T460s fan activity

[GillC]

I have a Thinkpad T460s since a couple of months. It's the i7 edition with 20GB/1TB edition.

The device has been working fine so far, although the CPU fan had to be replaced shortly after I got it (rattling noise).

Since a couple of days, the Thinkpad is spinning up the fan very often. Just a simple interaction such as opening Chrome triggers the fan to blow quite loud for some time (20-30s at least). When compiling using Visual Studio, the fan almost spins to the loudest it possibly can.
The thing is: it didn't do that all of the time I've had it.

Even when it's completely idle (say 0-2%), the fan still humms a little bit (it didn't do that before either).

Could this indicate a hardware issue? I have NBD support but should know whether this could indicate some failure.

Thanks for any advice.

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the Forum.
Sounds to me like there is no proper application of thermal paste between CPU and heatsink.
Probably some ITT-Tech reject who replaced just your fan and did not bother to do anything else.

[GillC]

Welcome to the Forum.
Sounds to me like there is no proper application of thermal paste between CPU and heatsink.
Probably some ITT-Tech reject who replaced just your fan and did not bother to do anything else.

I saw them replace the fan since I have at-home support.
Does such a fan need any thermal paste? I'm absolutely sure they didn't add any paste in there. The guy just put in the fan and left.

For reference, the fan looks like this:
https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1rIcxKVXX ... -b-Fan.jpg

MOD Edit: picture WAY too big, please read the Rules, especially section 5.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14339

[RealBlackStuff]

Exactly as I suspected!
Yup, the fan MUST have thermal paste.
You can do that yourself, if you are handy with a screwdriver.
Get some decent thermal paste first.
Although Arctic Silver 5 (AS5) is still popular and a very good paste, there are better ones available from the likes of Prolimatech and Thermal Grizzly.
See here: http://overclocking.guide/thermal-paste ... gen-ln2/6/

How to replace cooling fan on Lenovo ThinkPad T460S
1. Shut down your Lenovo ThinkPad T460S laptop. Unlock and remove the battery.
2. Remove all twelve 6 mm screws from the back of the laptop using a screwdriver.
3. Gently pull the back cover off the laptop. It should come off easily.
4. Disconnect the battery connector from the motherboard.
5. Remove the three screws that securing the fan with a screwdriver.
6. Unplug the fan cable from the motherboard.
7. Remove the black and white antenna cables from the wireless card.
8. Now you can remove the cooling fan and replace it with a new fan for your Lenovo ThinkPad T460S.

My additions:
9) use e.g. Isopropyl Alcohol (91%) and a paper tissue or small cloth to clean off the old gunk from CPU and cooler.
10) apply thermal paste as instructed here: http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth ... e_v1.1.pdf
11) do the reverse from the above web-instructions

Or get the HMM here with illustrated instructions: https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobi ... k04862.pdf

[GillC]

Not a really handy guy here. I think I'll put in a service request with Lenovo and use my expensive at-home repair contract

[GillC]

Update: I've used my laptop a couple of hours without it being connected to power (not in the docking station or not connected to the AC adapter). When it's in this state, it doesn't start the fall at all and remains much cooler.
Is it running in a different power plan or something at this point? When I look in the Power Management settings, it's always in the Balanced plan, so there I can't see any difference there.

Any ideas if the power connection may have something to do with it?

[mj0]

There should be a setting called 'Systen cooling policy' in Advanced Power Options under 'Processor power management'. By default, this is set to 'Passive' on battery and 'Active' on Plugged in. Try changing that to 'Passive' for Plugged in and see if that helps.

I agree with RealBlackStuff though: you absolutely need some sort of thermal conductor between the fan and the processor itself, otherwise it will overheat. However, it does not necessarly have to be thermal paste as there are thermal pads as well that are about 95-98% as effective as thermal paste. The technician might have used a thermal pad instead of thermal paste, or reused the old one which, while better than no thermal conductor, isn't necessarly the best thing to do.

[GillC]

I tried the passive setting, no difference

[mj0]

There's also a similar setting in BIOS setup, at least for my X220. Not sure about the T460s but it won't hurt to check.

[aau007]

But anything else, if the Lenovo tech did not do the right thing, get them to come out and do it right. You paid for that service.