IBM THINKPAD T43 STARTUP FAN NOISE

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frankmfg211 · #1 Post by **frankmfg211** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:36 am

hi y'all,
i have an ibm t43 that produces loud accelerating fan noises (kinda like starting a car) when booting. apparently, tpfancountrol does not work since the program has not been initiated at startup.

the noises sound identical to the noises from the t43 in the youtube clip.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TyzHQJpCLzQ

also, another user has a similar situation.
"My T43 accelerates the fan to very high speed twice during startup: immediately after power-on, and during the bootloader prompt (i.e., after the BIOS but before Linux loads). This is independent of the unit's temperature, and is loud enough to cause some ugly stares when sitting in a lecture. Is this a universal phenomenon, worth mentioning in the article page?"
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Prob ... rtup_noise

does anyone know how to fix this problem?

thanks

zaku · #2 Post by **zaku** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 1:54 pm

the start up fan noise i think that's impossible to fix it. and this also doesn't happen to only T43 but the T42, T20 i had as well as few other brands of laptops i've gone through.

shimodax's tpfancontrol will only work after all the stuffs are loaded only

troubadix · #3 Post by **troubadix** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 3:11 pm

Sorry, no real idea to fix that but :

1. thinkwiki:"the first fan acceleration can't be fixed by anything but an EC firmware update".

2. exchange the fan unit to long fan M10, it has a more powerful electric motor with much more acceptable sound.

troubadix

edit: post in german forum to solve the problem by changing of the fan click here

Hanson · #4 Post by **Hanson** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:24 pm

frankmfg211 wrote:"This is independent of the unit's temperature, and is loud enough to cause some ugly stares when sitting in a lecture."
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:Prob ... rtup_noise

does anyone know how to fix this problem?

thanks

That is why I keep my laptop on standby most of the time

agarza · #5 Post by **agarza** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:27 pm

I think this problem is related to the Embedded Controller. I think my T42p fan does not even rev at max speed when I turn the unit ON. You should update the EC first. But also maybe your FAN, my machine have the M10 long fan

gunston · #6 Post by **gunston** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:24 am

M10 Long Fan?
i thought the standard fan that came with T43 is M10 Long Fan?
pls correct me if i am wrong, and how can i identify the M10 Long Fan, what's the P/N for it?

thinkweird · #7 Post by **thinkweird** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:55 am

I had that problem with my ex-T43P but fortunately I got rid of it by returning it. Now I am a happy user of HP dv2000t which is astronomically quieter than T43P.

troubadix · #8 Post by **troubadix** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 12:27 pm

gunston wrote:M10 Long Fan?
i thought the standard fan that came with T43 is M10 Long Fan?

T43 Original: "FRU Fan Long M24", 26R9074, Fan i.e.: Toshiba MCF-208AM05-1

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-58420

Fan is part 18, look for FRU 26R9074 "Fan assembly Long M24 (lead-free)"

M10:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-46474

Fan is part 18, look for FRU 13R2657 "Fan assembly Long M10 Fire GL 128MB Systems"

troubadix

henrycho · #9 Post by **henrycho** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:52 pm

When I compare my T43 noise with the one on the youtube you linked, mine's A LOT WORSE. After I installed Vista, it got even worse. Now the noise is very persistent and it's kinda buzzing+rattling, and this rattling is what drives me crazy!!. WHen this happened, I hit the left side of the palm rest several times(where the fan is located) and sometimes it got better, but I ended up breaking the small protruding region of the palm rest (right side) between the HDD and keyboard bezel.
I tried to update the Embedded Controller and the BIOS since I have never done so since I bought my T43 1.5 years ago, but Lenovo does not have these update files for Vista and I am just too lazy to go back down to winXP just to update these files. So I decided to live with this hectic noise, swearing that I would never buy a laptop from Lenovo.
So when I leave my T43 on, it's noise level is like I am in a room with a noisy junky refrigerator with loose glass bottles vibrating in it.

Senser · #10 Post by **Senser** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:42 am

My T43 is going to be sent back to Lenove today.

They claim fan noise can be solved, this is the second time its going back for repair. I really wonder if they are able to keep the machine quiet..

thinkweird · #11 Post by **thinkweird** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:44 am

What's interesting is that many people don't even want to admit the fan noise problem of T43.

