Lenovo T60 fan constantly running

The fan of my T60 is running most of the time, regardless of how low I put the processor speed and other energy options. The air coming out of the computer is not even warm. CPU load is very low: 2-3%.

When I switch power schemes, the fan turns off. It often comes back "on" after a few minutes, and then remains "on".

I do not like the constant noise (the fan is not noisy, but if it turns off, it still is a relief). Anyone knows who to increase the threshhold for turning the fan on, and in particular making sure that it is turned off again?

 

You really can't mess with the fans. And personally, what you have is better.

A constant low hum is better than 15 seconds of no sound then 15 seconds of a loud fan repeated over and over and over again. That gets annoying real fast.

 

Well -- I had a Toshiba before, and when the fan really turned itself on, the air coming out was quite hot. This T60 is cool, from below, from above, and with regard to the air that is coming out.

You may be tolerant about fan hum. I am not.

Maybe someone can answer my question, rather than telling me that it is a non-problem???? ;-)

 

Well the answer is you can't mess with the fans, just like I said in my first post. You can chose to ignore the truth, but repeatedly asking for it won't change the answer.

You can try SpeedFan and see if it's compatible with your machine, but highly unlikely.

If you are so intolerant of such fans, then maybe you should invest in some headphones to cover your ears, or in a watercooled desktop.

 

As far as I know SpeedFan will not control your ThinkPad fan. If you want to control your TP fan and you are running XP or Vista 32 bit, you can either try:
1) ThinkPad Fan Control service
2) Thinkpad Fan Controller application
3) Noteboot Hardware control. For TP fan and tempature support you'll still have to download the file from option 1 and follow the configuration files installation instructions for NHC.

 

I am aware that some notebooks will have constant running fan when they are on AC-power, and revert to on/off mode when running on battery. Could this be the case ?

 

I don't think so. Usually notebooks just have certain temps at which the fans either shut off, or go in a faster mode. So the reason why a fan goes off and on when on battery is because the cpu is running much cooler when downclocked thus the temperature reaches the lowest threshold a more often then when running full speed.

 

Yes, I also thought so initially. Since I got my second notebook --- MSI VR320 --- it changed my view. This machine will have constant fan ON when its on AC-power.

 

I downloaded and installed Thinkpad Fan Controller, and it really makes a difference on my machine. See http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17715&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=690

The question remains, though: Why do other notebooks turn the fan on only when they really need to? Why does it need an external utility to tweak a BIOS? Shouldn't a renowned company incorporate such features in its BIOS?

I have a Thinkpad T60 with a Core 2 duo processor and 15" display (3x4), running WinXP. I am reasonably content now, but it took me a long time to get there!

 

One of the more recent bios updates on the T60 changed the fan behavior and causes it to come on most of the time.

 

I wish these fans could be left on at a lower minimum voltage, slowly spinning, keeping heat from building up. Fans won't start up until a minimum voltage, but most laptops I see have a higher minimum RPM than necessary to start the fan. I'm surprised they don't use more thin 80mm fans, but I guess they need localized cooling and fewer heavy heat spreading panels.

I've made another topic, "keeping the fan off". I note that using Notebook Hardware Control to reduce the CPU voltage and frequency, as well as using Powermizer on a nVidia laptop, will reduce the fan speed and use. I'm wanting to know if I could keep the fan off with this method on the T61p 570m.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=188437

 

Are they going to fix this?

 

I don't understand what is broken about it.. Its one of the quietest fans I have ever heard and the cooler my laptop the better.

 

the t60's fan is way louder than the t61's fan

 

Because they cut the wings of Owls and stuffed them in notebooks.

Not really, but yeah, they say 3db less than before, or 1/2 the amount of vibrations in the air (dBa being perceived noise)-
http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=81

In a nearly silent room, fans are loud, especially small fans making higher pitched noises. The more often the fan is off, the better, so there's no reason to complain about people wanting it off.