, but it is fairly loud when it runs, especially if you say have your console sitting out or something. They have done a lot to minimize fan noise since launch, but a real fix would be replacing the fan mechanism itself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 (edited) 13 minutes ago, Mockduck said: The All-Ins are woodgrain, the standalone VCS is the Onyx. Ah, didn't realize that. I didn't feel I needed yet another xbox type controller, so I bought the standalone. Knowing the bundle was woodgrain might have swayed that decision, haha. 11 minutes ago, Mockduck said: I got so used to the PS4 that the VCS seems quiet in comparison, It is way quieter than my PS4 fan for sure! I don't think my VCS fan is too loud, especially when it isn't right next to me. Edited September 9, 2021 by zzip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stirrell Posted September 10, 2021 Author Share Posted September 10, 2021 I played the VCS last night in the living room and, as expected, the fan noise was not very noticeable at all. Played through the Unsung Warriors Prologue. Fun game! On an unrelated note - is there any kind of equivalent to a Control-Alt-Delete in AtariOS? I had a couple programs act up (Chrome by itself and Atari Vault when using the classic controller) and could not get the machine to go back out the to Dashboard. I wound up power cycling but wasn't sure if there was some other workaround. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mockduck Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 2 hours ago, stirrell said: I played the VCS last night in the living room and, as expected, the fan noise was not very noticeable at all. Played through the Unsung Warriors Prologue. Fun game! On an unrelated note - is there any kind of equivalent to a Control-Alt-Delete in AtariOS? I had a couple programs act up (Chrome by itself and Atari Vault when using the classic controller) and could not get the machine to go back out the to Dashboard. I wound up power cycling but wasn't sure if there was some other workaround. I would love to see something like this happen. If trying to go back to the Dashboard doesn't help (or if you are on the Dashboard), then yeah, power cycling is the only way to reset I have found. I had the new Aery lock up on me last night and had to do that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justclaws Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 On 9/10/2021 at 2:05 PM, stirrell said: I played the VCS last night in the living room and, as expected, the fan noise was not very noticeable at all. Played through the Unsung Warriors Prologue. Fun game! On an unrelated note - is there any kind of equivalent to a Control-Alt-Delete in AtariOS? I had a couple programs act up (Chrome by itself and Atari Vault when using the classic controller) and could not get the machine to go back out the to Dashboard. I wound up power cycling but wasn't sure if there was some other workaround. Two things on this come to mind. - The Atari button (or CTRL+ESC with a keyboard) should always bring up the exit/dashboard option. - If that fails, holding the Atari button should bring-up the "power-down, sleep, reboot" option as well. (The underlying Linux has almost certainly not crashed; I've not had the situation to check this case.) - If all else fails, yes, just holding the power-button to trigger a total ATX power-down will always work. (It will now turn-off the Atari LED on the front, because it's under software control, independently. It will be reset when the system starts-up again, but it can be quite confusing that it can stay on.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidus79001 Posted September 15, 2021 Share Posted September 15, 2021 (edited) On 9/8/2021 at 10:30 PM, stirrell said: My Atari VCS from Best Buy arrived today. I’ve installed Windows, got the VCS Companion app working and played some Vault games. So far I am enjoying it. I really like the controllers. The only complaint I have so far is the fan noise and some of the interface being a little less than intuitive. I know that the constant fan throttling on the Atari VCS has been a big complaint for many. According to this person "Core Performance Boost" setting seems be be affecting the fan by causing jumps to greater than >80°C and advised "turning it down" (not sure if means turn if off since I have poked around int the BIOS at this time for the setting). Not sure I would want to disable it, but just thought I would shire. Here is an article I found that does some benchmarking on a PC with "Precision Boost" on vs off. Is Precision Boost the same as "Core Performance Boost"? https://www.digitalcitizen.life/performance-impact-precision-boost-amd-ryzen/ Edited September 15, 2021 by Tidus79001 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stirrell Posted September 16, 2021 Author Share Posted September 16, 2021 Thanks so much for this suggestion. I just made the change and believe it is noticeably more quiet now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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