Any final word on noisy fan?

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AuroraGuy · #1 Post by **AuroraGuy** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:03 pm

My T60 fan is really annoying. When I am on battery I have things set at LOW LOW LOW and it still runs constantly.
I tried some of the settings here as suggested (Max Performance instead of Balanced) - no difference. Nothing I do (even in the BIOS) helps reduce this fan noise.

The odd thing is that is blowing rather cool/cold air!

Whats the bottom line on this issue? - is IBM/Lenovo planning on a BIOS or some fix?

I am not interested in tweaking the heck out of this, I just want to either slow down or stop this fan! its a pain to listen to.

I am not running any load on this machine either. Just WIFI and email/IM software. That cant be much of a load ?

-JD

mlli4 · #2 Post by **mlli4** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:10 pm

check if there is some process running background by using task manager.

christopher_wolf · #3 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:38 pm

AuroraGuy wrote:My T60 fan is really annoying. When I am on battery I have things set at LOW LOW LOW and it still runs constantly.
I tried some of the settings here as suggested (Max Performance instead of Balanced) - no difference. Nothing I do (even in the BIOS) helps reduce this fan noise.

The odd thing is that is blowing rather cool/cold air!

Whats the bottom line on this issue? - is IBM/Lenovo planning on a BIOS or some fix?

I am not interested in tweaking the heck out of this, I just want to either slow down or stop this fan! its a pain to listen to.

I am not running any load on this machine either. Just WIFI and email/IM software. That cant be much of a load ?

-JD

Try using the Fan Control Utility; this doesn't seem to be a large problem with all T60s as we haven't heard a larger number of reports of high fan noise as compared to little to no fan noise.

astro · #4 Post by **astro** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:39 pm

It could be a hardware fault, as there was another thread on the forum about someone who had nuked their T60 because their fan never kicked into high gear. You might have the opposite?

hoya · #5 Post by **hoya** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 2:05 am

auroraguy - just curious to know if your previous laptop was a T42?

#6 Post by **RonS** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 3:10 am

You may need to tickle the Power Manager settings. I know I did.

Double-click on the power meter at the bottom right of your screen. That brings up the Power Manager. Select "Maximum Performance" scheme and apply. Then, switch to whichever scheme you want. I suggest you create a custom theme that uses Adaptive CPU settings for both battery and AC.

#7 Post by **archer6** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:11 pm

RonS wrote:You may need to tickle the Power Manager settings. I know I did.

Double-click on the power meter at the bottom right of your screen. That brings up the Power Manager. Select "Maximum Performance" scheme and apply. Then, switch to whichever scheme you want. I suggest you create a custom theme that uses Adaptive CPU settings for both battery and AC.

This is the method that I used as well, and the it resolved this issue perfectly.

Ponch · #8 Post by **Ponch** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:11 am

Go to the energy manager and set the fan control to maximum performance. This is way quiter than the 2nd opportunity.

Edit: I just saw that this has already been posted.

southy · #9 Post by **southy** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:31 am

I've got the exact same problem here.

none of the possible settings in the profiles of energy manager works. Fan does never get below at least 3.200 rpm.

And that is simply too loud for me.

In fact, in all the ~4 days with my T60, I have never had the fan switching off or below ~3.200 rpm at all. Not even after hours of leaving it alone.

I also noted that the air coming out at the left is indeed very cool - doesn't feel heated at all.

Now I played a little with TP Fan Control and found out that if I reduce the speed further down to get an acceptable noise level, the temperatures do not get hotter at all. I even seemed to get about 1-2° _lower_ temperatures when switching _down_ the fan speed. How odd is that??

As far as I see it, my main problem is the ATI x1.400: The readings fpr the GPU in TFC will never, under no circumstances, get below 67°; mostly it has about 70°-71°. Even with the fan at fastest possible speed for some time and not doing anything at all it will stay at ~70°.

So I tried to slow the GPU down: I got myselfthe latest n"notebook hardware control" - but, with the present catalyst drivers, NHC dows not seem to be able to influence the GPU - no changes can be made in the GPU section.

