Fan noise on L520 in comparison with X200

Dear all,

Since a couple of years I am using a Lenovo X200. It never failed... and it is quiet; if you want to hear the fan, you need to stick your ear in the heatsink, and even then.... I am very pleased with that machine!

Two weeks ago, I bought a L520 for home use; much to my surprise this one produces a fan noise that is staggering in comparison with the X200. And I have not even enabled the Lenovo Turbo Boost + yet. Then fighter-jet noise kicks in.

This is the noise of a desktop, not a laptop!



So, members of the forum:

- (other L520 owners): what is your experience with the fan noise of your system?
- do I need to configure something special to bring the noise down?
- what is the difference between fan control in X200 and L520?

I saw a HW solution to the L520 fan control noise (or problem?) on the web: tpfc.mywo.org Worlds first intelligent ThinkPad fan controller. Super silent cpu fan operation!

I cannot believe that the Lenovo engineers are not clever enough to have built in such a solution from the start.

So, before I even start thinking about tweaking around with non-Lenovo hardware in my new L520, I'd appreciate your feedback or assistance.

Cheers, Jean-Paul



P.S. Can anyone tell me what the best e-mail address is to get in touch with tech support of Lenovo?

 

I wouldn't even dare doing what is in that link. There looks to be little feedback and that has to void your warranty. I would just use TPFanControl and see if you have any luck doing that. TPFanControl by troubadix Also, checking to see there is a newer BIOS that fixes the fan noise. If you want to let Lenovo know that you have a problem with fan noise, this is the best place to let them know: Lenovo Community - Lenovo Community

 

You are absolutely right about the mod in the HW of my system, although being an electronics engineer myself, messing with the cooling of the cpu/system is too risky.
Hope to get some feedback from Lenovo forum members.

 

Any news on the problem with the constant fan noise of the L520?

I am so surprised that this has not been picked up by the NotebookCHECK review.

Jean-Paul, what kind of screen have you got with your L520?

 

I have a 1600x900 screen

 

TPFanControl is software only. You do not install any hardware.

 

I don't know if it's all L/SL series but the SL410 I have (and the one my girlfriend has which is used much more often) both seem to have two settings: off and on. tpfancontrol works fine so i'd just set the fan speed to 1 or 3 and leave it at that most of the time.

also from that tpfc.mywo website: "People have experimented and reported in forums that is it NOT possible to run a ThinkPad completely fanless. "
I bought my current X61 tablet with a very loud fan, and shut the fan off when i had to use it for class. it ran perfectly fine and the highest temp. i would see was around 70C. not saying you could do this with every thinkpad, but it's not impossible.