New Thinkpad Edge - Defective Fan ?

I've just received my Thinkpad Edge 11 (i3 380um) and first impressions were good, build quality/form factor/keyboard/screen resolution are all good.

However the fan seems to be nearly always on. From the moment I touch the power on button, through to logging into Windows. If I leave it to 'settle' for a few minutes in Windows, the fan will go off. But as soon as I do anything remotely 'intensive' such as watch a SD youtube video for 20 seconds, install any application etc, the fan kicks starts and will stay on for a few minutes.

It occurs with both battery and power ac connected, I changed a setting in Lenovo power options (processer power management to active/passive) but no difference. Also played with the various powerplans and manual configurations.

Even if I leave the laptop logged into windows doing nothing, the fan will be silent for 1/2 mins and will then start again.

Its driving me crazy, I couldn't live it, I just wanted to know if thats normal/have other users experienced it ? Is it a defective one-off or an inherent problem ?

I've seen others mention tpcontrolfan, but I don't really want to resort to a 3rd party app to manage what I consider a hardware/quality issue

 

The low voltage CPUs are a bit of a misnomer. They may have slightly lower idle power consumption than normal CPUs while their speed cap means that the maximum power requirement is much less than normal CPUs. See my Toshiba R500 review for some insight on this problem in an earlier Intel CPU.

Run HWiNFO32 or HWMonitor to check the CPU temperature. I would expect the fan to be running if the CPU is above about 50C. It may be that once the fan does come on then the CPU temperature needs to drop below, say, 45C for the fan to turn off. This is partly to stop the fan switching on and off in response to bursts of CPU activity. The on/off can be more intrusive than a continuously running fan. HWiNFO (on the sensors page) also makes an estimate of the CPU power consumption. How much is this and how much does it vary under different loading conditions? A normal CPU can idle at about 5Watts. Perhaps the UM CPU idles at 3 or 4 W but any bursts of CPU activity will push up the average heat.

So the next place to look is in Task Manager to see the CPU usage. The processes tab shows the CPU usage by each task. (Also use View > Select Columns to add CPU time). Animated Flash on web pages can cause substantial unwanted CPU activity (I use Firefox with FlashBlock).

Hope this helps,

John

 

From HWiNFO32 Sensors Page
(Just booted/logged into Windows):


CPU Core0 39C
CPU Core1 35C
CPU Core 4.6W
CPU Usage 0-10%
Fan Running



Came back after 5 minutes idle
CPU Core0 44C
CPU Core1 43C
CPU Core 4.4W
CPU Usage 0-6%
Fan Stopped








Ran a flash video on skynews, within 10 seconds stats changed:

CPU 48C
CPU Core 5.3W
CPU 15- 30%
Fan Running

I'm not sure how to interrupt the results but just from use, the laptop fan control definitely doesn't seem right.

 

You could try to use tpfanctrol software if its compatible with your ThinkPad and see if it gives you any benefits.

I used it on my T410 which had its fan running all the time and had very annoying high pitched noise, it kicked in around 40 degrees, just like yours.

It might help to set fan to run on its minimal speed (2000rpms on T410) and see if it helps keeping temperatures low while still effectively cooling down your laptop as long as youre not taxing your CPU much.

 

Those are very conservative temperature settings.

I suspect that the fan came on at 50C but doesn't go off until the CPU temperatures drop below 35C. And, with one core running hotter than the other on idle, that temperature is hard to achieve.

I would recommend that you take this up with Lenovo support. It shouldn't be difficult to fan trigger temperatures in a BIOS update.

John

 

Sorry, I dont know what you mean by fan trigger temps in bios. Had a chat with lenovo support who weren't very helpful. They suggest I send it back for repair, its brand new and only arrived this morning !

The bios I have is the latest, so no chance of a bios upgrade that might fix fan issue. Its a shame, as I really like the thinkpad edge 11 and don't want to refund it. Wondering if I should chance it and ask for an exchange rather than a refund

 

Go to Power Manager, Advanced, expand your profile of choice and change the cooling policy. Try each setting to see which one works best for you.

 

Saw that there were updates, update Power Manager and Power Manager driver (3.30 - 3.52 and 1.6-1.62).

Went through all options for profile and chose Max power savings. Only options for system cooling were active/passive, tried both. Still no joy.

Called Lenovo to arrange a return, they are due to collect in a few days. Don't want to return it as I everything else is 'perfect', shame about the fan. Have noticed that as soon as theres a spike in CPU temp above c. 47, the fan kicks in. Fan runs at around 500rpm. Wonder why CPU spikes to 50C, as soon as I view video for example.

