Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I just received a brand new t61p this week and I have to say that I'm rather disappointed. I thought that money could buy performance and quality, but my expectations are clearly not met.

First of all, hibernation does not work, which is a huge drawback for me.. as I consider this one of the most important features of a notebook.

More annoying to me is yet another issue that I noticed after using it a couple of days. There is a vibration noise coming somewhere from the right side of the thinkpad. It is not the DVD drive, thats for sure.

The noise is very subtle yet clearly there. It sounds like a distant vibration alarm of a cell phone, so rather low pitch. 1 second vibration, 1/2 second off. Also, the vibration noise seems to fade in and out. It is hearable even with another notebook right next to it that has its fans on.

I cannot for sure tell where it's coming from, but if I lift the the right side up, it is not hearable so I guess it must come from some fan in the right half of the machine.

The notebook is sitting on a regular wooden desk, like the ones you might find in a swedish furniture store.

Does anybody else experience this?

I read in another forum about pulsating noises on older T4x machines, but I was not sure if it is the same fan issue.


Thanks,

Jo
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| T61p | WUXGA | T7800 2.6GHz | 2GB | NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB) | 200GB Hitachi 7K200 | 4965AGN | BT | FP | Vista Ultimate |

I notice on my home office desk with a hardwood top and a glass top on top, that I notice a subtle vibration from my T41 sitting on it. I can just barely notice it, except that when I shut down for the night, the vibration goes away. It is just barely noticeable, and does not bother me in any way. ... JDH

What bothers me is not that it has a little vibration, but that the vibration is not permanent. Like I said it is kind of pulsating which automatically draws your attention. Once you're sensitized to that it becomes even worse

the only moving parts on the right side of the T61p are the optical drive and hard disk drive.   the fan is on the left.

if you think it's the hard drive then replace it with another (if available) and see if the vibration still exists.

Hard drives vibrate (high speed rotating device). Optical drives cannot vibrate if there is nothing in them. The fan is on the left as Erik notes.

So:
1. Fans can pulsate.
2. Hard Drives cannot (so far as I know) pulsate.
3. The optical drive is not the issue.

So:
If you know the noise is on the right hand side (I don't think lifting the right side places the noise on the right because vibrations move in the frame), then it must be the hard drive, but on a smooth, hard surface, the noise shouldn't pulsate.

If the noise is truly pulsating, then it seems to me to be the fan. As a test, unload all possible applications including anything like an indexer or defrag that is hassling the hard drive. Place the machine in a cool (cold) room (basement or such like). Let the machine cool right down (35 Degrees C or thereabouts), and the fan should go to low speed and barely be noticeable let alone pulsate.
... JDH

jdhurst wrote:2. Hard Drives cannot (so far as I know) pulsate.

One hard drive can't, but I had a "resonance" (not sure of that word in english, sorry) when the same type of hdd are installed in the caddy AND in ultrabay. I had that issue with 2*7k60 on my previous t42p and it was so annoying I ended changing ultrabay hdd. It was pulsating, low frequency, and was making the whole laptop vibrating.

jo2008 wrote:Hi,

First of all, hibernation does not work, which is a huge drawback for me.. as I consider this one of the most important features of a notebook.

Hibernation works fine on my T61p vista system, although I rarely use it now that I have gotten used to using Sleep instead. Anyway, I believe vista comes set up to sleep by default, although Fn, F12 still puts my machine into hibernation. So you might have to make some configuration changes to get hibernation to work as you want. One other thing to check to get old style hibernation to work is to make sure you don't have hybrid sleep enabled as I believe that disables the ability to do regular hibernation.

Yes, I've disabled hybrid sleep and all hibernation buttons show up correctly. Just doesn't do it.

That's pretty weird. Perhaps some other application may be preventing the machine from going into hibernation.

I removed the hard drive and checked if all the screws were tight. They were all good, the "cage" around the HDD seemed ok.
Maybe it is the strange rubber fixation of the Hdd inside the thinkpad.. never seen such a mechanism before.. only the connection to the bus seems to keep the hdd in place..

I will try to find a bootable cd that will help me relieve the hdd from the vibration suspicion.

@jo2008

i`d be more than surprised if you say its NOT your hdd!

Looking at your signature you are using a 7200rpm hdd, depending on which one you use I am pretty sure its your hdd. Havin`tested quite a number of 7200ers, I have only come across just the very latest production dates being vibration/humming free.

greetz

The OP is noticing vibration to the point of bothering him. I have a 7200-rpm drive and the vibration (there IS some) is next to imperceptible. ... JDH