How often is your fan on?

I know some of you hate polls, but this is really pissing me off because of the noise:

I'm concerned that my fan is on too much of the time. It's on even when I'm doing something as simple as web-surfing. If I start my computer and start surfing right off the bat, it'll take about 5-6 minutes for the fan to kick in on max and it will not go done unless I don't touch the computer for another 5-6 minutes. I'm trying to find out if this is normal for the rest of you.

Some of you will probably ask what my temps are. In that case, please tell me which program you want me to detect temps with, because they all say different things.

If for any reason you hate this poll, I encourage you to move on and not cause trouble.

 

If you're having problems with temp, you should try a laptop coolers. You should try Notebook Hardware Control for temps and underclocking.

 

I think this is a common phenomenon with the T61, because the guys over at notebookcheck.net mentioned it in their review

 

Poll is starting to indicate otherwise.

 

Maby thats due to the fact that your not polling on the T61 specifically

 

Comon people, help a guy out.

 

I really don't get why it would be a problem if the fan was on full. On my T61, I can hardly hear it going even on full load and I have a hard time telling when its on or off.

 

Really? Because it is very audible, especially if I am alone in the room, the whirring sound of the fan combined with the hard drive is quite obnoxious.

 

i only really hear the thing when i'm screwing around with IDEAS or autocad

 

NHC reports while I am typing this that the CPU is at 42 Celsius and the fan is running at max. Note that I have not done anything other than open firefox and surf sites.

So is 42 Celsius normal for me only surfing the web? And is it normal for the fan to go on max at 42 Celsius? What are you guys getting?

 

For those of you whose T61's fans don't go on max unless you're doing something intensive, what power settings in Windows are you using? Specifically, what is the range that you have set for your CPU to throttle (5%-100%?, etc.).

 

Mines set on the default energy star profile, as for how far it throttles... I'll get back you you about that. I know the idle temp is around 41-42C and I've stressed it up to 50C without any change in noises from it.

I can hear a fan going but it would need to be dead silent or I would need to put my ear close up to the keyboard. My 5400 rpm Seagate is almost as loud as the fan so I really don't get how you can hear yours over your 7200 rpm hdd.

It could be I'm used to my desktop pc with my loud as hell raptor drive but my Thinkpad is really quiet though. Maybe yours is already due for a cleaning johnny?

 

+1

I have to put my ear right up to the vent to hear mine. But it's funny, I think it ran all the time on my z 60, but not as much with the t 60. I just now went into power schemes and on "optimize fan control", changed from "balance all parameters" to "maximize performance". I thought balance/parameters would be trying to keep it cooler, but apparently max/perf keeps the fan running more. Depends on how you look at it I guess, because to maximize battery performance the fan would need to run less, to maximize cooling it'd need to run more- so maybe it means maximized for processing performance, as in when you're doing more intensive work it'd need to run more.

Anyways, I keep my fan running, and processor on lowest performance setting. Cool as the other side of the pillow. And even if I could hear it, I think I'd rather have noise than heat.

Didn't keep the t 61 long enough to mess with fan controls, but it was warmer than both of my thinkpads nor did the fan ever stop. Have to consider that it was a smaller box too though and hotter processor. But integrated graphics.

 

Dust is not the issue.

I find it odd that my fan goes on max even when only at 43C. My fan is definitely louder than the hard drive. I also noticed that the fan shuts the hell up when I unplug the AC adapter. I tested this with all the power settings equal regardless of AC or battery. The same goes for the thermal management setting in the BIOS. Plugging the AC adapter back in almost immediately starts up the fan again. So why does the fan only shut up when on battery??? Am I missing any settings? I've looked at the BIOS one and the Power Options ones.

Also, what do you mean energy star profile, I don't see that in Windows power options.

What software are you referring to?

 

Thinvantage productivity center-> Device Configuration -> Manage Power Schemes -> create new or edit current scheme... (or just click on battery icon).

It lets you set everything- fan, processor, brightness controls; times to hibernation and/or standby, all independent for battery and a/c.

More advanced fan control can be had by downloading this.

 

So I presume you, Tailic, are also using the ThinkVantage Power Management utility?

I never installed that after my clean install, and no amount of settings in Vista power options could shut my fan up on AC power. But after install Power Management per Leon's indirect suggestion, the ruckus has definitely died down. Thanks everyone, and I'll sacrifice the resources lost to another 1-3 processes.

 

Yep, I'm still using the factory install until my Vista disc gets here. I'm glad we finally found out what the problem is, I'll make sure to get the Power Management utility reinstalled when I do a fresh install of Vista.

 

So wait, which profile are you using? Balanced, Power saver, or High performance?

