how noisy is a T43?

[dcouzin]

I acquired a T43 that's terribly noisy. It sounds louder at 8 meters than my T42 sounds at 1/2 meter. The seller says T43 fans are normally louder than T42 fans, but I doubt they're this much louder. How can I determine whether my T43 is out of normal range, without a decibel meter and without knowing someone with a T43?

This isn't the sound of whoshing air, which would be reasonable, but a kind of high frequency knocking. When the fan slows, the knocking slows, but doesn't grow softer. When the fan comes to a stop the knocking continues through the final tat-tat-tat. So fiddling with the fan speed controller won't help. What is this knocking? It doesn't resemble bearing noise. It's reminiscent of the playing-card-against-bicycle-spokes sound of my youth. But it can't really be a mechanical snapping or tapping.

The Lenovo part number is 26R9074. Shopping for this part online seems treacherous. Is there a sure way to get a first quality new one? Thanks.

[mpcook]

All three of my T43's are fairly quiet. My T43p sounds like a jet taking off from an aircraft carrier on a windy day. Your knocking sound does not seem "normal" in any case and replacing the fan is a good idea. There are others on here who might have advice on sourcing, I haven't had to go down that road yet. I think there are some threads too if you search, that discuss the different fans for the T series.

Mike

[underclocker]

Sometimes excess pressure on the keyboard bends the fan's copper casing. It sounds like you have a bent fan casing and the fan fins are scraping the copper. I've been able to fix this type of issue by using a flat head screwdriver to reverse any dips along the copper on the top side of the fan. While you're in there, clean the fan fins with an old toothbrush.

If that doesn't work, you will probably need to replace the fan.

(Yes, the air movement noise is higher on T43's, but there shouldn't be any mechanical noise!)

[carlisle_united]

I find my T43 pretty quiet... My Netbook and Macbook Pro both sounded worse than my T43 does.