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    Is TPFad Bad for your machine?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by leemoreau, Sep 11, 2013.

  1. leemoreau

    leemoreau Notebook Enthusiast

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    I just got the Helix and love it but the fan is on non stop when in the base and even in tablet mode. I downloaded tpfan and ever since the fan is literally never on. It's on the setting for Mode "Smart". I never see the fan ever come on though since getting this, but the CPU temp is always between 48 degree and 52, like right now it's at 50 which I'd say is average, maybe 50-52. If I chose Mode BIOS the fan immediately comes on, on the unit and the dock and it shows speed 4100 RPM. I just turned it on about 30 seconds ago and now it says CPU temperature 46 degrees, then went up to 47 and has been staying around there.

    So not a huge difference with the fan on or not, but it literally NEVER comes on when using Tpfancontrol, and since I've had it on Bios, the taskbar icon is green when before it was blue. Just wondering like is this program automatic when in smart mode? Does it hit a threshold and then turn the fan on or am I supposed to control that? Just makes me concerned that when on BIOS it's on non stop never turns off but when using Smart it never comes on. Just don't want to ruin anything on my new machine so wanted to check, thanks!
     
  2. ajkula66

    ajkula66 Courage and Consequence

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    TPFC is a very highly regarded utility and I've been running it for years on plethora of ThinkPads.

    With that said, I don't - and never will - own a Helix so I have no first-hand knowledge on how that piece of software behaves on it..

    You can change the settings of the program, "how to" is explained on TPFC website. Personally, I don't think that you've pushed the machine hard enough for the fan to come on in the "smart" mode, that's all.

    Good luck.
     
    lead_org likes this.
  3. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    TPFC is the main reason I buy ThinkPad. TPFC worked fine on my Helix. The stock thresholds are high enough and the Helix ULV enough such that I could see the fans not running almost at all with the stock thresholds. If you don't think the unit is too hot to touch, the stock thresholds are well within safe limits, and I wouldn't really bother messing with them; otherwise you can manually set thresholds as mentioned.
     
  4. galmosh

    galmosh Newbie

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    Hi,

    I own a Helix and use TPFanControl and it indeed usually keeps the machine quiet.
    However, I have one concern: It seems that only the cpu temperature sensor is detected. Therefore the GPU, battery or anything else might get very hot and it won't turn on the fans.
    Do you see the same behavior on your machine? Does your TPFanControl also only detect the cpu?

    Thanks,
    Gal