Thinkpads Forum

First of all, I can observe the noise with both windows and linux, although it's much louder with linux (I tested the ubuntu 6.06.1 live CD). I played around some more and found out that I can limit the occasions when the noise appears/doesn't appear to the following:
- no noise when on AC power
- no noise when wireless switch is off
- no noise when CPU/CD drive is busy
- high pitched noise with wireless switch on when idling on battery
- no noise on warm reboot on battery (linux). However, in this case I get an error with the ethernet chip (e1000_probe: The EEPROM Checksum Is Not Valid). This error has been reported earlier at http://www.prolixium.com/linux-t60, but I also noticed that in this case the noise does not occur.

There does exist a fix in linux which involves disabling the two lowest CPU power states (see thinkwiki). This works like a charm, but the power usage goes up - and I'm not sure whether I should tolerate this shortcoming. I'm kind of reluctant starting to set this machine up, since I don't know whether I should send it in and ask for a replacement.

I forgot to mention that I updated the bios to 1.09 - I have no idea whether the bios version changes things.
_____________________
T60 (2007-72U)

This problem can be fixed by disabling CPU power management in the BIOS. I however don't know the impact of that on battery life.

cheers!

i have the high pitched noise too. i'll try the cpu power management thing in the bios and see if it fixes the problem for me.

just to clarify - this is NOT the problem where people are hearing something in their AC adapter bricks. i definitely hear it when i'm on battery power.

laundromatt wrote:just to clarify - this is NOT the problem where people are hearing something in their AC adapter bricks. i definitely hear it when i'm on battery power.

Yup. Disabling the CPU power management in the BIOS solved my problem of the high-pitched noise/buzz when on battery.

I moderate the dell and ibm sections at notebookforums.com and we have 100's of posts on this kind of issue. I perused this thread and looks like the same issue a lot of people have and I as well. Joint research on the other forums concluded following:

High pitch noise has potential to eminate from 4 sources:

1. Power brick. The inverter as someone found out is a sandwich of different layers of metal. When they separate a little there is a high pitch noise which is evident in almost all manufacture's powerbricks.

2. USB controller/power management and CPU power managment. If you turn off usb power management in the control panel, a lot of times this goes away. But this is a seperate lower pitch whine if it is USB problem and a high whine if it is cpu power management problem. Apparently speedstep is the cause of this because if you turn your power management to "always on" it goes away. You can get your motherboard replaced actually if you call in about this.

3. Video card. On ati radeon cards there is a known issue with the video card's producing a whining sound. This is in addition to the hum of the gpu's fan if your laptop has one. This is usually an instant way to get a new gpu from dell (not sure about ibm).

4. Fans, which is obvious but should not have a high pitch whine but a hum. If it starts to whine the bushings are wearing out and you should get them replaced.

My 2 cents from extensive hours of joint researching, and hope this helps.

spiike - Great post. Thanks.

spiike wrote:2. USB controller/power management and CPU power managment. [...] You can get your motherboard replaced actually if you call in about this.

Well, in that case I'll give Lenovo a call sometime. I desperately need my notebook right now, so I'll have to overhear the noise...

Same here ... . Although it hurts to go back to the pre-T60 times for a couple of days. Besides the noise, this machine is awesome

I've finally decided to get a Thinkpad. I'have got a T60, 14,1 1400x1050, x1400, core duo 2GHz (see signature). Untill now i'm happy with it exept:

I'm also having problems with a high pitched noise. I had the thinkpad for 2 days now, the noise is there from the very beginning. It appears only when the fan starts, I can cleary locate the source, it's right where the hot air comes out. When the fan stops the noise is gone. It doesn't matter if on ac or battery, when the fan is on the noise is there.

It is quite annoying. The noise from the Fan per se is not terrible, I could live with it. But this high pitched noise, when sitting at the tp in a quite room, could drive me crazy.

It is especially annoying since the fan periodically kicks in (1min on, 1min off, and so on), even with an idle win desktop.

Is there anybody else experiencing the same problem? Is this a widespread issue? Should I bring it back?

Thanks

Its "normal"

I had this on T60, too. I got a R60 now and this one is quiet!

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... +frequency
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... +frequency