T41 / fan / bios problem

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kidtriton · #1 Post by **kidtriton** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 8:07 am

Hey guys, i hope someone can help here. I have had a T41 for almost 2 years now, and i have also read a lot of the fan noise issue threads all along. I never really got into it much because mine didnt bother me that much.

But, a couple of weeks ago, i decided it was time for a freshening up, so i reinstalled windows xp, installed the latest drivers manually , and also updated to the latest embedded controller and bios. Since then, i have noticed that my fan has run at full speed almost all the time. It makes me think an app is hung, but then i go into task manager and the machine is totally idle. It got on my last nerve this morning when i walked into the room after i left it on all night and the fan was running high speed.

So now i have tried to estimate which bios and embedded controller version i originally had, and i think it was 2.11 and 2.04. I went back to those older versions, and the high fan speed is definately gone, and im back to that low speed with the 5 second "pulse". I can live with this as long as it does what i remember it doing, and that was not running all the time. I still feel like it is running all the time and never stopping like it used to under light usage.

So can anyone point out what are supposed to be the best bios and controller releases for the fan on the T41? Also, im thinking that some of it may have to do with updated chipset or pm drivers, does this make sense? My machine is a 2373-7fu

thanks

ctbenski · #2 Post by **ctbenski** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:53 pm

I have a t41 2373-NG9. My BIOS and embedded controller versions are 3.16 and 3.04, respectively. The fan is very quiet on AC and most of the time does not run at all when on battery

troubadix · #3 Post by **troubadix** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:56 pm

Unplug any USB connector, fan noise will stop!

troubadix

#4 Post by **jdhurst** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 5:52 pm

Also check to make sure you are using ThinkPad default or some like adaptive power setting. My T41 (2373-1HU) is fully up-to-date with respect to BIOS, Embedded Controller, Drivers, Service Packs, etc. It also has had a Dothan CPU and 7200-rpm drive upgrade in case you look at the specs. Fan runs at low most of the time and at 600MHz most of the time. ... JD Hurst

troubadix · #5 Post by **troubadix** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:42 am

I guess it's a southbridge / USB driver issue.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=15398

ciao, troubadix

kidtriton · #6 Post by **kidtriton** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 2:07 pm

thanks for the replies. I got it back the way i wanted it (fan only runs on low after moderate usage, and will stop on its own) What i did was try to simulate the original configuration as much as possible. It was built in 12/03, and i got it in 1/04, so i found a bios release from 10/03 and the embedded controller that went with it. I reapplied those, and then reformatted with my XP corperate, and used the drivers from the IBMTOOLS folder that i had saved before i deleted that hidden partition. So, i may have a T41 with old bios versions, and old device drivers, but i have a T41 that works well and doesn't drive me crazy with a constant fan noise. I my play around with it by upgrading certain drivers one by one and seeing if the problem crops back up, but i dont think i will be upgrading the bios and embedded controller. Also, i have never used any usb devices (other than an occasional flash drive) with this laptop, so usb was not an issue.

troubadix · #7 Post by **troubadix** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:43 am

Would you please tell us the version of both, as listed at the bottom of:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-50273

Thnx, troubadix

kidtriton · #8 Post by **kidtriton** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 7:16 am

I went back to bios 2.11 and emb. cont. 2.04

T41 / fan / bios problem

T41 / fan / bios problem

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