my fan won't turn off

Hi,

I recently have a problem with the fan. It keeps running at low noise even though I hardly do any hard processing (only browsing). I did try lowering the CPU to lowest, but it didn't work.

 

Hello,

I'm sorry to say that, but it seams that this problem is yet unsolved. However please read:

http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_fan_noise#always_on_problem:

There are few suggestions that may help.

 

ah thanks for the links
I assume that it affected all thinkpad models... worse luck on t series that additionally have acceleration problems

 

anyone with thinkpad experience the same thing? is the fan noise considered normal?

 

I think my fan might always be on, but at the lowest setting, I find that I can't hear it, so I don't mind much. Anything even slightly higher, though, and there's a ridiculous amount of motor noise that I find seriously irritating.

I wouldn't mind if all I was hearing was air movement, but I'm pretty sure that most of the noise is from the fan itself, which is really unacceptable.

 

Has anyone tried replacing the fan? If so, which fans are the best replacement for the cost?

How about the T43 models? Same fan noise?

 

The T43 models are supposed to be much worse than the T42s in that respect. The Sonoma platform runs hotter (CPU, chipset, and video card in particular, I believe), so I gather that the fan runs constantly, and at a higher speed. There are quite a few complaints over at thinkpads.com.

 

My T42's fan also seems to be on for the most part, even when I'm just browsing. However, I've found that undervolting cools the processor down somewhat, and it takes longer for the fan to come on, though when it does turn on, it's very hard to get it to stop, unless I open the windows in my room and the room temperature goes down to less than 68F. Then, the fan will turn on/off intermittently. Unfortunately, the link above seems to be useful only on Linux, though I'm sure some enthusiastic person will eventually discover something similar for Windows.

 

thanks for the replis. it seems that the fan is a very commong problems among thinkpads.

are other laptop brands suffer from similar conditions?

 

i found out how to turn off the fan.. unplug the battery adapter! i believe that the adapter made some part inside the laptop hotter.

 

Adapter? Isn't that necessary if you want to run in AC?

 

thats true
dont run the notebook in ac unless you are charging. a better solution is to buy a 2nd battery + charger. but i am still not 100% certain that unplugging the ac is really one of the solution.

 

I have heard that newer laptops have addressed this issue on some boards. I just received one yesterday an it has fan issues. It is actually a replacement for a T43 received a few weeks ago, and this one is noticably worse.

 

I think that my T42 fan is always on, but dead quiet.

 

This is a well known and published issue that stretches back several years and models of the T series. The T40 from about 3 years ago was a quiet machine. The T41 (without the high end graphis card) was noisier than the T40 and the fan ran pretty much all the time. If you had ordered a machine with the high end graphics the fan still ran but was very quiet. I believe I was the first guy to buy the quiet fan (aka long fan) and install it into my noisy T41. It made a huge difference. Every model since the T41 has behaved quite similar. I don't believe it is a hardware issue. More so it's a behavior that is programmed by IBM. Even though the CPU and GPU may be running cool the fan continues to run to cool other components such as the hard drive and WiFi card.

My solution to the problem was to install a 7K60 hard drive. The drive emits a low level white noise (sound of the platters spinning 7200 RPM) that masks the sound of the fan.

 

i don't think covering the already noisy noise with a noisier noise is a good idea

 

Well if you want the fastest drive you have to pay the noise tax.