X220 Fan Noise

Just received my Core i7 X220.

The fan is out of control. The fan is ALWAYS on. Even on light browsing the fan is on high. When I adjust the settings in the battery app to quiet, the fan then just ramps up.

Anyone else having this problem?

What's the solution to this?

 

Use TPFanControl, set a custom profile yourself or see if anyone is generous enough to post their X220 fan profile.

 

Someone should make a video with sound, so those who don't have an x220 and want to buy can make a decision (like me).
My current laptop (hp 6710b) is LOUD and i don't want to buy another one with with a loud fan.
I can't imagine know how loud is the x220.

 

It's LOUD.

I can hear it from 5 feet away. My CPU usage is 15% while web browsing.

It's embarrassing as people are asking what's wrong with my computer.

Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Battery Life, Heat and Noise
"The default fan speed is whisper quiet--so much so that you have to put the notebook to your ear in order to hear the fan at all. "

This is (expletive removed).

I don't see why I need to mess around with tpcfancontrol to fix this problem. Makes me regret not keeping my X200 with standard 9.5 mm SSD or even ... going MacBook Pro.

Will create a video for you when I get home.

But, this isn't isolated:

X220 - fan constantly on / revving up and down - Lenovo Community

Again, I don't think the end user should be futzing with tpcfancontrol. What are we, beta testers?!

 

^ I think you are blowing the situation out of proportion or your heatsink\fan is defective.

I too have a i7 configuration and have owned a plethora of laptops and the X220 is definitely on the quieter side.

Also having owned a macbook pro LOL @ those being quiet under any serious workload.

 

Thx!

I didn't say it's isolated just curious about that. I'm reading the forum since the first "lucky" customer got it so i know a lot of them have this "feature".

 

I can't help but think that either lots of people exaggerate, or Lenovo has a lousy quality control. I can't hear my fan with regular use from 2 feets away (and I am pedantic about sound, buying components for my desktop very carefuly to quiet it down as much as possible). With heavy use it's audible, but far from loud.

So either my machine is different, or I should test myself for a hearing loss.

Either way, I will make a video when it's quiet (at night) with my X220 worked out with wPrime and me whispering to give you the idea how loud (or quiet) it is.

There is a possibility that i7 version is louder though.


M.

 

My X220 with the i5-2410M isn't ridiculously loud. It'll become audible eventually, but my 6930p and E6500 are much louder.

 

I think Lenovo uses different fan components. When I first picked up my x201s, I was annoyed by the fan noise being noticeably louder than my x200s. At one point I ended up having to send the machine into Lenovo (for unrelated issues), where they ended up replacing the system board. When I got it back, the fan had a completely different noise profile. I couldn't hear it anymore.

I suspect the same thing is going on with the X220. I just got mine last week and am mildly annoyed by the fan. It isn't the volume, it's the pitch (sort of whiny). It sounds exactly like my original X201s fan did. This is probably the exact reason why some people claim whisper quiet, where others complain about noise. Had I received the x201s with the fan I ended up with on the replacement unit, I would have thought people were insane. Now I know for sure people there's an actual different warranting the various reports.

For the time being I've gone the tpfancontrol route. I'm still tweaking my profile and will post what I have once I've tweaked it a bit more. You more or less do not hear the system if you leave the fan on level 1 (~2000 RPM, which I use when below 48C), which turns out to be perfectly sufficient for light use (such as browsing).

The other option is to call Lenovo and RMA, since the CPU fan is not a user serviceable component. I'm personally not going that route until I have what I'd consider a real issue I can't solve with software, but I'm sure Lenovo can sort you out. Their depot warranty program is excellent and turns repairs around extremely quickly.

And no, I am not confusing model numbers. I have an x200s, x201s and an X220. You could say I am an X series fanboy.

 

I've shot a test video... but well, the test is pointless. The noise floor of my camera's microphone is higher than the fan noise.

The test environment:
* X220 at Maximum Performance plan
* X220 warmed up to 80*C with wPrime for 30 minutes before the recording
* camera lens exactly 30cm (1 foot) from the fan exhaust
* recording device: Canon 7D

I'm talking in a whispering voice to give some kind of relation between the noise and the real sounds.

As I said, the overall noise floor is higher than the fan noise - you will clearly hear that the sound is not the fan exhaust at all.

Here it is anyway: YouTube - X220 fan sound


Mateusz

 

Interesting. I for one do not hear the fan when running wPrime or playing a game not to mention normal computer work. I have to get right up to the fan area, and what I hear is air rushing out very softly is best I can discribe it. Perhaps different components were either used on some of the systems or the fan is defective on some.

Or my hearing is really gone bad.

 

Wait, are you saying that when the fan is running at high speed (>3000 rpm), you don't hear any whining noise? On my computer, below 3000 rpm (as measured by TPFanControl), the fan is pretty quiet but when it spins up, the fan noise is very high pitched and very noticeable. I ask because if the fan isn't supposed to make that whine, then we can ask for the fan to be replaced.

Also, what's the ambient noise level where you use your laptop?

 

Fan noise perception also depends on the particular noise the disk makes (in case you don't have a SSD).

 

I didn't notice any annoying level of fan noise on mine which I got yesterday. It constantly runs most of the time, but it's not any level of annoyance. It's almost like the noise level of the x61s, but with much less heat. The x61s builds up heat really quick. On the other hand, my x61t has a whining noise when the fan starts and stops. Now that's what I call it annoying.

 

I tried to record it using my iPhone, but I got a lot of electronic hiss.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the fan off and 10 being the max.

