Lenovo X220 High Pitch Noise

I am sure some of you experience a high pitch noise with the X220 series when CPU Power Manager is enabled in bios. The problem is, the solution to that problem is to disable the cpu power management but that cuts the battery life in almost half with it on?

Has anyone else found a solution to get better battery life with cpu power manager off?

 

I don't have that noise... only whine I hear is when the fan ramps up. When just browsing, low intensity stuff, this thing is super quiet with an msata and HDD spun down.

Where is the noise coming from exactly? Which section of the laptop?

 

This is coming directly from where the CPU is. I have an SSD setup so it cannot be the hard drive spinning.

There was a thread on here about the whining noise that the CPU produced when CPU Power Management is enabled within the bios. But when disabled, the battery life shoots down to 2 hours less.

 

I'm pretty sure that is a mechanical issue with the CPU fan.

I personally don't have this problem at all, but maybe playing around with TPFanControl might help?

 

That is what I am afraid of as returning this to lenovo will probably take another year to get back... Might as well return it for a full refund.

 

Pretty sure there is a 15% restock fee.

Have you tried playing with TPFanControl yet?

 

Yes, I've tried that solution.

The problem is, you should not have to tinker with third party applications to alleviate a defect on lenovo's side.

 

On my X220, I can only hear the CPU whine if "CPU deeper sleep" is enabled in Power Manager. When deeper sleep is disabled, the CPU whine goes away.

On the other hand, I'm still trying to adjust to the fan noise; just a bit too high-pitched to ignore.

I hope you can get the CPU to be silent. If not, Lenovo should probably replace the motherboard.

 

Yah it wouldn't be the hard drive making the high pitch noise. I was just saying that when it is spun down I hear no noises from the computer.

The only whining I've heard is from the fan. But I've also seen threads on the Lenovo forum about a high pitch noise being produced by the CPU when in high performance mode. I don't have that, but the fan definitely whines under load. However I think they said it was more of a buzz than a whine.

 

The fan noise is expected in high performance mode but the CPU buzzing is not. Funny thing is, you would expect lenovo to get it right off the bat as thinkpad is the business class of laptops and not consumer. I do not have time to go through the exchange process and wait weeks for a replacement.

I have tried giving lenovo a chance before and this is my second attempt with the same failure rate. Sad that I have to go back to mac and just use windows in vmware mode.

 

a lot of thinkpads 'suffer' from piezoelectric system board/cpu whine/noise, my T400s and others' T400s' as well. There's a lot of threads about it on TP forums and some on NBR as well. Perhaps it's something similar. It happens to me more when the batteries are charging, and goes away if you turn off throttling of all kinds (bios, power manager). Other laptops have it too, many don't, some find it annoying, I ignore it now, it's not loud per se, just noticeable when there is no other noise.

Similar issue?

 

Basically the exact same problem but occurs when on battery or AC.

I think the issue might be the x220 throttling down to 800 mhz on battery when on maximum battery life mode and when a program needs some cpu power, the mhz increases and the CPU whine start churning in.

That is at least from what I experienced. The noise does get out of hand though, especially when you're running an SSD compared to a normal HDD.

BTW, I have never had this problem but with lenovo's. But then again, I am either using a lenovo or a macbook pro.

 

Yeah, mine works exactly the same way, in adaptive mode the whine is all over the place, in maximum battery life when the CPU is locked to 800mhz it's still there, but lower pitched, and if I turn off throttling completely, it goes away for the most part. I do notice a decrease in the sounds though when on battery power. I've never owned any other thinkpads for a long amount of time, but I had a lattitude E series that had a similar issue.

TBH I don't know how to fix it.. for some they say a BIOS update did it, for me it didn't. I've just kind of... accepted it. I've had it for 2 years and it's done it the entire time. I even cleaned and reseated the heatsink with new paste and pads.. nothing.

Sorry I don't have a solution, but it is a confirmed issue and was especially talked about when C2D's were the "current" lineup.

 

don't apologize bro, not really your fault but how lenovo designed their laptops. Hopefully they can do a better job next time as I would love to keep this X220 as it is a workhorse but I just cannot deal with the excessive screen bleed and CPU wining.

apple probably spoiled me too as I could walk into any apple store and just get my machine swapped out of fixed on the spot. If I ever go consider going lenovo, I will make sure to get the on-site warranty for these situations.

Another reason why this laptop also lasts so long one 6 or 9 cell is due to the CPU throttling down to 800 mhz when not in heavy use. I just want to point this fact out to the people thinking these machines run at the full speed of whatever processor they choose to purchase.

My macbook pro i7 2.5 ghz late 2011 runs for about 5-6 hours but at full 2.5 ghz mode and bursting to 3.4 if needed. So I would not consider this battery amazing or the heat of this laptop good either as it is all due to the lower clocked CPU when in battery mode.

 

It would be really nice if they made onsite standard.

On the topic of the CPU. Its something that every single modern CPU does unless you force it not to. If your Mac isn't throttling down, there is something wrong with it.

You can tell the X220 to remain at 2500MHz or whatever even when idle/low load if you want to. You'll just be losing battery life without any significant performance gain since the CPU clocks up to base clock/turbo clock when you do anything that would benefit from it doing so.

 

This is normal behavior for any modern CPU on anything but the "Maximum Performance" power plan (one that locks the CPU on the highest multiplier). On the "Balanced" power plan ("Adaptive" in Power Manager), the CPU will clock up and turbo if necessary for high processing loads.

As Pseudorandom mentioned, if your Mac is staying at full clock all the time, there is indeed something wrong.

 

It really sucks how this cpu whines because other than that, I can deal with the screen bleeding. Right now using it with my NEC 2490 on displayport and it looks beautiful and yet is fast as hell with performance mode.

Just sad

 

I don't even think the fan whining should be expected. I've had a lot of loud fans in my day, but not one that whined. I've heard the newer fans don't have the issue, probably use onsite fairly soon.

That is unfortunate about your CPU buzz, definitely read threads about that. Out of curiosity, which processor did you get?

 

I believe it was the 2520 i5 2.5 ghz.... Does anyone out there with a different processor have less or non-existent whine?

I thought about going i7 but the heat and battery drain was my main concern.

 

I wonder how transistors can produce audible noise.

 

Yeah people who fret over the i5 2520 and 2540 when ordering and other situations like that don't realize that most of the time their CPU won't be running at the full clock speed anyways. I keep my TP on maximum power saving or power source optimized probably 90% of the time, and only force it on maximum performance when I really am doing A LOT of things at once, or I'm running a VM, etc. I like it that way, it sips power and never breaks 40C when on max power saving!

I'm not sure I think transistor whine comes from rapid fluctuations from the 'on-off' state switching, and that's why it's more present in power source optimized mode, because the cpu throttling is much more active and adaptive then.

Also, I've heard that tri-gate transistors in Ivy Bridge will reduce this issue since it will be able to from ON to OFF quicker, and the 3 stacked gates mean less power leakage, reducing whine

 

I actually have the 2520 with no cpu buzz... so who knows.

 

Yeah, I am just going to return this lenovo x220 and then wait for the next sale lenovo announces. But next time, I will make sure to get the onsite warranty.

Now I am back using my 15 mbp i7 2.5 with anti-glare, believe it or not, the apple TN high res panel look better than the IPS lenovo has.