 

NOPE. Looks like I was little quick to declare victory. The same thing is still happening, just that every time I change power profiles, the fan stops, but eventually stops back up again. Otherwise, I'm still getting a very well-behaved fan on battery and the exact opposite on AC power even when the power profiles are configured the same.

Once I connect the adapter, the fan comes back again.

 

Now I'm taking new measures to try to solve this problem on my own. I did a factory reinstall (Rescue & Recovery discs) on my 160GB 7200.2 Seagate to see if the problem with the fan still exists. If it does, then I will do a factory reinstall on my 120GB 5K160 Hitachi to see if the problem has anything to do with 7200 rpm vs. 5400 rpm. If the fan problem goes away, then I know the problem isn't hardware-related, it is software-related as something in the factory settings made it work.

 

My fan runs a lot too but:

1. It's not too loud.

2. When I created a new power profile and set everything to lowest setting (processor performance too), the fan literally barely ran.

My guess is that Vista taxes the system in such a way (Aero graphics) that the CPU is running warmer.

Gonna test out turning off all of the visual settings, leave the power profile where it is right now (Thinkpad Default) and see if the fan runs less.

 

Wouldn't make sense. Aero does not tax CPU, it taxes GPU. At idle, none of my CPU resources are being used. The loudness isn't attributed to the quality of the fan, it is because the fan is being run at max, which seems to only take place if I have the system connected to AC power. On battery, the fan never runs at max even when the power settings for both battery and ac adapter are the same. The difference is almost instantaneous, I can run the computer on max performance on AC power and the fan will be on max. I pull the plug, the fan suddenly dies down.

It's worth noting that even when I set power profile to max battery (ie. low performance), the fan still runs on max when connected to AC and runs on low when connected to battery. Strange indeed.

 

Sorry bout that. Guess you are right about Aero and GPU vs. CPU.

I just downloaded Speedfan to have a look and both cores are idling at 25C / 26C.

I've also played around with various power profiles and the variable fan is obvious. That said, as I type I'm on Max Battery and the fan sounds pretty revved up.

For performance sake -- I hate seeing the hard drive access all the time -- I had previously turned off Windows Defender and Windows Search. I also uninstalled Nortons as I have having background programs running.

Maybe you could try disabling these items and see how things run.

EDIT - Lot of good Speedfan is ... downloaded Notebook Hardware Control and it lists my temp at 41C. Which is more in line with others.

 

Johnny, I have the EXACT same issue as well. When I put the profile to "Power Source Optimized" (AC connected), the fan quiets down a bit. I can barely hear it. I don't know the difference between "power source optimized" and "max performance." Let us know your results.

 

Not exactly. My fan runs on max regardless of power settings if the computer is on AC power. If on battery, the fan runs normally (adaptive to heat) regardless of power settings. The fan is a bunch of bull$hit on AC power.

 

Huh, that is really odd. Are you charging your battery at the same time?

Is the air blowing out of the fan vent really hot?

I noticed that when I put my settings to "max performance" on AC power, the fan(now on max power) would blow out cool air if I wasn't doing any power-intensive task.

 

Johnny, maybe you should post this on Thinkpads.com, they might know more then us.

Make sure you say that you already turned down the fan in the power profile.

 

Factory reinstall shows that the fan still comes on quite frequently at max, albeit it does seem to be a bit more adaptive as I hear the fan slow down more often then before (only to spin back up 30 seconds later). I don't know, maybe the frequent fan spinning at max is normal, but I just find it odd that everyone says theirs is all quiet with pink bananas, while I have to deal with a fan at max 90% of runtime.

Either you guys are deaf, or I have a permanent hangover.

 

Owl wings, owl wings lol.

No, I hear mine now that it's dead silent, my a/c's not on, and I'm specifically listening for it. When the ac comes back on I literally have to put my ear right up to the vent to hear anything though.

Have you tried downloading tpfancontrol yet? I just don't think I'd try to keep it from running too much less than it "wants" to.

Like rubbing antiperspirant all over your body then working out.


http://sourceforge.net/projects/tp4xfancontrol/

 

Well, that's the thing. Is it supposed to want to?

And I agree, it's not like the fan is necessarily audible when there's other stuff happening around you; I don't think many laptops are like that to begin with. But the idea is that the fan spins at max way too much. Many times, only cold air is coming out.

I tried tpfancontrol. It didn't work too well. It had a configuration conflict with the BIOS, so it was trying to shut the fan up while the BIOS was trying to shut tpfancontrol up. Basically, the fan stalled and my CPU's temp started rising quick. If I was an idiot and just watched instead of doing a hard power off, my CPU would've fried.

 

I wonder whether the new BIOS update from Lenovo may improve this situation.