*The T60 Fan Thread*

[chris123]

I've downloaded the TP fan control utility and it's displays the temps well enough but I notice that fields that control the fan speed are greyed. Any ideas how I can get this fully functional?

My BIOS version is 2.12. It seems that the fan comes on very easily when it is plugged in, even when temps are as low as 40C! That's not a good thing IMO. The initial RPM speed is about 2600. When it is running on battery power, the fan behaves more agreeably.

It seems as if the built-in fan control comes on frequently whenever it is on AC power, regardless of the internal temps.

My aim is to lower the RPM if possible and also to boost the temp threshold at which the fan comes on. I would also not be averse to letting the fan run constantly, as long as it is at a lower RPM ( <2000) which is less distracting.

Thanks for any comments or suggestions!

[chris123]

OK, I figured it out. I finally read the installation instructions.

In the immortal words of Emily Nuttela, "nevermind".

[chris123]

OK, so I got it up and running.

Except my problem is that the lowest fan speed I can get with the manual setting at 1 is about 2600 rpm. Sorry, but at that speed in a quiet room, I can hear it, especially with the occasional pulsing or revving.

Is there any way to reduce the lowest fan speed below 2600 rpm? I recall reading somewhere that this may be a BIOS issue (I have 2.13)

[exTPfan]

After trying every solution I could find on the web to the problem of excessive fan noise on my T60, I finally resolved the problem by reverting to using my T42. I miss the larger brigher screen on the T60, but the T42 has a better keyboard and under XP it doesn't feel much slower than the T60 under Vista. My home office is much much more pleasant without the almost constant whine of the T60's fan.
So much for Lenovo's boast that the T60 is the quietest T series ever.

[ckwbff]

I've downloaded the TP fan control utility and it's displays the temps well enough but I notice that fields that control the fan speed are greyed. Any ideas how I can get this fully functional?

I'm having this same problem, any ideas?

[Silencer]

I'm having this same problem, any ideas?

Edit fancontrol.ini file and set Active=2.

[bim]

Have you succeeded to downgrade to 1.11? I had T60A and upgraded core2duo processor with 2.17 bios, so T60 changed to T60B..
I got error message in Vista: "you must install Thinkpad Configuration before using this utility". And if I use bios bootcd, it complains somethin like that bios is not for this model.

[viv]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and not at all sure this porting will arrive in the right place!!

I'm unlucky enough to have bought a T60 Core Duo2 14" having been assured that it would be pretty silent. Well, it isn't and it is driving me nuts.

I think my only option it to cut my losses and buy something else, but I'm afraid of making another expensive mistake.

Has anyone got a suggestion of a safe buy? High spec and silent?

Thanks in advance.

[viv]

Sorry, my mistake, it's the 15" I've got. Noisy brute!!

[Brad]

I took my T60p apart for a CPU upgrade.

I didn't know what I would find. I saw much dust. After a good cleaning my T60p is running much cooler.

Used to run recently at 55C at idle and opening any program or surfing would run it up much higher. Now it seems to be in the high 30's.

I think I will replace the fan the next time.

Brad

[eyestrain]

I think my only option it to cut my losses and buy something else, but I'm afraid of making another expensive mistake.

Has anyone got a suggestion of a safe buy? High spec and silent?

My T60 is unbearable to me when left at default/bios settings, but is usually nearly silent when undervolted and allowed to get melty-hot.

I use NHC to undervolt, which reduces heat generation, and the fan control add-in to turn the fan on low at 78 degrees, and off at 70. That might risk early (perhaps very early) hardware death, but I'm much happier.

Needs something between laptop and lap to prevent burns.

I also need to get the GPU power control working, to have the fan come on even less often, and probably extend lifetime of the laptop.

If you don't want to go that way, I'd suggest looking into something that uses an ultra-low-voltage cpu. (ULV) Perhaps a X___ model Lenovo/IBM, or something from another brand.

Guess you'd need to research if they have much of a performance penalty, and if fast enough for you.

I didn't look too hard for ULV when I was shopping around, but it seemed expensive, and difficult to find unless looking at ultra mobile PCs.

I'd also guess that at the other extreme, a 17" notebook might be able to spread the heat around better, and use the fan less, if designed really well. But I don't know if that's true in practice.

[justthinking]

I just upgraded my T60 from T2500 to T7200 and immediately, I noticed that the fan noise is louder.
I don't believe the increase fan idle speed has anything to do with the temperature rather it's determined by the CPU TYPE.
The system automatically determinted that you have Core 2 Duo rather than Core Duo.
As the result, embedded controller included in the bios used a different fan profile for Core Duo and Core 2 Duo.

