Does the T440p fan run all the time?

[mixz1]

Dumb question. Does the fan on a T440p run at startup, or does it get switched on and off by a heat sensor? I noticed that my fan does not run on startup. I get no fan error message and the motherboard passes Lenovo Solutions tests. TIA for any info.

[axur-delmeria]

The fan is controlled by an embedded controller than constantly monitors a few temperature sensors. Have you used a hardware monitoring program to read the temps and fan speed?

[mixz1]

Thank you for the quick reply, but that’s not the question I asked. Upon startup, does the fan run, or does it wait for a sensor to turn it on, assuming the machine is “cold” and the sensor will initiate rotation of the fan only after a certain temperature is reached?

My previous machines ran the fan from startup.

[axur-delmeria]

I don't have a T440p, but have experience with testing other Thinkpad models without a keyboard installed or have the fan clearly visible in some way.

On power-on the fan spins for a second (to check if it works properly) and then stop if the temperature is low enough --usually if it's the first time the laptop is powered up for the day and the entire unit is cold.

[RealBlackStuff]

The fan on my T440p is so quiet, I don't hear it under 'normal' circumstances.
I haven't looked if it comes on at start, but I do know the fan comes on when it (very rarely) reaches about 65 C.
Mine is an i7-4702MQ with Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut paste, idling and most of the time around 37-40 C.
I use a program Core Temp to show CPU temperatures: https://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

[jursky]

From my experience every ThinkPad/laptop whatsoever is spinning the fan at least at some RPM (900+, it varies). I did not come across one laptop yet which would completely stop the fan by its factory default BIOS/EC. However EC (Embedded controller) on ThinkPad
laptops allows us to alter the temperature levels on which the fan should run on what RPM, also allowing us to stop it completely (if desired). There's a perfect application just for that called TPFanControl (https://thinkwiki.de/TPFanControl), if you're on Windows, that is. I don't have experience with Unix systems. If you are worried that raising default levels to higher values may damage the laptop (by using those higher values for longer periods) I wouldn't worry about that. I've been using higher temperature levels (where for level1 (lowest fan speed) I am using 65°C) on all my current and previously owned ThinkPads (T500, X230, X240, W530) for years now and all the laptops are working just fine.

[mixz1]

Thank you all for the informative replies. I'm hoping axur-delmeria is correct. I'm going to take jursky's advice and give TP Fan Control a try. I ast used it on my T60 and T61 when they were going through the dreaded fried NVIDIA era. I think it actually helped to keep those machines alive for a bit longer before the video chip self-destructed.I'll report back on what I find. Again, thank you.

[mixz1]

Again, thank you all for the input. The Windows 10 version of TPFancontrol did not run correctly on my T440p. The program window was the wrong size and would not resize. I uninstalled it and installed the next to last version which runs correctly and show that my fan is turning zero RPM on system start. It does turn on later around 50 C. I prefer it to run immediately and have configured TPFancontrol to do so. CoreTemp is indicating 37 C as I'm writing this in an air-conditioned room. I am happier with that.

I had posted a previous thread regarding my Intel wireless card dropping connection. I am now being convinced that it was a heating problem, partially cause d by its location on the motherboard. Since having the fan running via TPFancontrol, I've not lost the connection, even under some serious CPU strain. Again, thank you all. I had forgotten about the fan control software. Still a great tool.

[Peppo]

On power-on the fan spins for a second (to check if it works properly) and then stop if the temperature is low enough --usually if it's the first time the laptop is powered up for the day and the entire unit is cold.

I can confirm this on my T440p.

[mixz1]

Thank you. I’ve confirmed this as well.

[YuriiGT]

Hi guys! Im hunting some technical issue with my W10 running T440p upgraded to i7-4800MQ and GT730M.
According to Intel XTU it is running quite hot around 80 degrees celsius at Idle (30% CPU utilization) even undervolted for safe maximum of 0.030V. Straight after upgrading CPU, idle temperatures was around 65 degrees and over 80 temp was only in high load.

Im trying to apply heat paste (MX4) in different ways and quantities but absolutely no changes occures. I have polished heatsink and even cleaned it with ultrasonic cleaner but still no luck.

Im suspicious that heatpaste change to Grizzly wont help me much.

Do you have any ideas what can cause these temperatures? Maybe deffective heatsink or anything else?

[RealBlackStuff]

Could be a cracked/broken heatpipe, heatsink not sitting flush on the CPU, overdose of paste, fan not running at all...

[YuriiGT]

Well thanks, FAN is cycling all the time like between "jet turbine speed" and "not so jet turbine speed" so it seems to work properly and its blowing out fair amount of hot air. Heatpipes for gpu and CPU looks undamaged at all.

Well I will try fresh Windows install to avoid unwanted software involved and maybe change of fan and heatpipes because now I have absurd amount of thermal and power throttling

[YuriiGT]

Well after few days of tinkering around it seems like BIOS factory reset worked for me... Im wondering why because I did not make any changes in BIOS setup recently. Now I have quite solid 56°C on idle with no thermal or power throttling.

[RealBlackStuff]

Still way too hot.