T410 - how do I tell if the fan is working properly?

I have a year-old T410 and I'm getting some temperature issues, especially when running games. I don't do that a lot, but now I'm noticing that even without games the temperature gets a bit hot at times...so, I'm wondering, how do I tell if the fan is working? If it's not, what are some things I can do about it?

Don't have a lot of know-how in this regard...appreciate the advice!

 

download TPFancontrol and it will tell you what the GPU, CPU temp is and what rpm your fan is working at?

 

What is your definition of "hot"? I am pretty sure your fan is working fine, otherwise the CPU would overheat the the Laptop would shut down to prevent damage. That the Laptop gets pretty warm is normal when stressing CPU and GPU.

You can't do much about it. Your machine might be very dusty and therefore prevent airflow. You could dissemble it, clean it and put new thermal paste on the CPU. But if you don't know much about it that might be best left for an expert!

 

I like to stick my tongue into the fan blades to make sure my fans are working properly

As Pintu said if your fan is NOT working then your laptop will generally over heat and shut off quite quickly. Have you taken some compressed air to it yet? The biggest thing that affects cooling performance in older systems is dust build up restricting the air flow across the heat sinks. If your comfortable doing so, pull out the keyboard and take a can of compressed air to it.

 

Oops - sorry guys, I had downloaded TPF, needed to restart, put that off and then neglected to run it for a few weeks.

So, right now, it's got the CPU at 69 degrees and a fan speed of 1968 RPM.

Integrated graphics, so no GPU.

I suppose that means the fan is working - but isn't this temperature quite high?

I'm not running games even at the moment. Excel, notepad, a bunch of Chrome tabs, and a virtual machine. The AC adapter is quite hot to the touch, as well.

I suppose all of this is normal - I am just not used to it. I don't get shutdowns with this temperature. I have gotten them before while gaming, and the temperature would hit 80 or higher (I used SpeedFan to monitor temps before). But I seem to remember normal, non-gaming operation temperatures being in the low 50s.

I'll have to try some more with the compressed air, clean out those vents a little.

 

Do you have warranty still?

 

No, it's past a year by a little bit.

That is a little worrisome. Why do you ask?

 

Maybe you want to consider repasting your CPU and taking apart your entire notebook to clean out the cooling system. Are you still under Lenovo warranty? You can check with your S/N and Type here. Many manufacturers just put on a whole glob of thermal paste and that is end of story. Get at least 99% anhydrous alcohol to clean off your CPU and heatsink and q-tips/unused business cards to spread a thin layer.

 

That sounds like a big step! It's definitely the kind of solution I was thinking of looking up though ( just did not know what it would be called; thanks).

So is it as straightforward as this? -- 1) take apart laptop. 2) clean off CPU/heatsink with alcohol. 3) spread a thin layer of thermal paste?

Doesn't sound too bad. I think I'll save that for now and see if my current temporary solution holds up: I discovered TPFan has a manual fan control button, where you can turn the fan on max. I've done that and it lowers the temperature into the low/mid 50s. That's pretty good. It is odd that the fan is almost never on max by default.

 

Well most BIOS don't turn on fans til it hits XX degrees. My T410s fan at 7 on manual control is quote noisy. 4 is a level where I can tolerate while sleeping.

 

You're right about the noise. The T410 fan is pretty famous for its high pitched, annoying sound...

The odd thing is, if I remember correctly, I used to hear this sound all the time when I first got my Thinkpad. More recently, I haven't heard it at all, and that's even with the high temps I've gotten to. It is what made me think the fan stopped working.

Now I think it is more likely that they "fixed" the fan noise issue with a BIOS update that made the fan turn on less frequently...heh!

Thanks for everyone's help in this thread!