Thinkpads Forum

I've noticed the following error in the (Windows 7 x64) event log, which always appears in groupings of five times per second:

: The embedded controller (EC) returned data when none was requested. The BIOS might be trying to access the EC without synchronizing with the operating system. This data will be ignored. No further action is necessary; however, you should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS.

From doing some searches, it appears that this issue is likely related to TPFanControl (?) I'm using the version linked here-- is this the latest?-- and I typically have it set to "smart." I'm wondering if this is perhaps a bug in the fan utility and/or if I should change any settings or even discontinue use of the utility altogether? Not sure how concerned I should be about this warning; thanks for any feedback.

It's wonderful that the author has provided that software, but yeah, there do seem to be some issues with hardware oddness on the W520. I don't think the author of TPFanControl (troubadix) has access to a W520 for hands-on debugging/investigation. One problem people have reported (and I've experienced) is that if you're running it on battery power, it might suddenly think you're at the "critical" threshold and hibernate your system. I've suspected possible TPFanControl involvement with a weird glitch where my monitors would disconnect.

Ironically, I've switch to running TPFanControl only when I want to make the system *louder* -- running the fan harder than the BIOS would suggest to allow a little more CPU performance.

davidhbrown wrote:One problem people have reported (and I've experienced) is that if you're running it on battery power, it might suddenly think you're at the "critical" threshold and hibernate your system.

I've had that with my X61; hadn't connected it to TPFC but I'll try running without it to see if it still happens.

I would also try the standard tpfc version 0.62; the issue that the special version was created to fix may have been fixed in newer BIOS releases.

thanks for the responses guys; I probably will try the latest version of tpfancontrol to compare. I'm still wondering though, does that event log warning indicate the potential for damage to the system?

Seems like the error message you quote pretty well downplays any risk:

This data will be ignored. No further action is necessary; however, you should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS.

(emphasis added)

davidhbrown wrote:Seems like the error message you quote pretty well downplays any risk

true... thanks for the confirmation; I guess manipulating thermal management just makes me a tad nervous