Heat and fan noise and coilwhining with x210 ?

[artic_squirrel]

Hello,

I am interested with the x210, in order to have a better computer than my current x201. I worry about heat and fan noise the most. My usage is mostly browsing and editing videos. Currently, the temperature of the x201 is 45 deg C at most and I find it too hot. The ideal temperature would be 30 or 35, like it is near the right side.

So how hot is the x210 during idle ? during load ?
does tpfancontrol even works on the x210 ?
On the x201, i run tpfontrol in order to regulate the fan. i trigger the fan around 80 degrees.

Also, is there any coil whining with the x210 ? There is a lot on the x201 and I hate it.

On the test here https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Mobile/51 ... quid-Metal a comment states

One thing that they mentioned is the stock cooler will require a piece of thin metal to make better contact with the processor.

Do you have this piece of thin metal on your x210?

[L29Ah]

So how hot is the x210 during idle ? during load ?

54° at "idle" (running browser, playing music and [censored]) now.

does tpfancontrol even works on the x210 ?

I couldn't find a way to control the fan.

Also, is there any coil whining with the x210 ? There is a lot on the x201 and I hate it.

Yes, it's the loudest coil whining laptop i had.

On the test here https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Mobile/51 ... quid-Metal a comment states

One thing that they mentioned is the stock cooler will require a piece of thin metal to make better contact with the processor.

Do you have this piece of thin metal on your x210?

Yes.

[artic_squirrel]

when Tpfancontrol does not work, it becomes nearly a deal breaker.

[dr_st]

Why would TPFanControl work? It's not a Thinkpad. It doesn't have the Thinkpad EC.

[dmdsoftware]

tpfancontrol won't work.

I don't rarely get the fan engaged with regular usage in Linux, especially compared to the X62 where the fan is nearly always on in the same workload.

I've put the X210 in storage because I'm having random seg faults. I discussed this in another thread -- I ruled out RAM, SSD, known hyperthreading defect, kernel, updating all aspects of the OS. The only thing remaining to do is try the proper, updated, intel i915 firmware drivers provided by intel, which I will do some day when I find time. If after that it doesn't work, then it is a motherboard board or design defect. Until then, it sits in the junk drawer and I've gone back to a X62. I can't accept having random system freezes when I'm trying to get stuff done.

[harryK]

tpfancontrol won't work, but the fan behaviour can be set in the BIOS, under Advanced -> Thermal configuration -> Platform thermal configuration

[vladisslav2011]

I've disassembled the EC firmware.

Advanced -> Thermal configuration -> Platform thermal configuration

I don't expect this to work at all. The fan PWM table is hardcoded in EC firmware. And it can be modified only by reflashing the BIOS. You can temporarily adjust fan speed by writing EC PMC1 register 0x51: value is in percent 0x00 - disabled, 0x64 - maximum speed. This should work until EC would decide to switch to other table row. If the fan is stopped, then it will not work at all as EC is constantly switching between two first rows of the table (chinese programmers' skills are weird). But if the fan is running, it will work for some time.
And it is impossible to read out current fan speed and disable automatic fan control.
Maybe I'll patch the EC firmware and fix some bugs or rewrite it from scratch... It looks like rewriting may be easier, but I don't have both the EC datasheet and the motherboard service manual with schematic diagram...So, it may take some time.
UPD:
I've looked at disassembly one more time and...
It is possible to disable automatic fan speed control for some time (~2s):
Write desired fan PWM value to PMC1 reg 0x51
Then immediately write 0xff to PMC1 reg 0x56 - this should reset fan control timeout.

Update:
It is possible to temporarily change fan table by editing EC RAM via PM interface. Take a look here: viewtopic.php?f=80&t=128267&p=837219#p837219