Here are my readings...

T2500 AC Mode
CPU - 45
GPU - 65
FAN - 2800RPM

T7200 AC Mode
CPU - 40
GPU - 60
FAN - 3500RPM

T7200 AC Mode
CPU - 43
GPU - 66
FAN - 2800RPM (TP Fan Control)

[planetf1]

For ref - T60p (with firegl)

fan level rpm
0 0
1 2970
2 2970
3 3470
4 3470
5 3470
6 3870

Idle is ~3200 on auto & ~50 Deg.C

[qviri]

Starting speed of 2970 rpm sounds pretty high. Has anyone been able to run a T60p with the fan off at idle, possibly with aggressive power settings, CPU/GPU undervolted, or through any other methods?

[bla]

Starting speed of 2970 rpm sounds pretty high. Has anyone been able to run a T60p with the fan off at idle, possibly with aggressive power settings, CPU/GPU undervolted, or through any other methods?

tried it severall times, at least on my T60p its getting quite warm with the fan off....around 75-76°C on the CPU (T7200) and 80-85 on the FireGL 5250....

[qviri]

Thanks. Are you undervolting anything?

[chetan]

tried it severall times, at least on my T60p its getting quite warm with the fan off....around 75-76°C on the CPU (T7200) and 80-85 on the FireGL 5250....

I had issues with heat (in India and non-AC/fairly dusty conditions of my room) on my T60p. After cleaning up the interiors using a vaccum cleaner I saw the temperatures drop from low 90s (when I had used it for about 15 months without any cleaning up) to low 50s !!! It is still pleasant high 50s.
On another note: the fan stopped working 10 days back. The machine did not boot giving "Fan error". A cleaning operation revived the machine. Looks like the fan needs to be replaced soon (it is noisy. Looks like the dust has settled well).

[jprovostla]

I have a T60p [8744-J2U] C2D T7200 2ghz, ATI FireGL 5250, 2GB RAM, 15.4" widescreen...
My fan is noisy too but I can live with it... it always runs at 3400+ rpm...
my CPU temp is usually around 50'C and the GPU at 70'C to 80'C...
The problem I have is dirt building up in and around the fan and left speaker... it gets to the point where
very little air gets thru and temps start climbing until the computer shuts down...
the other scenario is that dirt builds up in the fan [shaft or bearings] itself and it literally "grinds" down to a halt
and shuts down the computer...
So now I have to open up the laptop at least once a month to clean & lube the fan to get around this problem...
I use compressed air to blow out the dust from the air ducts and teflon lube to lubricate the fan...
The first time I cleaned the fan, I noticed there was a lot of compacted dirt on the left speaker and cleaning that up
brought the speaker back to life...
after the cleaning, the fan is usually very quiet...
I used to have an ultra-quiet R50...

[jprovostla]

Here in Hawaii, it gets very hot & humid in the summer and this is reflected in higher CPU/GPU temps...
so I used the CPU frequency scaling monitor app to keep the CPUs running in "conservative" mode [i.e. 1ghz or 50%]
and I used the ATIconfig program to keep the GPU in the low [1] "powerstate" mode...
I did not notice any performance degradation and it kept the temps at normal levels

n.b. I love my Thinkpads anyway

T60p [8744-J2U] C2D T7200 2ghz, ATI FireGL 5250, 2GB RAM, 15.4" widescreen...

[netzspannung]

My 2c for future reference:

the above poster is 100% correct. The fan RPM depend on the CPU type. I plugged in a T7200 instead of a T2500, there is a slight increase in noise but it is bearable. The min RPM tpfancontrol will go to is around 3000. The people reporting 2500 RPM all have Core Duo. It is not possible to set the fan to 2000-2500 RPM with a Core 2 Duo processor. If you want super-quiet, use Core (1) Duo. End of story.

Personally, I'll just let it be. I don't think IBM\Lenovo engineers are dumb. My X1300 GPU temps are 56-62 when not doing 3d work and that's with the much-maligned stock thermal pad. I am pretty happy with the fan noise, it is so much better than the T41 shortfan (That piece of cr@p I could hear from another room). It is on par or slightly better than my t42 longfan, which is not obnoxious at all.

[wild_bill]

my fan does not run AT ALL on a T60 with Core 2 Duo (T7400) when I am web browsing or listening to music or reading email etc., but it will run if I do something really intense like playing chess!