If anyone has any other ideas, would be greatly appreciated. thanks for all the suggestions so far

 

By "trigger" I mean the temperature which causes a change to the fan speed. There will be different trigger temperatures depending on whether the temperature is rising or falling. A table with these values is coded into the BIOS and can be changed in a future BIOS update. It often takes hardware manufacturers several BIOS updates to get everything working properly.

If the fan isn't running then any significant CPU / GPU activity will be enough to raise the CPU temperature. Opening a video causes significant CPU / GPU activity.

John

 

Thinkpad came with bios 1.09 installed, even though for my product (0328) the website states 1.08 is latest. I suppose I could try to downgrade bios.

But to be honest, feels like I'm flogging a dead horse.

 

I am not sure about the Edge, but the x120e fan run all the time. The fan is not loud at all, you can use tpfancontrol to set the time when the fan starts to kick in.

 

Yep, by default some Thinkpads have very temperature-conservative settings. After all, most people don't complain as much about a fan being on versus overheating.

I would highly recommend running TPFanControl (link in my signature) and experimenting with some fan temperature thresholds to get a good balance of temperatures and fan runtime. The fan on my X120e runs less than half the time after I customized it, and temperatures aren't all that much higher.

 

I've noticed that its not necessarily CPU temps that cause the fan to kick in.

It can also happen when CPU Core is touching 5W (I know this is usually when temps rise, but always the case) I've had instances where the temps stay around 42C, the CPU usage is close to 5W and the fan starts. Or maybe HWiNFO isnt accurate down to that level.


Anyone had a look here and it seems to be quite a common problem

Thinkpad Edge 11´s fan is noisy - Lenovo Community

I find it unbelievable that many users suffer from similar issue, it isn't addressed by Lenovo in the form of a BIOS fix and users resort to 3rd party apps. Thinkpads have a loyal following, probably rightly so but this is unbearable for me. Any thinkpad edge 11 alternatives ?

 

The fan on my EDGE 11,6" is also always on, and has been since the day I got it, and as I have read it´s the same with everybody elses 11,6" EDGE.

 

I can't recommend the X120e if the fan bothers you, as stock settings keep the fan running nearly all the time when plugged in.

Perhaps you could opt for an X220i: it's possible to get the price down to the high $700 to low $800 range with some coupons, and sticking mostly with the base configuration. Historically, the X2xx series has run cool and near-silent.

Alternatively, if that is too much of a budget stretch, you could look at X201 or X200 models, which should be selling for less than $600 for a pretty respectable configuration.

 

I was looking at the X120e but I'm in London and looks like that model isn't coming to Europe (just like the Edge 11 isn't available in USA).

I keep saying it, but apart from the fan issue, the Edge 11 is perfect for my needs. The keyboard is one of the best, esp. on a small form factor. I could probably even live with the fan on when plugged in, but not whilst on battery.

If anyone has other ideas, please let me know.
Lenovo aren't due to collect this for a few days. Thanks

 

It's either send it back or live with the fan and pray that Dell will issue a future BIOS update with revised fan settings. You could try locking the CPU performance at the lowest speed but that will adversely affect the usability.

John

 

Check Power Manager and make sure you're in the Advanced mode. Then, check the fan profiles--on battery, it should be "Passive," which really shouldn't kick in all that much.

 

Checked and double checked that system cooling is set to passive rather than active. Doesn't make any difference. Created a customer power plan and also 'downgraded' to latest firmware (it came shipped from factory with a newer firmware not even available online).

I thought I'd compare with my old Dell. The 14" Dell has the fan on at around 1900 RPM when viewing video and its barely audible. The Thinkpad's Fan runs at 500 RPM and is much much louder. Could it be that the fan being on is not the problem, it could be a defective fan which is much louder than normal ?

Spoke to Lenovo UK, they don't do replacements, just refunds or repair. Shame as I got it on special over easter (10% and free delivery)

 

Small form factor computers, of necessity, have to use thinner fans. These tend to be less efficient and have to spin faster to move the same air as a thicker fan (eg your old Dell). Page 86 of the Edge 11 maintenance manual shows that the Edge 11 is no exception. The recent thin Toshibas are an exception to the thin fan problem because they have moved the fan off the main board and can use a thicker fan (however, my Toshiba R700 still gets very noisy under load but it does have a 25W CPU).

However, if your fan is actually running at 500 rpm (I had wondered if you had lost a zero and it is 5000 rpm) then it should be quiet. That's only about 9 revs per second and even little fans don't usually get noisy until at least double that speed. I would therefore suggest that you propose to Lenovo support that they send someone round to replace the fan prior to you making a final decision on returning the computer.

John