Silencing Thinkpads - T40 louder than R50e

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erozsolt · #1 Post by **erozsolt** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:35 pm

I just bought a used T40 with 1.5 Ghz Banias and a 40/5400 RPM drive. First I updated all the firmwares and BIOS/EC. After a day use, I was confused because of the noise coming out from the fan. I didn't understand it, because the processor was cooler than 36 C and adaptive speedstepping was used.

After I read it here, I went back to BIOS 3.13 and the processor fan speed became quieter. I think it is a bug, because there is nothing about this in the changelog. It is not absolutely quiet, it is even running at 37 C, but it is quieter than 3.14 BIOS was. What BIOS/EC combinations do you advice for the quietest result?

Now, the noisiest part of my system is the HDD. How can I stop it under Windows? I set the turn off time to 3 min, but nothing happens. Some program always wants to write something to the hard drive I think, so it couldn't turn itself off.

I used an R50e with 4200 rpm HDD and I am now using this T40 with 5400 rpm HDD, and the HDD + this fan issue makes this computer a _much_ louder computer than R50e was. Please help me what to do, because I really like to like this Thinkie but I am getting nervous because of constant noise.

erozsolt · #2 Post by **erozsolt** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:53 pm

Any ideas about the fan behaviour? Now I am running 3.06f and it is better but not the best.

For the HDD, I think it is impossible to stop in windows. I will have to try linux.

beerak · #3 Post by **beerak** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 6:20 pm

erozsolt wrote:Any ideas about the fan behaviour? Now I am running 3.06f and it is better but not the best.

For the HDD, I think it is impossible to stop in windows. I will have to try linux.

I've heard here T40 has this problem with the latest BIOS when CPU speed could not be decreased.

erozsolt · #4 Post by **erozsolt** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:30 pm

Can anyone advice a solution for this CPU cooler problem? I read that fan speed is not manually adjustable, and sometimes it happens that the CPU fan goes on and doesn't switch off even after the processor is cooler than 35-37 C. 3.06f BIOS helped a lot, but I think it is still weird that a processor cooler works when the processor is under 35 C!

Marc_G · #5 Post by **Marc_G** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:42 pm

Erozsolt-

I'm not expert in processor temperature optimization, but probably one reason the CPU is maintained at 35 C is because the fan is on, at low speed. With no fan at all, it would probably go up higher. I would rather have a continous low speed fan with occasional spikes in fan activity when the processor demand rises, than oscillations of fan high-on/off continuously.

This is what my T42P does. The fan seems to be always on, at least a little, and the temp is usually maintained in the upper 30's / low 40s, except when usage of the processor spikes. I'm running in adaptive CPU speed by the way.

erozsolt · #6 Post by **erozsolt** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:58 pm

I understand you and I think it is a common thing for small factor T laptops. I only got the idea of fanless operation from my R50e/R51 which used a 1.5 Ghz Dothan and it was perfecly without any fan noise for hours when I was browsing web pages. I think there is a much bigger heatsink in the 3 kg R models than in this 2 kg T40 model.

Silencer · #7 Post by **Silencer** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 10:49 am

Just wanted to post the same topic. How do you guys check CPU temperature? My T40p fan is also almost always on, and add to that7200rpm hard drive which is pretty noisy in idle state. Result is that my ThinkPad is rather noisy. Previous T23 I had was almost silent most of the times, and behavior of T40p is dissappointing.

Leon · #8 Post by **Leon** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 1:58 pm

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259/

Silencer · #9 Post by **Silencer** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:30 pm

Leon wrote:http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Oakland/8259/

Thanks, great small tool. But now I'm worried. Can everyone who is not too lazy post their temperature stats here for compare. I have T40p 1.6GHz, and it's 45 degrees on 1.6GHz and aorund 42 degrees on 0.6Ghz. I find these stats a bit high. HDD temperature at idle state is 28 degrees.

Sasha · #10 Post by **Sasha** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 6:45 pm

I have a T42P and Mobilemeter indicates these temps:

On AC (Adaptive CPU setting, LCD brightness 5) - 45 degrees
On Battery (Very Slow CPU, LCD brightness 3) - 42 degrees

Compared to mine, you are running at more or less the same temperature. Hope that I don;t find out that I am running too hot....

beeblebrox · #11 Post by **beeblebrox** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 7:02 pm

Silencer wrote:Just wanted to post the same topic. How do you guys check CPU temperature? My T40p fan is also almost always on, and add to that7200rpm hard drive which is pretty noisy in idle state. Result is that my ThinkPad is rather noisy. Previous T23 I had was almost silent most of the times, and behavior of T40p is dissappointing.

Impossible, I have a T40p and am also using a T22. Both are dead silent, including the newest BIOS and tools.

When you set the HDD to turn off after 3 min you can hear the grass grow, on both notebooks.
you must have some background program that uses the CPU massively.

Silencer · #12 Post by **Silencer** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 7:41 pm

Just tested massive CPU load. Played World Of Warcraft for couple of hours with maxed settings and Graphic Power Management turned off. Highest point temperature of CPU reached is 75 degrees. Can anyone do similar tests to see if it's ok?

kev009 · #13 Post by **kev009** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 11:40 pm

I routinely hit ~75degF after playing AA or HL2. Is that too hot? I don't think I'll be able to play here in AZ in the summer.. (ambient room temp ~80degF)

Silencer · #14 Post by **Silencer** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:35 am

kev009 wrote:I routinely hit ~75degF after playing AA or HL2. Is that too hot? I don't think I'll be able to play here in AZ in the summer.. (ambient room temp ~80degF)

75degF is nothing. I got 75degC.

Torque · #15 Post by **Torque** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:10 am

Currently browsing www.thinkpads.com on AC. 51 degrees C.

I'll try and play some WOW to see the effects, and post it here.

erozsolt · #16 Post by **erozsolt** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 8:11 am

I wish if I had 51degC!

At the moment (T40, 1.5 Banias, 14"):
- I am browsing thinkpads.org from AC
- I have an ambient temperature of 23degC
- my processor is running at adaptive mode (now at 600Mhz)
- processor temperature is 36degC
- there is no chage activity

And my fan is constantly running at medium speed (something much louder than low)!

Why? It could go up to 40-50 and would have almost no fan at all; it is not "unhealthy" for a processor.

If there is someone from IBM Service, please tell me is it normal? I thought IBM T-series is elegant and discrete but how could it be so loud?

kev009 · #17 Post by **kev009** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:12 pm

Silencer wrote:
kev009 wrote:I routinely hit ~75degF after playing AA or HL2. Is that too hot? I don't think I'll be able to play here in AZ in the summer.. (ambient room temp ~80degF)
75degF is nothing. I got 75degC.

The unit on the first number should be 75degC. I'd have this machine overclocked in a jiffy if it was running at 75F

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Silencing Thinkpads - T40 louder than R50e

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