[Muse]

my fan does not run AT ALL on a T60 with Core 2 Duo (T7400) when I am web browsing or listening to music or reading email etc., but it will run if I do something really intense like playing chess!

I have a T60 with Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz), and when I am browsing the web, the fan continues to run almost always and it's far from inaudible (except in circumstances where there's lots of background noise). The fan speed is about 3000 RPM. The BIOS is version 2.05, dated 11/16/2006, a week or two before I ordered the machine. I installed TPFanControl v. 0.21 (the lastest) today and it doesn't manage to lower the fan speed unless I turn off the fan, which doesn't seem smart. I read a post somewhere, maybe here, suggesting I might be able to lower the fan speed if I roll back the BIOS to version 1.x. I don't know if that would work or if it's smart. Anybody know? Maybe I'll just live with the fan noise. I'm thinking of getting another T60, and think now maybe it should be a Core Duo (maybe a T2400) so I can keep the fan noise at a minimum with fan speeds around ~2100.

Concerning running chess: I stopped playing chess with my computer almost immediately. It was my first computer, a 486 desktop running Windows 3.1, a proprietary local bus design (predated the Visa Local Bus standard). Prior to taking on the machine in chess, I regarded it as a friend and when it was beating me in chess consistently I started to develop strong feelings of antipathy ( ), and so I have never played chess on a computer since. I preferred to think of my computer as an aid, an ally! I suppose if I want a machine chess opponent I can get a dedicated chess machine!

[wild_bill]

a T60 fan should NOT be running during casual web browsing, email, playing music, or even watching a movie. TP fan control is not even needed.

I recommend the program CoreTemp to monitor your temps, they should be around 115F (46C) when web browsing etc.

I would strongly recommend you do three things and you will be a happy camper with a quiet T60 and NO fan noise.

1. remove your palm rest & keyboard (super easy, videos here) and clean your fan & heatsink thoroughly of all dust & debris. I use a clean new 2" paint brush and a vacuum cleaner hose. Stop the fan from spinning to keep from over running it's design rpm when vacuuming.

2. replace the old white crappy stock thermal grease on your CPU & GPU with Arctic Silver 5 - makes a huge difference, you can order it here

3. UPGRADE the BIOS to current, you don't need a 4 year old BIOS, that is just crazy!, get version 2.25 or 2.26 and you may even want to get Zender's version if you run any peripherals like an internal mobile broadband card.

[Muse]

Thank you, wild_bill. I'm going to take all of your advice. I've never cleaned the machine other than the exterior, and I'm sure there's lots of dust in there and it's elevating the CPU & etc. temps. With the fan off (via TPFC at 0) the CPU temp with no load climbed within 4-5 minutes to 60C! Even now, with the fan running at 3000 RPM, the CPU is at 44C. I look forward to no fan noise, what a cool thing. I'm doing that stuff today!

[Muse]

I have the palmrest and keyboard removed and I must say, the interior (and the keyboard) look very clean indeed. I didn't see any dust in the fan or really in its venting. However, I vacuumed the fan from above and through each of the two vents, not letting it spin fast or at all, just to be sure dust is removed. I have to think that the elevated CPU temps are primarily due to the thermal grease on the CPU. In my case, I don't know that there's a GPU that has a heat sink on it. I have the integrated Intel GMA950 graphics. Is there a heat sink involved?

I'm going to watch the video for the CPU fan now, which I presume will let me in on how to get the heat sink removed. Or if not, then the one for the CPU itself. I have some Arctic Silver 3 from years ago. It's 75% silver whereas AS 5 is 80+%, and it's almost as good, WTH.

[wild_bill]

actually, those were summertime temps in the humid south I listed, I just looked and my T60 idle temps are 98F (37C)

make sure there is no dust bunny on either side of the copper heatsinks

I put a dime on top of my GPU in place of the thermal pad, cause a dime is about 92% copper these days, whereas a penny has almost no copper. I also strategically (and carefully) bent my heatpipe to get even more pressure against the CPU & GPU

your system with integrated graphics and lower spec processor should be much cooler than mine! - so keep looking for the issue, it is there somewhere right under your nose!

sorry if this post is a drunken ramble, I have been drinking several Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stouts (alcohol 9%), brewed in Ft. Bragg California, and on the top 50 beers in the world list (and deservedly so).

