X41T weird hard drive sound and other issues

Message

heiss · #1 Post by **heiss** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:18 pm

Thank God, I finally got my x41 tablet. I think it's great.

After using it for a while, however, I have two questions for you guys.

1) Although the fan is quite silent, CPU seems a little bit hot, mostly over 50C with normal web surfing in Dynamic switch mode of CHC. Would you guys post your average CPU temperature?

2) The system seems quite slow. I mean while the system is accessing hard drive the mouse pointer does not move smoothly. When I do a little bit hard work, it stumbles. Occasionally it does not respond... Is it because of the 4200 HD? Should this problem be solved if I upgrade the ram?

3) Finally, I've realized that the Hard Drive makes occasional annoying "tung" sound, which is quite loud. Has anyone experienced the similar thing?

Thanks guys.

bhtooefr · #2 Post by **bhtooefr** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:38 pm

1. What CPU?
2. How much RAM, and how much is used? (To find out how much is used, press Ctrl-Shift-Esc, and look at Mem Usage at the bottom. On my X21 with Win2K, it says "Mem Usage: 439824K / 941872K". Note that the second number is NOT your physical RAM - I've only got 384MB physical RAM, not 920MB...)
3. I think that's HDD seeking...

pphilipko · #3 Post by **pphilipko** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 9:18 pm

Have you tried undervolting? The temperature DOES seem somewhat high.

heiss · #4 Post by **heiss** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:19 pm

pphilipko wrote:Have you tried undervolting? The temperature DOES seem somewhat high.

No I haven't. Do I need to try undervolting even with the low voltage cpu?

heiss · #5 Post by **heiss** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:24 pm

bhtooefr wrote:1. What CPU?
2. How much RAM, and how much is used? (To find out how much is used, press Ctrl-Shift-Esc, and look at Mem Usage at the bottom. On my X21 with Win2K, it says "Mem Usage: 439824K / 941872K". Note that the second number is NOT your physical RAM - I've only got 384MB physical RAM, not 920MB...)
3. I think that's HDD seeking...

Sorry for not being specific.
1. it is 18666SU which uses PENT M LV 758 (1.5)
2. now it is 466M/1225M
3. yeah, I'm with you. But I think it's too loud compared with others. I've never heard that sound with T43 7200 HDD.

bhtooefr · #6 Post by **bhtooefr** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:43 pm

Hmm... I was thinking that it might be swapping, but yours has *at least* 512MB physical RAM. That means that you're not TOUCHING the swapfile at all right now. In other words, it's because your system is actually slow, not that it's swapping. Check the CPU usage in Task Manager - if it's high, go to the processes tab, and click the CPU heading. List the processes using more than 20% CPU.

I was suspecting that it was the 1.5 P-M. Try undervolting using Centrino Hardware Control. Lower your voltages gradually, though, and with every step, test the stability of the system using a program like Prime95 or SuperPi for a few hours.

heiss · #7 Post by **heiss** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 11:46 pm

Thanks bhtooefr, I'll try.
Is using 1gb or 1.5gb ram makes t41t smoother without lagging?

pphilipko · #8 Post by **pphilipko** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 12:05 am

heiss wrote:
pphilipko wrote:Have you tried undervolting? The temperature DOES seem somewhat high.
No I haven't. Do I need to try undervolting even with the low voltage cpu?

I have a 1.2 LV pentium M. I've managed to undervolt it to .908 V and it works cool and great at 41 degrees celcius.

pphilipko · #9 Post by **pphilipko** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 12:08 am

heiss wrote:Thanks bhtooefr, I'll try.
Is using 1gb or 1.5gb ram makes t41t smoother without lagging?

Using 1 GB does smooth things out a bit...

heiss · #10 Post by **heiss** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 4:53 pm

pphilipko wrote:
heiss wrote:Thanks bhtooefr, I'll try.
Is using 1gb or 1.5gb ram makes t41t smoother without lagging?
Using 1 GB does smooth things out a bit...

Okay, now I'm upgrading the ram and seriously wondering whether there would be noticeable difference between 1.5gb and 1gb. Any experience would help. Thanks.

pphilipko · #11 Post by **pphilipko** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 7:16 pm

heiss wrote:
pphilipko wrote: Using 1 GB does smooth things out a bit...
Okay, now I'm upgrading the ram and seriously wondering whether there would be noticeable difference between 1.5gb and 1gb. Any experience would help. Thanks.

The difference between the 1GB and 1.5GB really depends on what you plan to use it for. I would upgrade only if you use memory-intensive tasks like photoshop.

ThinkNick · #12 Post by **ThinkNick** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:13 am

I'm having the same problems, except I haven't noticed the CPU being unusually hot. My hard drive makes a loud tick every once in a while and is quite loud at other times - annoying and noticable. Also, I've noticed the cursor being unusually laggy, locking, and slow, something I've almost never experienced. I attribute it to the slow hard drive, but its really quite poor and takes away from the otherwise fine experience. Can't wait for faster 1.8" drives... Seagate, Hitachi, you listening?

I did also notice 2 other things:
1. occasionally using the tablet pen, it would draw a horizontal line out of the blue, as though it temporarily lost my input and decided to dart to one side and back again. This happened quite frequently in the Alias Sketchbook Pro program, but restarting and trying again seemed to fix it (?).
2. Video input is screwy when outputting to a second monitor. Often times it won't let me extend my desktop, or will have problems switching the video back to the notebook. I can only assume it has something to do with the screen rotating ability of the thinkpad interfering at driver level, and hope to see this resolved in an updated driver.

FYI I have the 1866-6HU, which is the 40gb variant of the 1866-6SU. That means 512mb ram, 1.5ghz LV. Will be picking up another gig of ram.

ThinkNick · #13 Post by **ThinkNick** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:15 am

Oh, one more thing..
has anyone noticed that the right click button is pretty weak? I mean that you have to press it on the center or right, but not toward the left of the button? The left button is fine on the way right side, so I might just have a funky model, but this is annoying!

rjs · #14 Post by **rjs** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 8:12 am

I have a X41 and have the same issue with the right button.

pphilipko · #15 Post by **pphilipko** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:19 am

ThinkNick wrote:Oh, one more thing..
has anyone noticed that the right click button is pretty weak? I mean that you have to press it on the center or right, but not toward the left of the button? The left button is fine on the way right side, so I might just have a funky model, but this is annoying!

Hmmm...I guess it might be a defect on the X41/T models...my X40's right button works fine. Anyone else here with an X41/T who has the "weak" right button problem?

DavidNZ · #16 Post by **DavidNZ** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:29 am

Nick: my X40 has the same loud HDD as you. In fact, for a while I was convinced there was a problem with the active protection system. If you do a search my original post should come up from a few months ago. I'm not 100% convinced it isn't a problem somewhere, but suffice to say my hard drive is a bit loud as well!

pphilipko · #17 Post by **pphilipko** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:33 pm

DavidNZ wrote:Nick: my X40 has the same loud HDD as you. In fact, for a while I was convinced there was a problem with the active protection system. If you do a search my original post should come up from a few months ago. I'm not 100% convinced it isn't a problem somewhere, but suffice to say my hard drive is a bit loud as well!

Don't worry. When I bought my laptop, I chose the best of 3 X40's, and all had the same annoying clicking sound from the hard drive.

heiss · #18 Post by **heiss** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:35 pm

In the end, I have both motherboard, HDD replaced; all problems solved.

X41T weird hard drive sound and other issues

X41T weird hard drive sound and other issues

result

Who is online