Thinkpad has been more or less developed into a cult worship...

thinkweird · #12 Post by **thinkweird** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:50 am

Senser wrote:My T43 is going to be sent back to Lenove today.

They claim fan noise can be solved, this is the second time its going back for repair. I really wonder if they are able to keep the machine quiet..

Mostly irrevocable.

The fan noise is a design failure.

Senser · #13 Post by **Senser** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:57 am

thinkweird wrote:
Senser wrote:My T43 is going to be sent back to Lenove today.

They claim fan noise can be solved, this is the second time its going back for repair. I really wonder if they are able to keep the machine quiet..
Mostly irrevocable.

The fan noise is a design failure.

I'm afraid you are right. However, the first time I called Lenovo (Holland), they claimed the fan noise issues could be solved. The buzzing noise I described was also something that was not suppose to happen. At first repair they replaced the fan unit and motherboard.

This solved the problems only very little. This week I called again for another repair. This time they claim to put more time in the repair and testing.. hope that helps..

agarza · #14 Post by **agarza** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:55 pm

thinkweird wrote:I had that problem with my ex-T43P but fortunately I got rid of it by returning it. Now I am a happy user of HP dv2000t which is astronomically quieter than T43P.

I don't know which stock heatsink FRU part # comes with the T42ps, I simply got a long fan 1 week after my T42p purchase because it had installed the short fan which caused the machine to reboot when gaming extensively (GPU overheating)

In my opinion, newer Thinkpads have been increasingly the fan activity. I noticed rightaway the difference in fan activity between an A22e vs T30. The good thing about T4x onwards is the CPU can be undervolted and the fan to be controller using TPFanControl.

As I have said in other threads, T43/p should use a special fan made by IBM which apart from protruding the copper to the GPU it also does to dissipate heat on the Northbridge (just above the GPU chip). I'm not sure if that design helps, but bare in mind T4x are slimmy laptops.

thinkweird · #15 Post by **thinkweird** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:02 pm

I heard that T42 is quiet and I hope I should have brought it instead of the notoriously loud T43s.

My hp dv2000t's keyboard is not as good as thinkpad's, and it's not as sturdy either, but it is about $500 cheaper with the same configuration and more port options.

The most important thing is that its fan is barely noticeable so I won't be driven irascible by the noise.

gunston · #16 Post by **gunston** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:06 pm

troubadix wrote:
gunston wrote:M10 Long Fan?
i thought the standard fan that came with T43 is M10 Long Fan?
T43 Original: "FRU Fan Long M24", 26R9074, Fan i.e.: Toshiba MCF-208AM05-1

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-58420

Fan is part 18, look for FRU 26R9074 "Fan assembly Long M24 (lead-free)"

M10:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-46474

Fan is part 18, look for FRU 13R2657 "Fan assembly Long M10 Fire GL 128MB Systems"

troubadix

M10 Long fan is designed for T42p right???
and M10 long fan do have a smaller heatsink contact area compare to the T43 default fan, does is give a better cooling effect although it might have no audible fan noise?

vcbabyzyw · #17 Post by **vcbabyzyw** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:49 am

In fact, the noise problem of T43 is due to defect of Intel 915 chipset, at least in part.
Intel 915 is a power-consuming product, so IBM have to equip T43 a powerful high speed fan to avoid overheating problem, the side product is the bored noise.
At least t43 has no serious overheating problem that may occur in other brand's notebook.
What about T60? anybody could tell us?

palta · #18 Post by **palta** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:50 am

I'm also interested to hear from T60 users if the T43 fan problem still exists in their T60s.

zern · #19 Post by **zern** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:37 am

I have both a T43 and a T60p.
The T60p is blissfully quiet compared to the T43.

My T43 developed a persistent rattle (like the fan's coming loose) a few months ago. Though at this very moment it is very quiet. The fan is going (it goes all the time) but without the loud rattling.
It is the rattling that annoys me, not the fan's white noise.

IBM THINKPAD T43 STARTUP FAN NOISE

IBM THINKPAD T43 STARTUP FAN NOISE

Re: IBM THINKPAD T43 STARTUP FAN NOISE

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