Thinkpads Forum

Hi all,
I'm considering sending in my X300 for repair, but before I do that, I was wondering if you could help - I purchased my x300 in part because it was supposed to be a silent and cool machine, but no matter my power scheme, the fan constantly spins up to at least 5100 rpm, and when it does spin up, it sounds like a (tiny) jet engine. It is in no ways loud, but it does get annoying in a quiet work environment.

My question is this: what do your x300s idle at? I think that mine might have a problem with too much/too little thermal grease which leads to the fans being overworked. Using Intel Thermal Analysis Tool or TPFancontrol, my machine quickly (within 3 minutes of turning on) climbs up to 50c even when at idle. It doesn't matter if I'm at at 800 MHZ (Maximum Battery life Power Scheme) or 1200 (Maximum Performance). If I'm at Maximum battery life, the fan will kick up to level 2, go back to 1 every minute or so. When I'm at Maximum Performance, the fan runs constantly at level 2 (5100 RPM). BTW, I'm running XP. Again, I'm at idle - processor usage is under 5%. I have no problem with the fan kicking in during heavy work, I just can't believe that this ULV processor running at 800 mhz idles this high. Does anyone have any temperature readings to relate to? I don't want to have my machine opened up if this is the norm, but I can't find many hard temperature readings online. Please help!

Thanks,
Volodar

This seems pretty normal - low 50's with only office apps / pdf viewer / simple web browsing. Using tpfancontrol I typically keep the fan at 1 (inaudible to me), and start ramping at 60C, which it rarely reaches unless the kids are watching video (I work slowly). So typically, it's completely silent at 52-53C when I'm working, and have had no problems. BTW, this is with XPP - vista is likely to be a little more busy.

cheers,
-Brian

The X300 does get hot. I use TPFanControl also and have the fan state at 1 until about 78C, then it goes to fan state 2. The noise difference between fan state 1 and 2 is high so I try and keep it at 1 for a while. I know you might think that 78C is quite high, but it only ever gets that high if I'm watching a HD movie or have a million things going on. Also these CPUs can handle that kind of temperature without a problem, although it's not highly recommended.

Thanks for all your replies!

Wow - 78c...that is scorching! I've never run a processor that high. I don't think that I would be able to have that on my lap! Even up at 60, it starts to get uncomfortable. I'm a silent & cool computing geek, and I'm used to having my desktop processors run 30ish idle & 50ish under full load (courtesy of low voltage processors, ninja heatsinks, and 92mm fans). I guess I'll try running tpfancontrol at 60c, and see if that works.

I just don't know. My 5 year old x40 idles at around 42c with no fan, and that's at 1.4 ghz (it's an ulv processor - the nice thing about it is it clocks down to 300mhz when not being taxed). But that was IBM - maybe Lenovo has cut corners? It just seems to me that I read online about how the x300 used a new "owl" fan blade design which was supposed to be silent and efficient,
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-972 ... ncol;title
AND it's a ULV procesor that clocks down to 700mhz...AND it shuts down core processes when they're not being used....AND the fan runs at 2000 rpm...AND it still idles this high. My wife's three year old $400 toshiba laptop, which runs a 1.6 Ghz celeron with no thermal throttling is quieter! I've read review after review that discusses this machine being cool and quiet, but yet, it seems to be the opposite if I don't utilize the tpfancontrol "hack". What's the point of a silent fan if it never runs at silent speeds??? Could it be that at some point lenovo switched fan manufacturers, type of thermal grease, or perhaps a certain facility isn't putting the grease on correctly? Mine was a CTO manufactured in January...does anybody else have any temperature feedback? I've already called Lenovo and I can't seem to get to anybody who actually knows what the normal temperature readings should be. It seems that the S10s are also having loud fan problems, and they're using the atom processor - could these be related. Sorry - I guess I'm still get the feeling that something isn't quite right.

Any more input would be appreciated (any more temp readings?), but I understand if people are willing to let this issue pass.

Thanks,
-V

I think the temps and fan speeds you're reporting are basically the same as what other people have reported here and over at the lenovo forums, so that's not the explanation. I guess the only thing you can do is ask lenovo to repair/replace the fan and see if that helps with the noise issue. That's what I would do in your situation -- it's an expensive laptop and there's no reason not to try and get it fixed.

Thecla wrote:I think the temps and fan speeds you're reporting are basically the same as what other people have reported here and over at the lenovo forums, so that's not the explanation. I guess the only thing you can do is ask lenovo to repair/replace the fan and see if that helps with the noise issue. That's what I would do in your situation -- it's an expensive laptop and there's no reason not to try and get it fixed.

I second this!

The problem with the X30x is that because everything is so compact, heat dissipitation isn't as efficient as other bigger laptops; even if the components are of lower power usage. Also I've read that these processors can handle about 100C , but I have mine usually around 65C.