Thinkpads Forum

Well follow the crowd I downloaded this great utility specifically for my T60 but haven't touched it yet. The reason why is because my current t60 is running fine, the fan is fine (very quiet), temp is ok (get little warm under my right palm after playing 3d games for a while, but very acceptable compare to other brand, or well maybe because I have an intergrated gpu). Actually my T60 has the best fan noise and temp level in all laptops I've encountered, thus I love it.

So my question is: why you ever need TPFanControl? I understand that there're a few/or may be lots people have experienced unusual things with their laptops, you may need fan control if you somehow overclocked ur gpus/cpus, or you may upgrade your cpu to core 2 duo, to greater speed, etc. But overall, what's the biggest concern that makes you use this util and what if ur laptop was as is when shipped/untouched hardware mod., do u use it, if so why should I?

The reason I ask so because I don't wanna miss out such as great util, at the same time dont want to mess with my "original" pc hardware settings.

Thanks

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
TP Fan Control is mainly for people for which the fan noise is too high.
Just enjoy your quiet Thinkpad

Presuming you are refering to that wonderfull tool from shimodax.
AFIK The T60 doesn't have the heat dissipation problems that some T43s have, (depending on components - long fans / short fans - GPUs). The T43 was the absolute limit for the components which were used at the time for the housing they were put into.
With the T60 came a change in system (CPU); resulting in 20v AC adapter instead of 16v, (more heat), and new port reps and dockings because of the fan placement. In the T43 the fan is sort of middle left, (under the ASDF keys), in the T60 it's under ESC and importantly next to the power socket, (where alot of heat can be generated).

spt60 wrote:

the fan is fine (very quiet), temp is ok (get little warm under my right palm after playing 3d games for a while, but very acceptable

I don't know who said it but, "if it works - don't fix it"

I don't use the tool, but have tried it out, it works and doesn't do any harm. Why don't I use it I can't hear my fan because Trams drive past every 5 minutes or so - I work in a loud enviroment

Like others have said, FanControl is mostly an acoustic solution rather than a functional solution for heat dissipation.

However, I have seen posters who have manually set the fan to run at its highest (level 7/7) during graphic intensive apps like gaming. Not sure how different it would be from the regular BIOS control, but some just want to force it to max cooling capabilities.

I installed it on my T60 to lower the fan noise. Even during low usage (surfing, reading emails), the GPU would be around 66C and the fan would spin around 3600RPM.

I believe the heat dissipation is not very effective for T60 GPUs, since raising or lowering the fan speed doesn't seem to affect the system much during idle usage (i.e., not gaming, just surfing).

I believe most people are using TPFancontrol around here for one of these reasons.
1. To lower fan noise
2. To prevent parts from burning out
3. To monitor temperatures to see if there is a problem with their laptops

The third option seems to be a hot topic around here as there seems to be a large variance in temperatures for the ATI GPU's on the t60's. I personally have already burnt out one GPU from excessive heat already and noticed excessive temperatures recently. Therefore, I've been running with the fan on full speed all the time to see if it lowers the average temperature for the computer. If you don't feel your laptop is getting unreasonably hot, you are comfortable with the noise, and you aren't worrying about your laptop crashing in 3d games, then you probably not need to use TPFanControl.

kulivontot wrote:3. To monitor temperatures to see if there is a problem with their laptops

Wondering how to tell if the temperature is running too high. I have read alot of posts on this topic but still am unsure how to tell if my T60p is running too hot. Is there a temperature range that is considered normal/safe for the T60?

shalliday wrote:

kulivontot wrote:3. To monitor temperatures to see if there is a problem with their laptops

Wondering how to tell if the temperature is running too high. I have read alot of posts on this topic but still am unsure how to tell if my T60p is running too hot. Is there a temperature range that is considered normal/safe for the T60?

Yupe, I plan to ask the same question: what's the normal temp range for a T60 (Core Duo) - T60 (Core 2 Duo) and T60p (Core Duo) - T60p (Core 2 Duo). Thanks!