I don't know what to do any more.
Maybe you guys succeeded by using the energy manager to get the fan down from 3.700 to 3.200rpm but for me this is still way to loud. I'm sitting in a quiet office and I just can't have such a loud noise on my desktop. Why is it that my old X20 - where the hardware should be packaged smaller - is so much more quiet?
This really pisses me off. T60 is a really decent machine but I can't stand that noise any more.

Dowes anyone now if there is a way to reduce the speed of the GPU; possibly by using the omega drivers?

Greg Gebhardt · #10 Post by **Greg Gebhardt** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 2:14 pm

You say you want to slow down or STOP your fan.

I just do not see how this is going to happen. The laptop has got to breathe! Do you have a desktop at home? My desktop is WAAY louder than my T60p.

Everyone has a threshold where sound become a bother, ti bothers some more than others. My T60p make hardley any noise to me. The room has go to be dead quiet and then I can barely hear it. Is this what you are talking about?

Teerex · #11 Post by **Teerex** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 3:28 am

I'd better edit this post: I based my post on my experience with my T43 since I haven't received my T60p yet. My bad

I don't get it either. Why does thus piece of machinery have to be so [censored] noisy?! And why do I have to install the fan control software (which I'm grateful for, BTW) in stead of Lenovo fixing this issue?

One of the great wonders of everyday life and a place for me to direct some frustration (built up primarily from a supertight dealine on my project)

darrenf · #12 Post by **darrenf** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:32 am

Teerex and southy,

Have you heard the fan on a T43? Consider yourself lucky.

In all seriousness, I can hear air rushing more than my fan (T60p). While there is a high-pitched noise that the fan makes, I don't hear it in most work environments. Much of the time the hard drive is louder than the fan.

Watching Fan Control, I do see that my fan turns off and on quite often -- it's not running constantly. I have selected "Balance all parameters" in power control because I found that the laptop got a little hot to the touch when set to "Maximize performance."

I notice that you are using the laptop at your desk all day. Are you connected to AC perchance? The fan will run more on AC. You can help this by changing your power profile to run the CPU at adaptive performance while connected to AC.

-darren

filter · #13 Post by **filter** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:25 am

Southy:
your measured 70 degrees are when idleing the machine?
See the other thread I opened. I'm having exactly the same problem. I just returned my T60P for a smaller one with a x1400 card in the anticipation I could run that one without (or say once in an hour for a few minutes) a fan... Now if you people tell me that the x1400 is not going to be much cooler, it would blow the T60 for me. Why can't Lenovo include a switchable solution like Sony is =\

christopher_wolf · #14 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:05 pm

Keep in mind that there is also some variance in the builds for the fan assembley on alll the T60 models just like the T43. Some T43s were very quiet, like mine, and ran cool...others ran hotter and made more fan noise. From what I have heard, most of the T60s run cooler than the T43s.

And having a switch to turn *off* the fan is not a good idea; the fan is there for a purpose. I would rather use the fan control utility. Say you switch it off, like hearing no fan alot, then forget about....You are in serious danger of permanently damaging the system because of heat buildup. It is much safer to setup a customized profile in the TP FCU rather than have an on/off switch for the fan.

filter · #15 Post by **filter** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:47 pm

Well I don't want to switch it off entirely, but I want a system which has a GPU that doesnt heat up to 70 degrees without a fan when doing nothing. Thats just ridiculous.
From what I could gather from this forum, there are people with a T43 which has a fan, that is needed about once an hour while doing office work. This would be just what I need and it is of course with Fancontrol. If I set my fancontrol app to settings that would allow this timespan without fan on my T60P, the GPU would very well heat up over 70 degrees during the time there is no fan running. And now I returned it for a T60 with an x1400 in the anticipation that this one would allow longer periods of time without having to use the fan or fry your system.

darrenf · #16 Post by **darrenf** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 1:50 pm

filter,

I've not experienced anything close to the once-an-hour fan operation that you reference but I've never used a Txx with integrated graphics for very long. I wonder if that could be your ticket to cool operations.

-darren

bitsoffish · #17 Post by **bitsoffish** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:26 pm

i also have the fan always on problem... the fan always stay on the same speed even when the cpu temp is increasing mine is a 1952-A14 core duo 1.66ghz with GMA950... now toying with tpfancontrol to see what i can achieve with it i live in singapore so the ambient temp is always ard 25 so might be the cause of the higher temps

gunston · #18 Post by **gunston** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 9:53 am

i thought T60 has got lower power heat dissipation since its power adapter is 3.5A output/

AuroraGuy · #19 Post by **AuroraGuy** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:21 am

My prior laptop was an R40 centrino. I never ever heard the fan. Not even once. No wait....yes I did hear it..but only when I was updating the embedded controller...then it roared!

