High-Pitched Noise?

Hello. I have a new Thinkpad T60 and was hoping that someone could help me out with a problem I'm having.

I have recently noticed a rather faint, high-pitched noise being emitted from my computer. It seems to be coming from the fan area, but I am not entirely sure. It is not too loud; you need to be in a quiet room and looking for it, but I can hear it (though I do have sensitive ears).

I noticed that the sound almost entirely disappears if I mess with the power management settings and lower them to something like Maximum Battery Performance or Word Processing. In other words, anything lower than what I usually run it on, which is Maximum Performance. Does anyone have any ideas what this could be, and whether I should be concerned about it? It really isn't that bad, but like I said I can hear it if the room is silent and just want to know whether I should be concerned because it is some sort of hardware problem.

Thank you so much for your help.

 

If the sound was like a scream, that might be a bad capacitor. I'm sure an owner will chime in though.

 

I think this is a well-documented feature of the CPU caused by changing power states. You can do a Google or search this forum for "CPU whine". HP's seem to be the worst afflicted. For example here and here.

You seem to have already discovered one of the workarounds.

John

 

Yes as John said, it's very odd that the power management on the Intel 945 chipset is strobed at a few kHz but it is, so it couples to things (probably the speaker wires themselves (and thus mute does nothing).

My friend has a dell where its really loud, at least on my T60 it's not really noticeable unless the room is very quiet and the fan isn't running.

 

compaq V6000t does the same thing. funny thing is, if i d/l and run folding@home on 1 core 24/7 use, it kills the noise completely. hmmm, never checked if i would lower cpu usage to something less than 100% if that would help, and still not drain as much power. gotta remember to do that next time i get a chance.

 

I fixed my problem by going here
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=3516
Follow the instructions and you should be fine.
Good luck

 

I received T60p WS a week ago and loved it until found high-pitched squealing noise as the same as Snowman88 has.
it might be small issue but it drives me crazy.
I am considering to return it, but I still like it. I don't know what I should do.
From my research, it could be Dual core assembly or GPU fan problem.
I try to use the link by Z 24 but did not work on Vista.
I also try to use TP fan control program it did work for reducing fan speed but
get worse the high-pitched noise. I rather use high speed fan rather than slower one because general high speed fan noise will be as white noise to hide high pitched one.
Does anyone really resolve this problem?
What is your spec, Snowman88?
Mine is Dual core 5500 (1.67), Fire GL 5250 with WSXGA.
Thanks

 

Thank you all for the responses. I'm relieved to hear that it's a common problem, though it is still annoying. Nan Na: I am running a Thinkpad T60 WS with a Core 2 Duo Processor (2.166 Ghz), ATI X1400 and WSXGA+. I'm going to experiment with some of the proposed solutions a bit and see if any of them resolve the problem.

 

It could very well be a bad fan. My T60p is very quiet compared to Dells I've owned.

 

I will post some links, regarding to this issues tonight.
What I got from different treads is that it must be Intel Core 2 Duo CPU with fan assembly problem and appear on any manufacturer such as Dell, HP and Gateway. there are no obvious solution unless returning it and waiting for new cpu arrival (Intel must know the problem by now).
So I was wondering it happens only on Core 2 Duo 5500 (my machine) but happens any cpu types.
Keep posting your cases please.
Thanks

 

You cannot buy any (nearly) intel 945 based notedbook then (IE no core 2 duo notebook) if you don't want this noise. Either that or you have to kill some of your battery life. Those are your choices. All the work arounds hurt your battery life at least some, and the issue has little to do with Lenovo..

That is this has nothing to do with Fans. If you are running on AC and don't hear it is the power management standard problem which occurs across the board.

If you hear it on AC then it is fans I guess.

 

After looking into it a bit more, I really do not think that the noise I'm hearing is from the fan, and if your problem is the same as mine Nan Na, I think it's probably the CPU. Try lowering your settings via the power management software to something like Maximum Battery Performance or Word Processing - does that make the noise subside? On mine the sound disappears immediately, while the fan continues at the same speed, so I do not think it could be the fan. It is also louder when on battery than on AC power. For now I'm just going to deal with it; it's not too annoying unless I look for it. I will also try some of the fixes people have suggested.

 

Mine is definitely related to fan.
It appears when the fan starts and disappears when the fan get off with AC power.
Now I am in Princeton University Library with public noise and still hear that high pitched noise irregularly.

 

Its the Core Due processor iv'e read at thinkpads.com that there is away to
stop it however it will make your system slower! its a Intel thing nothing is wrong with your Thinkpad!