Very loud noise from X61

[netmask254]

When I got this X61 (with 2.4GHz CPU) one year before, it is very quiet during idle status initially.

After long time use, now it is very loud after entering Windows Vista. I can't discriminate exactly whether the noise come from HDD or fan, it sounds like the later and I guess the fan keeps running at high speed even if the system is in idle. I checked the temperature by Everest, it is not very hot (< 50C) and now it is winter in Beijing.

Any one can give me some suggestions to debug the noise? Initially I could try some steps later:

1 Find some means to check the fan speed (but it looks very difficult to me, not able to find such tool yet...)
2 Upgrade BIOS
3 Reinstall system

[Harryc]

tpfancontrol should see the fan speed...
http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/donate.html

[netmask254]

tpfancontrol should see the fan speed...
http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/donate.html

Thanks a lot! It works pretty well. The fan speed is 3000~4000rpm, slightly higher than my another X61S. So I can exclude the cause from fan control.

Perhaps I need to clean up the fan & heatsink when some time, and replace a HDD.

[Colonel O'Neill]

My parents' X61 has virtually the same problem. I'm guessing you have the Intel Txxxx CPU too. The fan will only go 0 or 3000 RPM... there's no middle ground

TPFanControl fixed the problem significantly when I set it to the default smart mode.

[netmask254]

My parents' X61 has virtually the same problem. I'm guessing you have the Intel Txxxx CPU too. The fan will only go 0 or 3000 RPM... there's no middle ground

TPFanControl fixed the problem significantly when I set it to the default smart mode.

Yes you are right, it is either zero or 3XXXRPM. But I don't think the fan is shut down even if it displays zero (otherwise it's too dangerous ).

X61: T8600@2.4GHz, 250G 5400rpm HDD, Windows Vista, 16 months used
X61S: L7500@1.6GHz, 160G 7200rpm HDD, Windows XP, 11 months used

I compare these two laptops carefully, though their fans run at similar speed, the X61 is much louder than X61S. I guess there are some problems with X61's fan or ventilation, need to further debug it.