T43 fan noise; does it make you regret your purchase?

[Ken Fox]

Hi,

I posted a question on the general hardware/software forum about an order I just placed for a discontinued T43, and whether even with the price difference I should have bought a T60. I got a comment from pianowizard that many T43 owners here regret their purchases, for (perhaps among other reasons) annoying fan noise. I have a T42 and have never noticed this as a problem; in fact, the fan comes on more often in my X32 than in my T42.

I'm interested to know how many of you who own T43s or have owned them, regret or regretted your purchase for this or any other reason. In addition, if you have anything nice to say about the T43 as perhaps opposed to the T60 (regarding the keyboard, the build quality, etc.) I'd like to hear it.

I can still probably cancel my order as it has not yet shipped, but I don't have much time. Of course, I could always send it back as there is, I think, a 30 day return policy for any reason, which presumably would just cost me the shipping, so no huge biggie there either.

ken

[pianowizard]

It may help if you set up a poll. I can tell you that the person who sold his T43 to me was bothered by the fan noise. I don't mind it very much, because I usually have background noise from my stereo or TV.

[Ken Fox]

It may help if you set up a poll. I can tell you that the person who sold his T43 to me was bothered by the fan noise. I don't mind it very much, because I usually have background noise from my stereo or TV.

Done.

Thanks.

ken

[christopher_wolf]

Not at all, my T43, as welll as the other T43s I have managed, seem to either not have the fan noise or behave just like the rest of the T4X Series when it comes to their fans and thermal response characteristics. Some have had louder fans, but in no more of a frequency than T42ps and even some T40s in the same batch. Then there is always TP FCU, which is great if you want to look at all of the temperature sensors.

[Ken Fox]

Not at all, my T43, as welll as the other T43s I have managed, seem to either not have the fan noise or behave just like the rest of the T4X Series when it comes to their fans and thermal response characteristics. Some have had louder fans, but in no more of a frequency than T42ps and even some T40s in the same batch. Then there is always TP FCU, which is great if you want to look at all of the temperature sensors.

Come to think of it, my parents have a T43. I haven't used it extensively but I have installed some software in it. They have never complained to me about the fan and to my knowledge have never noticed it.

[freedomtraveler]

sometimes i think the hard disk had more noise than the fan.And i get a software "tpfancontrol" from some forums to discrease the noise of the t43 fan,it really very useful,maybe you can try……

[pianowizard]

Well, looks like you have made up your mind to stick to the T43. After receiving it, please let us know whether it has fan noise problems. BTW, if you haven't seen this page already, it's quite informative. I haven't read through it closely yet, but it does seem to suggest that the T43/43p has more severe fan noise problems than other models.

BTW, "not regretting" doesn't mean "not experiencing fan problems". These are two different things.

[Ken Fox]

Well, looks like you have made up your mind to stick to the T43. After receiving it, please let us know whether it has fan noise problems. BTW, if you haven't seen this page already, it's quite informative. I haven't read through it closely yet, but it does seem to suggest that the T43/43p has more severe fan noise problems than other models.

BTW, "not regretting" doesn't mean "not experiencing fan problems". These are two different things.

Hi,

Barring some last minute posts before early tomorrow morning, probably the only time I might be able to cancel the order at this point, I will go ahead and accept it. The T43 is "in stock," and the salesguy implied it would ship tomorrow afternoon, so it might even be too late, depending on where it would ship from. Normally, in my prior experience, all this stuff ships out of HK, but I'm thinking that in this case the product might actually already be in N. America.

I guess I'm not convinced that the fan noise problem is tremendously worse in the T43 vs. the T42 that I have. My parents who are quite sensitive to minor annoyances with computers had a T40 and then upgraded to this T43; they've used the T43 extensively while away from home and never commented on any noise from it. It also could be that my hearing isn't the best and maybe I won't notice it for that reason.

Worst comes to worst, I'll box the thing back up after a week or so and spend $25 sending it back to Lenovo. I will have missed out on the current sale but I still have my current T42 and can continue to use that. In any event, there will be machines unloaded in the next few months that are loaded with Windows XP when the market is calling for Vista, so there will probably be opportunities in the Lenovo "outlet." I've never expected to buy a laptop exactly as I'd want it anyway and always add memory and swap out the HD that comes with the machine, so it won't have to be my ideal machine as listed.

