Need help with T40 issue

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likely · #1 Post by **likely** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:12 am

i just bought this laptop off ebay which was listed as "nearly new." however, the first thing i noticed about it was that it kept making a peculiar humming noise. it is very hard to describe the issue but ill try. after five minutes of normal usage (like surfing) the right/center area makes a whirling noise that does not sound like normal hdd activity. if it were a consistent noise then i would not mind it, but it whirls up and down, like it is thumping or pulsating. i did some trial and error stuff like operating with/without the battery and dvd drive, but the sound persists.

what do you guys think? is it a bad hdd, or chasis fan maybe? does anyone else have this problem? for someone who works a lot with computers like myself, this sound is very irritating and unacceptable.

FTC · #2 Post by **FTC** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 4:30 am

Hi,

Well, in the lower right area (under the palmrest) there is the hard drive. If this is what is causing the huming sound, then it could be dangerous... the disk bearings could be showing some signs of fatigue... My suggestion is to have a look into the SMART indicatiors for the drive, just in case it's already indicating any sign of prompt failure... you can use something like DTEMP, AIDA, DiskCheckup,... (do a web search) to get to the SMART counters.

#3 Post by **K. Eng** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 8:22 am

At first I thought it might be the GPU. The Radeon 7500 in my T40 seems to make a series of rapid but barely audible ticks when I scroll in web pages. However, the sound on your system seems to be a continuous whrrrrrr rather than a 'tick tick tick'.

Does the T40 have the default IBM software installed? I would run PC Doctor's HDD test to make sure the drive isn't faulty.

brainpicker · #4 Post by **brainpicker** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 8:53 am

Right center area? Have you considered the optical drive? Is there a disk in it? If so, remove the disk. If not, try removing the optical drive completely and running the laptop to see what that does. If the noise still occurs then it's likely the hard drive. Does the system have any software installed like a "utilities" suite that might be causing heavy drive access to check whatever it's set up to check at certain intervals (like disk fragmentation percent)? How about virus checking? I once installed Diskeeper, which is wonderful if used on demand, but it caused a lot of hard drive access when configured in default which defragments all the time when it senses the disk isn't being used by other programs. In any case, if the sound isn't "normal" to you and it is coming from the hard drive, I suspect like the others that the drive may be going bad. There is an excellent program called SpinRite that I highly recommend to all. It's available at http://www.grc.com and is well worth te money.

Yak

likely · #5 Post by **likely** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 11:14 pm

K. Eng wrote:However, the sound on your system seems to be a continuous whrrrrrr rather than a 'tick tick tick'.

you're absolutely right. it's a "whrrrrr" sound. it's not the hdd nor is it the dvd drive. after some more tinkering i now believe it is an automatic fan that comes on when the laptop is in use and causing potential heat for the system, and i also think it has to do with room temperature. it doesnt come on when its cooler no matter how much i use the laptop. and its not triggered by any certain preinstalled software, because i disabled everything and it still comes on. if it were consistent then i would not mind it, but no the "WHRRRrrrrr" restarts itself every 5 seconds, like it's pulsating up and down. in any case it is annoying. is anyone familiar with this and happen to know of a remedy?

likely · #6 Post by **likely** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:17 pm

well it is in the shop now. it still has a lot of warranty left. before i turned it in, i found out what the problem was exactly. its the cpu fan that kicks in after internal temp reaches 50C. the fan sounds like an electronic gong going off, every 5 seconds, continuously. i just hope they know how to fix it, because to reproduce the problem the environment has to be pretty warm. does anyone know how long it takes for general service like this?

reimon · #7 Post by **reimon** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 2:56 pm

I had the same problem and changed the fan of my to T40 to the m10 long fan. Besides that I am running RM clock to reduce the CPU voltage and the CPU clock. With that my T40s CPU temperature is typically below 40°C (measured by mobmeter) and the laptop is nearly silent. More information about the T40 noise problem, the m10 long fan, the Rightmark CPU Utility and mobmeter can be found by searching this forum.

Need help with T40 issue

Need help with T40 issue

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