W520 Fan Pulsing

Hey guys. I've owned my W520 for about 4 days now, and I realized today that the fan has a pulsing noise to it. It's not that distracting, but I'd prefer it if it didn't happen. I'm far more concerned about the effects it may have on the fan's lifespan. Do any of you W520 owners also experience this problem? And does anyone know a way to fix it? The only solution I found was to run the fan at full speed, and that's much more distracting than the pulsing is. I currently have the latest BIOS (1.22) and all Lenovo updates.

Thank you in advance.

Edit:
To clarify, it is like this problem.

 

You mean fan stop and start

I return two W510 for fan noise and other issues. One W520 for deal pixel and dullest FHD screen. But W520 fan was fine.

Did you set optimus or energy saving option?

try TPFanControl control & various power management option and see if that helps otherwise return within 21 days.

 

The fan is on, but every 5 seconds or so I can hear it go up to a higher RPM and come back down in a fraction of a second. From what I have gathered, it is like the fan acceleration issue found on earlier ThinkPad models. Currently I have it set in Optimus mode and Power Source Optimized.

 

Yeah, my T520 does the same thing when I set the cooling policy to "dynamic cooling." If you set the policty to something else, then the fan runs constantly. You can use tpfan control to minimize the noise. It's easy to use but I do recommend that you use a secondary app to verify cpu temperature. I'm not sure why Lenovo implemented such an annoying cooling scheme. I would much prefer that the fan run at a lower speed than just stop/go. I'm hoping that Lenovo implements something less annoying in their next BIOS release.

 

People, please, please, tell me that this problem is not widespread . I am waiting for my T520 and don't want the pulsing problem again (I owned a T43). I am hoping these are isolated incidences.

 

If I hold my ear up to the fan I can hear small pulses but it's pretty subtle. I use tpfancontrol to keep the fan rpm's to a minimum however unless the machine is under load. I find that under BIOS control the fans eventually ramp up in speed and don't slow down. If you use tpfancontrol be sure to get the newest version. I've posted on it previously, just look at my post history. The newer embedded controller is different and the old version has a few incompatabilities.

 

How do you change it to something else? I don't have much experience with adjusting cooling properties as I just left everything at max RPM on my desktop (I use quiet fans).

Yeah, it's not very noticeable, so it's not that distracting. I'm worried about the fan's lifespan, though, as I plan to keep this machine as my main computer for about 4 years at least. Do any of you T43 (or any older affected model) owners with this problem have any problems with the fan dying?

As I've stated, it isn't very noticeable. Play some music or something and you will never hear it. Does your T43's fan still work?

 

Changing the parameters of the cooling policy is easy. Open the Lenovo Power Manager. You can do this by double clicking its icon (if displayed it's usually at the right of the task bar)

Under the Power Plan tab, youll see a column for Battery & one for AC. Open the drown down menu for "System Settings." Go to the option "Optimize Fan Control to." Instead of choosing "Reduce Noise Dynamically," select any of the other two choices. This will set the CPU fan to run at a constant speed and you will no longer have the pulsing fan noise. Do this for both the Battery & the AC column. After you're done, hit the "Apply" button at the lower right of the window. I have only noticed the pulsing behavior when the cooling policy has been set to "Reduce Noise Dynamically."

If it's too loud for you, then use tpfan control app. This will allow you to choose the fan behavior based on a temperature range. I have my notebook running nearly silent until the temp reaches 65-70 degrees celcius.

Claude

 

The fan on W520 is annoying like you said. It is not quiet at all in a quiet room.

I am using TPfancontrol, on the lowest setting - 1, the rpm is 2000 and on this setting it is quiet. The setting 2 is 3000 rpm, and the you can hear some annoying noise like a a whirl or something

 

My settings are not on "Reduce noise dynamically". This is what I am experiencing.

I don't mind the noise, it's the pulsing that has me a little worried.

 

I have the same processor as you and even during Lightroom or League of Legends the fan is darn near silent, esp compared to my i7 XPS 15.

 

My T43 suffered from the problem and it was quite noticeable and annoying. The fan would spin up to the max level every 5 secs or so. However, the laptop lasted for 5 years and I don't believe the fan pulsing was the reason for its eventual demise. The notebook actually didn't die, but rather the screen backlight converter/adapter (or whatever it's called) went dead and the ThinkPad WiFi card started acting up. I sold the laptop to a guy who needed neither the screen nor the wifi connectivity

 

Ah, I see. Thank you very much for your response. That makes me far less worried.

 

@ kirayamato26:

So you have your cooling policy set to Balanced or Maximum Performance and the fan still pulses? Oh man, I'm sorry to hear this as my T520 does not exhibit this behavior unless set to "Dynamic Cooling."

Ironically, I didn't notice it until another member on this board mentioned it. Since then, I have been fixated on the noise and it drove me insane. Ah ignorance is bliss in certain situations. Glad others directed me to the tpfancontrol. Hopefully, you manage to resolve the issue.

C.

 

I believe the pulsing being talked about in regards to the W520 is different than the pulsing described in previous models. It's VERY subtle. I doubt it's a difference of more then a couple hundred rpms, not the fan spinning up to 2500 and down to 1000 or something that dramatic. You need a very silent room to even be able to hear it. It's kind of like what happens when the voltage supplied to a fan varies by just a tiny bit.

 

I get pulsing on my W520; I am running TPFControl and the fan is mostly between state 0 and 1 (0rpm and 1900rpm ish) when web browsing etc. It's pretty annoying, I have to say, when working in a silent room.

 

I've a W520 and the pulsing sound every 5 seconds drives me crazy when working in the evenings. It's not really noticable during the day, but when the room becomes quiet you can hear it. I paid about 2000 Euro ($2800) for the Notebook and I don't understand why they have used a 10 cent fan instead of a quality product.

 

As suggested by JameZ on Lenovo Forums, engineers were made aware of the problem and are working on the solution. We'll see if they tackle the problem in the next BIOS update.