Barring the fan noise problem which might cause me to return it, I think whatever speed I might be losing from the newer core duo processors can be overcome by carefully uninstalling bloatware. The only processor intensive programs I run are image editing ones like Photoshop, and I don't find that I wait all that long on the T42 that I have.

Thanks for your comments everyone and if there are anymore comments I'd be happy to read them. As a result of these comments I'm going to use the machine for a brief while without doing any modifications to it (RAM, HD swap) to see if I like it. That way, I won't have to open the boxes with the RAM and HD I've ordered and if need be, can send them back as unopened hopefully not getting stuck with restocking fees on them.

ken

[agarza]

As I've stated on other posts, some T43 do not have the annoying fan noise because the fan/heatsink have an extension to cool down the northbridge (above the GPU) that's why the heat is dissipated more quickly and the sensors doesn't trigger the fan to operate at higher RPM. It also depends if there's a correct interface on the CPU/heatsink via properly applied thermal paste.

[dsigma6]

Whether the fan is on at 50C or 28C, it still pulses. I keep asking my T43 "what's your &#$^#@ problem &#^$@ bag," but it seldom replies.

[Ken Fox]

It sounds to me as though the annoying fan noise problems some T43 owners have reported are not unique to the T43, but rather appear in some models of both the T43 and T60 series:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=35070

Or have I missed something?

ken

[pianowizard]

Or have I missed something?

People have argued over this many times on this forum. I bet each and every series (T43, T60, X24, A31, R51, you name it) has produced laptops with fan noise problems. It's the unusually high prevalence of these problems in the T43 series that I was warning you (and others) about.

I voted for "regret it" even though I don't mind my T43's always-on and loud fan very much -- I adapt to it quickly, and there are usually lots of other sounds nearby (TV, desktop computer, music) that cover it up. I "regret it" in the sense that I should have bought either a T42p or T60/60p.

[christopher_wolf]

In practice, they can exhibit themselves on just about any recent Thinkpad model, even going back a few years through the T4X Series. The probabilities for it were highly for the earliest revisions of the T43s and, quite possibly, also for early revisions of the T60 C2D/CD models as well.

[Ken Fox]

the ship date went from 12/18 to 12/20 to 12/22, and now the sales rep tells me it would be sometime in January (they are short of the intel ABG wireless cards). I decided to cancel the order. I am in and out in January plus I think the value of this system will rapidly fall. By mid January it may be a sh*tty deal and I will have other opportunities. I'll keep the T42 for now and consider other options later.

Thanks for all comments.

ken

[mybellyisempty]

I've had my T43 for 13 months now, and the fan runs al lthe time. But, in the end, I don't regret owning it.

I wish I'd have waited a few months and grabbed a T60, but oh well.

I won't be giving up my T43 for quite a while....

[doppelfish]

So, I would've voted "sorta", if the option had been availlable. My dad has a T43p, and the fan problem is definitely there ... I can hear the fan whenever we speak over the telephone.

I myself wouldn't tolerate this, but daddy doesn't seem to mind. Well, "didn't" would be a better word, because now his TP is in repair ... because the ball bearings of the fan are worn out. Don't even ask how noisy the box was just before it went of for repair!

SO, it's not my problem (well, I do get to do the customer support thing via the telephone on a regular basis :), but from what I've seen, err, heard, I'd definately mind the noise.

cheers,
-- fish

[jarbill]

I have a T43 and a Dell Inspiron 8000, and when you hear the fan on the 8000, it is so much more noisy than the T43, it's not even funny. I love my T43, and I have seen several posts about the fan noise, but I can't say I even hear mine except on startup. The rest of the time, I can't remember back to any time I noticed it.

[pianowizard]

I love my T43, and I have seen several posts about the fan noise, but I can't say I even hear mine except on startup. The rest of the time, I can't remember back to any time I noticed it.

Sounds like yours have a good fan. When you decide to sell this T43, let us know!