Thinkpads Forum

Hi everybody,

The Question is already known. But I really want to ask again, if some people hear some sort of "Ping" high frequent noise coming from the fan (is the fan deactivated,no noise can be heard).

This "ping" (like an U-boat sonar) comes every 5-6 s, but sometime it can get constant or dissappear, but only for few moments.

I will expose you what doesn't help. Believe me, I tried everything and studied the thing really deeply, as this noise is disturbing me and getting off my illusion to use the T60.

- Updating the BIOS (doesn't matter, even the newest one)
- Deactivating IR or WLAN ports
- Changing the power management specifications of the CPU
- With TPfanControl it appears less frequently, but however, it does not dissappear

As far as I know, only using headphones and good music it goes away , but for 2000$ this is not really a good deal!

Regards

You can changes the fam managment in the bios...

Is the 'ping' sound you described the same as here?

Thinkpad Wiki

I had the same problem with my T43p and I am afraid other than replace the fan, oil the fan or return the machine, there is nothing can be done about it.

thinkmore,

i have exactly the same issue. very noticeable in a quiet environment. it's so minor in comparison to my earlier t43p noise issues that I've tried to just disregard it. it will meet the noise specs for the machine in a "quiet room" test because my "screaming banshee" t43p was reported to be in spec as well.

not ideal for sure, but not as bad as it could be.

Well, the WikiThing (about R51), sounds more like that what it is: a change in the rotation velocity of the fan. As the periodicity also about 5 s is, like in my fan, I suppose it must be the same.

In my case, it hears really more high-frequent. This is the disturbing thing for me. The normal fan loudness is quiet good in comparison to others.

Other times the fan directly makes constantly high-frequency little noises.

The question would be: are these fans specially so bad or is the a problem in the firmware? Has someone used oil or manipulated the fan with good results?

i have been following this question for a while. i just got my t60p in today and it has no ping or any kind of odd sound. in fact with the fan running at maxim setting its still rather quiet. hope u guys get this figured out before it starts to happen with my machine.

Mine emits the high pitched "ping" about every 5 to 6 seconds. I cannot sense any change in fan speed when it occurs. I just listen to the music instead though it eats me to know something is not quite right.

If it's a high frequency disturbance, it can be the power regulators switching under high load, it's a fairly common issue, you just seem to be unlucky enough that yours emits an audible frequency?

I don't see how the fan could make high frequency noises, but it would follow that the fan would spin at the highest rpm under heavy load.

I experienced mine give me that nasty high pitch noise when I had a usb device plugged into the upper port on the right, I took it out, and the problem was gone.

Mine has the high pitched noise gone when AC is plugged in.

Hi everybody,

Ummm... interesting to know that the T60p people don't seem to have this problem... Good for you!

In the mean time, I performed some research and here are the results:

http://lophiomys.gmxhome.de/Thinkpad_R5 ... Noise.html

The problem appeared in the past, very heavily in Germany in 2004 with the T43's and R51's. IBM, officially, gave the information, the sound appears each 5-6 s because of the acceleration of the fan. Why the do accelerate the fan remains unclear, but this is the thing.

I have read another postings in the German forum and they have also some noising high-frequent tones, not only the sonar. This is normally bad-luck, but statistically, appears to happen to a 25% of the people.

Please, if someone dealed with this problem and knows solutions without taking off the fan and therefore grilling the thinkpad,let us know.

Maybe can be a good solution to post the ones with problems/the ones withoutproblems the embedded controller version. This must be at the end a BIOS Problem!

Never had this problem before my T60 is very silent although I'm
working in a hot environment i can't even say that i ever heard
the fans working i hear the hard drive sometimes
have your notebook checked.