[Muse]

Oh, your post is quite coherent, nothing like a drunken ramble. I would never have guessed that you were drinking! I wish I'd seen your post an hour ago. I just got through putting Arctic Silver 3 on the CPU and GPU. I was wondering about the thermal pad on the GPU. It was about 1/64" and I figured that the Arctic Silver might not have enough pressure from clamping once that relatively thick pad was removed. I posted a thread but noone answered it before I decided to just put on a very thin layer of Arctic Silver and trust that the clamp would supply enough pressure. Your idea of putting shims in there occurred to me, but the only one I thought of was a wad of paper, a piece of the coffee filters I had been using to get all the old compounds off the CPU and GPU exposed surfaces. I decided that paper wasn't a good idea (too thermally insulating), and I removed it.

Arctic Silver 3 was all I had, so I used it. It's almost as good as Arctic Silver 5, is quite old, of course, but looks OK, WTH. I'm idling now at 46C with the fan at 3000RPM. Hopefully it will come down with burn in. Which of the TPFanControl temps corresponds to the GPU? It said a few minutes ago:

1 cpu 51C
2 aps 33c
3 crd 33C
9 bus 37C
10 pci 38C
11 pwr 44C

I'm wondering what I should to as far as burn in is concerned. I'm not in the habit of leaving the TP on, I usually just close the lid and it goes to sleep but maybe I should leave it on for a while, maybe days, and maybe at a higher temp (i.e. with the fan off), what do you think? I might have to go back in there and put a dime or two on the processors!

[wild_bill]

I don't even use TP fan control at all, no need for it, and I am all about less is more when it come to software.

You might want to check your drivers, the Intel graphics drivers are constantly updated on the Intel site, I have an automated program from Intel that pretty much updates any Intel built-in graphics to the latest & greatest drivers. I found it on the Intel website.

I use a dime because that is the handiest source for a copper shim, and paper would definitely give you an overheating problem! - I lap the dime on a whetstone to perfect flatness, then coat both sides with arctic silver.

If you aren't below 40C at idle, you still have work to do, buster!

[Muse]

I don't even use TP fan control at all, no need for it, and I am all about less is more when it come to software.

You might want to check your drivers, the Intel graphics drivers are constantly updated on the Intel site, I have an automated program from Intel that pretty much updates any Intel built-in graphics to the latest & greatest drivers. I found it on the Intel website.

I use a dime because that is the handiest source for a copper shim, and paper would definitely give you an overheating problem! - I lap the dime on a whetstone to perfect flatness, then coat both sides with arctic silver.

If you aren't below 40C at idle, you still have work to do, buster!

By "idle" you mean, no real processing going on and fan speed = zero? I have the fan at 3000 right now and the CPU is 41C. That's 3C less than before I did all this stuff tonight. The break in will help, but I have to think not that much. Hmm. The paper wasn't between the heat pipe and the GPU, it was between the heat pipe and the steel bracket that holds the heatpipe/heatsink on the GPU. Probably wouldn't have done any harm and would have put more pressure on the GPU, but I decided against it. I may do that dime thing. You just do that with the GPU not the CPU?

As far as Intel driver goes, well, I have plans for this machine to swap out the 60GB HD for a 250GB and install Windows 7, so I'll be installing all kinds of drivers then. I have everything I need to do this now, just have to do it. I've done this kind of thing with a number of desktops but never with a laptop, so I'm kind of apprehensive. The TP has lots of software, Thinkvantage, a bunch of TP utilities, I don't know if I can install those. Maybe Lenovo has them all for download...

[dr_st]

I think you guys are taking it a bit too far.

a T60 fan should NOT be running during casual web browsing, email, playing music, or even watching a movie.

That's a very far reaching assumption. Perhaps after all the mods you did on your machine (replacing thermal grease, the copper dime on the GPU, heatpipe bending), and in the geographical location you reside, it is correct. Most people would not go as far as you did, and for good reason (high chance of damaging something, fairly low gain).

Notice that if the computer is docked or otherwise on with the lid closed, your temperatures will be higher, and the fan by default will run faster / more often too.

UPGRADE the BIOS to current, you don't need a 4 year old BIOS, that is just crazy!, get version 2.25 or 2.26 and you may even want to get Zender's version if you run any peripherals like an internal mobile broadband card.

You are absolutely right, except don't bother with 2.25 - it has the USB keyboard bug which they fixed in 2.26.

If you aren't below 40C at idle, you still have work to do, buster!

If it is for sports, I agree wholeheartedly. Otherwise, well - my CPU speed is rarely under 40C when idle, but the fan still doesn't come on most of the time, and when it does, it only takes a super quiet environment or a super intensive task (causing high CPU temps) for it to be bothersome.