Thinkpads Forum

My Lenovo ThinkPad T60 makes a weak, high-frequency sound when in sleep mode. The sound exits the cabinet through the fan air outlet on the left side, but I'm unable to determine the source of the sound. Is this sound common, or is it a fault?

I have a fairly strong high-frequency sound when running on battery that seems to come from the right side (lid?, body?) when running on battery. I can't tell if it's related to HD or wireless activity (just by looking at the flashing lights), but it's driving me batty! Sounds like its different from your problem, however. Unless both sounds are battery related . . .

I had that on my T42!

My T42s are quite under those conditions . . . Did you ever find a cause / solution?

My T60 is running from CF with no hard drives, and I have the fan off most of the time. When running (not sleep) if I put my ear to the left side, I can easily hear a high pitched noise, and another percussive rhythmic sound. But, there is no way I could hear this noise from a normal distance. So it's a non-issue for me, unlike the fans which the BIOS sets to come on in loud bursts instead of running at slow, quiet speeds for a long time. (I'm using NHC, but the notebook runs very hot with fans usually off.)

If a CPU core is running at 100%, the sound goes away, if I remember right. So, someone could test me if they can see the screen and I can't, if I say the noise comes back just as a process ends.

In sleep mode, I don't hear anything on my T60, even with my ear right up to it.

All the above is on AC, with no battery even connected.

I don't know if you might find the source by changing what items are shut down in sleep mode. Maybe even leaving something on instead of off/low-power, might help? Don't know how to do this, but thought I saw something about the ethernet card.

Assuming the noise even bothers you.

... search this forum for "high pitched noise" (and remember to check "Search for all terms") - and many hits will come up. See the thread Fan Whine (see the post of Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:49 pm)

Best regards,

Johan

Paul Unger wrote:My T42s are quite under those conditions . . . Did you ever find a cause / solution?

Not really. I sent in my T42 (15" SXGA) to have the mobo replaced because both USB ports conked out on me. Sigh.... problem now is that Lenovo can't find the case number for the repair job, so my laptop is somewhere 'cept no one seems to know where.

eyestrain wrote:Assuming the noise even bothers you.

No, the sound is no annoying at all. I can only hear the sound in a calm room with my ear close to the cabinet (on the left side). My concern is the power the ThinkPad consumens from the battery when it should sleep quietly.

Last night I left the ThinkPad in sleep mode on battery power. The moon-shaped indicator was green, so was the green USB indicator led, nothing else. This morning the battery level had dropped from 98% to 87% in 9 hours. I believe less power should be consumed and are hunting the leakage. (I'm using the 4 cell battery pack fitting inside the T60 form factor. And I no longer have Windows Update or System Update wake the machine at 3 am to look for updates...)

Johan wrote:... search this forum for "high pitched noise" (and remember to check "Search for all terms") - and many hits will come up. See the thread Fan Whine (see the post of Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:49 pm)

Thank you for this advice, but none of the hits discuss sound in sleep mode when the fan is off. What I want to know more about is wether many of you have T60s that make this bearly hearable sound in sleep mode, or if it's just mine.

My T42 had that same thing going - like some ultrasonic high frequency sound (not a beep, not a whine, but more like a very high-pitched version of the sound after a tv channel goes off the air - and not very loud either...).

I did notice that whenever I left the wifi going and simply closed the lid until the 'puter fell asleep that the sound would be more apparent. Never understood why that was, at first I thought it was the USB ports (because they're situated right next to the exhaust fan area), then I thought it was caused by the fan itself... I really don't know. Could be some kind of speaker/mike feedback...??? hmmm.

I could only hear the sound if I picked up the laptop and listened closely otherwise I wouldn't hear it at all if the thing just sat on a desk a metre away... At times this would bother me, but I'd soon forget about it.

Not sure how to explain it nor pretend to know what causes it, but the sound was there, so you're not hearing things tme, I'm with ya on this one.

I suppose you've already considered hibernate instead of sleep?

By the way, I keep wireless off, even have the switch on front shut off. (I'm the one who posted that hear a quiet noise when running, but not in sleep mode.)