Very disappointing this T60 is with the fan. Other than this noise - its not that bad.....

-JD

southy · #20 Post by **southy** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:25 pm

Hi there,

- I'm talking about the 63G model (T60 with x1400) here. Ambient temp rather cool these days.
- When I'm talking about "loud fans" I don't distinguish between the sound the fan itself makes and the sound of the rushing air. That's just no difference to me. Loud is loud, no matter where the sound comes from. Actually, sometimes there is an additional high-pitched sound, but that's just sometimes and thus not my main concern right now.

Just to get one thing straight: I know that the energy the Laptop produces will eventually come out as heat.
That's not the problem. I just notice the automatic fan control doesn't seem to work properly:

1) My temperatures do NOT(!!!!) change at all wether I have the fan on ~2.800 rpm (manual control) or on ~3.600 rpm (BIOS control) - machine is just ideling, doing NOTHING at all, Just windows Desktop, no screen saver, giving it 10 mins for adjustment before takeing the measurements.
Exactly the same results in Battery mode as well as plugged in AC.

So can anyone please tell me why the automatic control leaves it at ~3.600 rpm, making so much noise, when there wouldn't be ANY(!) noticable temperature difference in slow mode?

Remember: we're talking about ~70° at GPU in idle mode.
To me, this seems to indicate that
a) 70° is considered normal and fan control is crap and doesn't shut down fan even though it should.
b) 70° is considered to much, thus fan in blowing hard to cool down, but doesn't succeed. The fact that blowing with 2.800rpm has the same effect as blowing with 3.600rpm - none whatsoever - strongly indicates a bad thermal design in my eyes.

I understand that fan will be loud when I use the CPU or GPU heavily. But most of the time I'm sitting at my desk, reading or writing with the PC next to me, but not in current use. So there is no load at all and still it's loud. that's simply not acceptable to me. I want to concentrate and read sitting next to the machine and I just can't do that at the moment.

2) Just to remind you: I have - until now - not had one single minute, not even one, where the automatic control would have switched the fan off or below ~3.000 rpm. I can tell by the noise. No matter what I do, if I let it sit there on its own, plugged in / not plugged in; ob screensaver, even with screen switched off, doing nothing, the fan will NEVER go below ~3.000 rpm.

No special services running in the back.

Also, I don't get how it should be possible to have some machines (same model) louder than others? Aren't there identical chips in all of them?

So, to come to an end: I would like Lenovo to decide wether GPU=70° in idle mode is to be considered "much" or "not much" and to
- either change fan control to switch off / slow down if it doesn't care anyway
- or: to fix my system so that 70° do not occur in idle mode.

And I could really need an explanation why the 70° won't drop when I switch fan from 2.800 to 3.600. If this is supposed to be this way, then, please, let it slow down without me telling it.

Sorry for writing so much but I just got back from some hours of work next to it and I'm really stressed because of this now.

greetings, southy

darrenf · #21 Post by **darrenf** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 10:26 pm

I just checked and my V5200 stays around 70 degrees C when on AC power and 56 degrees C on battery. I know that, on battery at least, the fan turns off (it's off as I type this).

Could you please check and confirm that PowerPlay is turned on and active during one of your tests? I've found that when the battery charge is high the driver won't always switch the clock settings right away when AC power is removed, even if the driver is configured to do so on max battery.

-darren

danny_isr · #22 Post by **danny_isr** » Tue May 02, 2006 12:49 am

darrenf wrote:Teerex and southy,

Have you heard the fan on a T43? Consider yourself lucky.

-darren

i guess not all T43 are noisy, mine is quiet .
i am using NHC and power play at minumim. the fan is on the first/second stage or off.
when Idle it's about 41C .

