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    New T61 14.1". Loud at night, don't know if it's a fan or the HDD.

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by jawknee530, Nov 27, 2007.

  1. jawknee530

    jawknee530 Newbie

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    My new thinkpad is always making a whirring noise. the noise is coming from the bottom right of the computer where my right palm rests. I have it on a flat surface and nothing is blocking its airflow. is this a fan or the the HDD spinning up a lot? I have the dedicated nvidia card option. is that where the card it? i just want my laptop to be quieter and am wondering what i can do to accomplish that. specs: 14.1" widescreen, T7500, 2GB RAM, 100GB 7200RPM HDD, 1GB intel turbo memory, nvidia quadro nvs 140.
     
    jawknee530, Nov 27, 2007
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  2. 7evendeuce

    7evendeuce Notebook Consultant

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    If the noise is coming from the bottom right, that's where the harddrive is. Not sure how to make it quieter, in my experience the fan noise (from the top left corner) drowns out everything else.
     
    7evendeuce, Nov 27, 2007
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  3. eyecon82

    eyecon82 Notebook Deity

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    my hd and fan makes very minimal noise...i hardley ever notice it...the only way i know my HD is running is by the HD icon light

    I also have a 5400rpm one while yours is 7200rpm...maybe that's why it is louder?
     
    eyecon82, Nov 27, 2007
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  4. ari_m

    ari_m Notebook Consultant

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    I also have a whirring sound coming from the HD. When on battery my fan usually shuts off since I have the CPU speed set to "lowest" in the Power Manager, but the HD will keep running (that is the spindle keeps spinning even though there is no actual data access as indicated by the HD LED.)

    The only way to have it shut off is to set an idle power off timeout for it in the Power Manager. (I wish HDs also had some throttling capability like PowerNow or SpeedStep for CPUs!)

    You can reduce your actual HD accesses by disabling some of the Vista search and indexing features, and reducing your virus checking schedule.
     
    ari_m, Nov 27, 2007
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