Thinkpads Forum

I've got an X61, and the fan makes a VERY distracting pulsating noise. I just don't know how to fix it, and I need some help. I've looked around a lot for a solution, but I haven't really found anything.

I run Ubuntu as my OS, but the noise is still made in XP.

Here is an included Sound-Clip -- (megaupload) to demonstrate the noise. (I don't know of a better file sharing service). The pulsating noise occurs at:
0:06
0:11
0:16
0:21
0:26
0:31
Your sound will need to be up pretty high to hear anything.

Thank you to anyone who can help!

This is driving me nuts. I can't sit in a quiet room without being driven insane. Would replacing the actual fan possibly help?

In XP try running TP FanControl. I have it set to the lowest fixed speed setting and it seems to work well, no pulsating at all.

Also, the BIOS version can affect the fan speeds. What rev are you using?

In Ubuntu there is another fan controller available, but I have not experimented with it yet.

I'm using bios 2.19, and Ubuntu. I played with Thinkpad_fan_control a few days ago, and somehow got the pulsing to stop, but then I broke the OS fiddling with modules and such, so I had to reinstall. I can't remember how I fixed it.

linko wrote:I'm using bios 2.19, and Ubuntu. I played with Thinkpad_fan_control a few days ago, and somehow got the pulsing to stop, but then I broke the OS fiddling with modules and such, so I had to reinstall. I can't remember how I fixed it.

Have you tried non-software fixes? Here is one: the oil/graphite suggestion at http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=graphite, especially the responses by RealBlackStuff. Worked for me on a T21's fan running Jaunty (Ubuntu 9.04 for the linux non-believers).

This laptop has been doing it since it was brand new though.

Finally, the fan pulsating problem has been fixed!!!!

http://campassi.com/projects
http://campassi.com/code/tpfs-0.4.sh