Under the Battery Manager:

1) Maximize performance - Fan is on high all the time. 8/10
2) Balance all parameters - Fan is on steady. 4/10
3) Reduce noise dynamically - Fan cycles, off (1/10) to ramping up high (8/10) then dying back down. It cycles like this every 15 seconds even though the load is <5%.

Annoying and audible fan level is at 4/10.

My X200 was usually about 1/10 (off) and every so often 4/10. It's hard to use the X220 in a quiet environment without getting looks.

Might have to RMA this and fight the restock fee.

 

Older people might not be able to hear the fan pitch due to hearing loss. My fan also does the ridiculously annoying spin up and down for no reason. I was studying for finals at the library and I had to turn it off because I could tell it was annoying people.

 

The spinning up and down can be controlled by installing TPFanControl and setting the following

Level=49 0
Level=56 1
Level=65 4
Level=80 64
Level=90 128

Using these settings, the fan stays either off or very silent (2000 rpm) when doing browsing, watching videos, or word processing.

However, when the fan does spin up, it's still high pitched. I wonder if that is "normal" or does it vary from notebook to notebook.

 

FWIW, my x220's fan does exhibit some whine. Minor, but noticeable. It bothers me less and less as I get used to it -- and in anything but an absolutely quiet room, it's inaudible.

Pretty much love the machine generally.

A.

 

Really? Is it really that big of a deal?

It takes all of 5 min to download and install tpfancontrol.

No laptop is perfect.

Compared to my Sony Z, the x220 is quieter, even without tpfancontrol. With tpfancontrol, the noise becomes a non-issue for me.

 

It's not that big of a deal, but they probably could have used a better fan. It's just a minor annoyance on the list but the problem is the size of the list for some people.

But honestly, there's no way they shipped this laptop without knowing about this issue. Not only that but they moved a lot of them out the door due to the low(ish) price.

 

Like most people, my fan is on but unnoticeable.
I really can't hear any high pitch coming from the computer.

I just did some video work and the fan was on full blast for the past 50 minutes and no high pitch sound.
If I am siting in my office I have an easier time hearing the HDD then the fan.

 

Two places I put my ears to listen for any noise from the fan. One is right in front of the vents and the other right next to the upper left of the keyboard and I do not hear a whinning noise at all. Upper left keyboard area I hear nothing. At the vent area I hear air rushing out but not noisy nor whinning.

This test was done on both battery and power cord.

Can't test the ambient noise level in my home, but I only have the computer on, no air conditioner running at the moment, and a fan running in the background. I turned the fan off for this test, and for the life of me, I do not have a noise issue with my X220 at all

 

Could you test your fan speed at 4000+k when in silent room?

 

I'm one that definitely has the whining. I have a 2520 (if that matters). The whining was the first thing I noticed, honestly I thought my ear was ringing. Then I realized it was the computer. Do you think they have multiple suppliers for their fans? Some people seem to have it, others don't.

I know I know, get tpfancontrol. That doesn't really solve the fact that the whine is there. More like a band-aid. I'd rather just have a fan that didn't have the high pitch and let it run all it wants. Hell, I'd pay Lenovo to give me a replacement fan.

I remember reading that the constant revving and spinning of the fan was due to a bios change. Most reviewers didn't have the issue at all.

Other than that, I really dig the x220.

 

Seems to be completely hit and miss what degree of whine you get, if any.

If it's a big problem for you, then get it sorted by Lenovo. No reason why you should have to suffer it after paying all that money.

 

Silent room test with everything turned off and again I notice no whinning at all. Just a low rush of air coming from the vents when up close to it.

I used a tape measure to see how close I would have to be to even hear the fan/air movement. At 18 inches or the distance I would be typing on the X220, I hear nothing at all. At 14 inches and my head tilted to the left, than I can hear a very low hessing sound (Air movement). At about 4 inches, the air rush sound has slighty increased. No whinning sound at all.

However, when I put my canon camera on video approx 13/14 inches from the vents, the sound is quite a bit more pronounced and this is not a good test to share since it is not accurate at all.

Just a side note. Perhaps some of you have a Superman hearing ability and can hear sounds better than most. My Ex-wife upstairs said once "I heard that" when I whispered something to a friend way across in another room downstairs. Just a thought.

 

Good indoor acoustics

 

The HP DM1z just recieved a BIOS update that lowered fan noise, so I hope Lenovo is working on one too.

 

Installed an SSD (old 9mm that I had to take apart and put it an electrostatic bag to make fit), reinstalled Windows 7 Pro fresh, downloaded select drivers.

Now the machine is running quietly. Can barely hear the fan running. Of course, when the fan does ramp up, it is definitely audible.

 

never mind

 

Is anyone having trouble with tpfancontrol?

I have the following settings and I keep seeing fan state 2 for some reason.

Level=50 0
Level=60 1
Level=65 4
Level=80 64
Level=90 128

 

Looks like a user on Lenovo forums got a replacement fan that took care of the whinning. Supposedly she said the one that whines was made in April, the one that doesn't was made in March.

 

The good fans seem to have been made in Japan, pre Tsunami, while the whining fans are replacements from China, as being said here:

Re: X220 - fan constantly on / revving up and down - Page 64 - Lenovo Community

 

FWIW, I'm having the exact same fan noise problem described by the OP.
This thing is LOUD!

 

Are there any updates from people who have had their fans switched by Lenovo?

I have attached a zip file (FanNoise.zip) which illustrates the sound that I hear on my x220.

The volume of the fan noise is not a problem at all, but the high pitch that is in the background is grating.

(Fortunately, the fan does not turn on often, but when it doesn, it is distracting).

Any stories of replacement fans improving the situation?

 

That sounds about right to me, except yours sounds like there's some bearing "ticking".