T60 WS Loud?

Hi all. I've had a T60 Widescreen for about 2 months now, and recently moved the notebook to a near silentroom (it was previously in a loud room) and have noticed how noisy the computer seems to be. I'm not sure whether it's gotten louder, or whether the sound was just masked before from room noises.

Anyway, I'm noticing that the hard disk is quite loud - there's a constant whir that is always on whenever the computer is on; I guess it's the disk rotating, but it's very noticeable. Second, it seems like my fan comes on every 2-3 minutes, even when I'm not taxing the system - for example, just when surfing the web, and the fan stays on for a minute or so before shutting off. Has anyone else noticed that the hard disk sound is pretty loud at all times and the fan seems to come on very often? Does this indicate a problem with my system?

FYI, my system is 2.16 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 1 gig of ram, and a 5400 RPM Fujitsu.

Thanks all!

 

You should check your Power Manager if you have Windows XP to make sure you have the 'Adaptive' setting on for CPU speed. Also, does yours have the integrated graphics, or dedicated ATi ones? The dedicated ATi X1300/X1400 offer PowerPlay which can lower the clock speed and therefore reduce the heat produced which in turn reduces fan uptime. As for the HDD I cannot say much about it - it shouldn't produce that much noise but then again I have not had much use with Fujitsu HDDs... mine runs pretty quietly to be honest, and I have the 7200 RPM. Mine does have the whir, but it is very faint to say the least.

 

Thanks acaurora for the response. I do indeed have Windows XP, and forgive my ignorance, but how do I check if my CPU is set for adaptive speed? My power management is set to the "Power Source Optimized" setting at the moment. My card is the ATI one, so it's not integrated into the chip. Again, sorry for my lack of knowledge, but how do I use the PowerPlay on the ATI card? Is that safe to do?

Basically it's just annoying because every 1-2 minutes my fan seems to come on. I was worried this might indicate some kind of system defect. If it's normal, I'm less concerned. Thanks so much!

 

Yet another evidence of a noisy Thinkpad.

It works by default. You can rmclock or cpu-z to monitor the CPU frequencies.

Underlock the speed of your card. It is safe to underlock it and reduce the heat generated.

You can try other tools:
1. Rmclock to undervolt the CPU and reduce the heat.
2. I am not sure whether TPfancontrol works for T60 series or not. [Tpfancontrol can directly turn down the speed of fans]. You may want to look here:

forum.thinkpads.com

 

You can also use the ThinkVantage Power Manager / Catalyst controls as well. If you do not do a lot of graphical work (aka, playing 3D Full screen games), go to your Display control panel, go to the ATI catalyst control panel, then there should be a tab marked 'Power Play'. You can change the slider to Optimal Battery Life if you'd like. Balanced shoudl be fine also. As for the CPU Adaptive, on the lower right corner of your screen you will see the Power Manager (the bar in the shape of the battery). Double click it and it should have options in the profile (click edit), and under CPU speed you can change it to adaptive. There are other options in there to help as well.

 

Thanks so much guys. I underclocked the card and played with the adaptive settings a bit, and it seems to have made a tiny bit of difference. Still, the fan comes on much more than I would have expected, given how my T40 was. I've been monitoring the temps with the Fan Control utility, and the system is very cool, but the fan kicks in every 2-3 minutes at about 2900-3000 RPMS and then goes off after about a minute. But at this point, I can definitely live with it.

Edit: One more question. Will lowering the PowerPlay settings to "Balanced" rather than Max, does that affect anything other than 3D graphics? I don't do any gaming, so will I even notice a difference? Thanks

 

Good post. i have the constant whir sound as well, and its annoying, especiallly since older computers I have don't have it.

Any more suggestions for lowering it. Where can I download the tpfancontrol? Thanks in advance.

 

Seleur, it shouldn't. When you are doing mostly regular desktop work (Internet, EMail, Word processing, etc), it uses very minimal graphics work, especially in XP.

 

So people start talking about the noise on T60 now. I thought T60 is much quieter than T43.

My HP dv2000t is very quiet, but now its touch pad button has already worn out after a few month's use.

So this world is never perfect, isn't it?

 

Thanks for the responses all. Here is a link to the Fan Control utility: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tp4xfancontrol

 

Thanks for the link. I noticed it said for any t4_ series. I guess it still works with the t60 though. I'm pretty sure its the fan not the hd, but not sure. Hopefully I'll figure out a way to make the noise lower.