I guess i'm lucky too !

festher · #23 Post by **festher** » Sat May 13, 2006 8:02 am

Remember to lower the GPU power as well on the ATI driver by enable "powerplay" in the control center.

by decreasing power to minimum you are not only declocking the GPU but also descrease voltage. ive set up my system with 3 hot keys (alt+1/2/3) for minimum, middle and max power. if the GPU is only lowered by clock and mem but not power, it will still get hot even when it idle

darrenf, you say your fan are off at 56 degrees? my v52 idle at 58c with fancontrol at "1" and powerplay on "minimum" but still my fan (the one showed in tpfancontrol) runs at 2900 rpm.

is yours totally silent? i have no problem hearing mine in a quiet room.

danny_isr · #24 Post by **danny_isr** » Sat May 13, 2006 10:03 am

"ive set up my system with 3 hot keys"

can you explain how did you do it ?

thanks Danny

festher · #25 Post by **festher** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:13 pm

danny_isr,

Enter ATI Control Center and i suggest switching to advanced mode in /view
Click on profiles and open "profile manager"
Now specify your ATI settings, and once done, name your new profile and "save".
Once you have made all your profiles... this is where ill go and check what the hell it was i did

... oh ye.
Once done making profiles, click on the fan called "Activation" in the profile manager window.
Then check "hot keys assigntment" and choose your hotkey with the dropdown menu + key.

works really well when switching between surfing and gaming or whatever. let me know if u have any trouble with the profiles and hotkeys

chrisnyc · #26 Post by **chrisnyc** » Sat May 13, 2006 2:10 pm

Could someone please comment on the comparison of the fan on the T42, which is my current model, and the new T60's (I would be getting a 15" T60P).

Although the fan on my T42 is always on and I'm not thrilled about that, actually when I'm using the computer for low-intensity tasks it is on what some have called "level 1" which is the lowest level and is barely audible and acceptable to me.

The reports of the T43 are that the fan is always at least on "level 2" and I would not be satisfied with that.

So what's the scoop on the T60p? Would it be fair to compare it to the T42, always on but at baseline very low/soft barely audible level? Or would it actually be a little louder than the T42?

I'm not interested in installing any additional software to control the fan, and at least on my T42 I don't see / can't find any "fan control" settings anywhere.

Thanks for any information from someone who could compare the T42 with the new T60P in terms of the fan !

#27 Post by **RonS** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:49 pm

I work in a virtually totally quiet room. I worked with five T42/p machines and I don't remember ever hearing the fan.

I've also worked with three T60p and one T60 machines. On each T60p the fans were loud until I changed the power scheme (simply "touching", the scheme selection was good enough), and then the fans became totally quiet as well. If I get my ear right next to the fan I can barely hear it running, but when sitting up normally I can't.

Touching the settings just once is all that's needed. I never had to do it again.

festher · #28 Post by **festher** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:59 pm

i dont know t42 but let me put it this way, comparing a T42 with a 2ghz+ system, with a 256mb v5200 running clock and mem somewhere around 400/325, is as far from fair as possible, but i dont think you get a more silent system this powerfull and small as the T60P.

without fancontrol my fan is running around 3200 (surfing) which i think is just a little anoying in a quiet room. with fancontrol its running at 2800 and that is very close to silent.

thats the best i can do cris..

Rons, what did you change in power management to lower the speed of the GPU fan this much? ive manually lowered the power on the GPU in the ATI control center. this is not lowering fan speed but heat. i installed fancontrol to lower the fan RPM, default its 3200 and with fancontrol its 2800. i can still hear the fan no problem, wven with the TV running behind me, what exactly did you change in power managment and do you know how fast your GPU fan run?

danny_isr · #29 Post by **danny_isr** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:28 pm

festher wrote:danny_isr,

Enter ATI Control Center and i suggest switching to advanced mode in /view
Click on profiles and open "profile manager"
Now specify your ATI settings, and once done, name your new profile and "save".

I cannot find the "profile manager" unless i'm in the wrong ATI setup window.
Are you talking about the regular setup "ATI properties"? or this is under ATI tools ?

thanks

festher · #30 Post by **festher** » Sat May 13, 2006 5:31 pm

maybe you are using a different piece of ati software?

all i do is: right-click on the desktop. the first option in this menu is "ati control center". the third fan in the window that opens is called "profiles". its in there.

Any final word on noisy fan?

Any final word on noisy fan?

Re: Any final word on noisy fan?

How loud is loud

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