R50 permanently running fan

[Karaman]

Hi everyone,
I bought a Thinkpad R50 8 months ago in Germany, Model No. 1829 7RG, Made in China.

The problem with the howling fan was fixed with the latest bios update. But there is still a disturbing problem. If I am working with my notebook connected to the AC-Adapter the fan is running permanently after it has started. Although only the "system idle process" is running. I mean there is no cpu load. The temperature goes from 42 degree down to 33 degree. But the fan is still running.

When my notebook is running on battery, this problem does not appear. The fan is only running as long as needed. Therefore I think it is a bug in the bios.

I tried in vain to solve this problem with the "power scheme settings". I even changed the power setting in the bios. I adjusted the power scheme settings to the settings when the machine is running on battery.

If I would not work mostly with the AC-adapter connected and in quiet environments, I would not care for this problem. Almost every other notebook with similar performance from other manufacturers have not got such a problem with the fan.

Am I the only one with this problem?
Does anyone has an idea what could be the reason for this problem?

[lophiomys]

a possible solution could be to lower the GPU frequency with ati tool-

"eyebeeem" / www.homep.de found out that it seems to be
the passively cooled GPU, which makes the fan ventilate too long.
read
http://www.homep.de/index.php?module=Co ... d=3&meid=2

there is also a similar test described on a french forum site.
I couldn't find it any more, I guess it was published by "spirifier".
as a hint
http://forum.tt-hardware.com/ultimatebb ... 12978&p=10

hope this helps.

[Karaman]

The fan is not running permanently any more.

I lowered both the gpu frequency and memory frequency to 111 Mhz with ATITool. This frequency was set through the "powerplay feature" when the machine was running on battery. I also disabled the powerplay feature, because I do not need it anymore.

Thank you lophiomys for your help!

[tigrr]

It is quite possible that the thick thermal tape between the passive GPU cooler and GPU is guilty for the high GPU temperature and therefore the system fan being turned on constantly.. Has anyone tried replacing the tape?

[Karaman]

It is quite possible that the thick thermal tape between the passive GPU cooler and GPU is guilty for the high GPU temperature and therefore the system fan being turned on constantly.. Has anyone tried replacing the tape?

This could be possible but I am not going to try to replace it. I am content with the solution, for the time being, that I simply lower the gpu and memory frequency to 111 MHz.

But if you try it, let us know.

[Riddil]

Wow... that's a pretty extreme solution. Did you check the "Power Options" applet in the Control Panel? Give it a peek and make sure it's set to "Portable/Laptop" and not something like "Max Performance", or "Always On". Those last two force the CPU to always stay at 100% power, which means it generates a lot more heat, even when the load is light.

On the 'laptop' setting the CPU only steps to 100% when it needs full power. During idle times it'll throttle down, letting the CPU cool off a lot faster.

*shrug* Just an idea.

[Speedbird]

Hi Karaman.

You're definately not the only one with the problem. I'm guessing that all R series owners with more than a ATI 7500 GFX got this problem. The ones that say they don't are either deaf or use their R50 in places with background noise eg. aircondition. I have the same model as you (with the ATI 9000) and the fan just go on and on. I wish I'd bought the one with the 7500 as it's supposed to be a lot more quiet. I very seldom use it for 3D and am right now running it at 70Mhz/70Mhz!! I'm not experiencing any performance loss so if this can make the fan only run now and then as it's supposed to do, then I'm content with the solution (until IBM finally acknowledge that they this is a MAJOR problem and FIX it) . I hope it will work just as well for me as it apparently has for you.

And BTW, another indication that this is not the right way for the fan to behave is that if the fan is running and you put the laptop in standby and then back again straight away, the fan will stop and more important... it will not start again until several minutes after the return from standby. The few seconds in standby won't cool anything.

I'm not going to recommend IBM Thinkpads to anyone anymore!

/Speedbird