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    thinkpad x220 fan noise

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by tabrisfreewill, May 23, 2011.

  1. tabrisfreewill

    tabrisfreewill Notebook Consultant

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    The noise of the x220 fan is just driving me crazy, especially in the night when you can hear the loud whirling noise. I have performed a clean installation of windows 7 on an ssd. I have also installed lenovo power manager and set a custom profile with the fan control set to passive and also to reduce noise dynamically. But still the fan noise as loud as a jet's engine when I'm working in the middle of the night.

    Any x220 owners experiencing this problem?
     
    tabrisfreewill, May 23, 2011
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  2. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Here is discussion of a similar complaint.

    Fans in thin computers need to spin faster to shift enough air (or maybe not enough) and more speed = more noise.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, May 23, 2011
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  3. gauden44

    gauden44 Notebook Consultant

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    Man, my X220 is silent compared to my Dell E6500 and HP 6930p. When you say it's loud, what is it loud relative to?
     
    gauden44, May 23, 2011
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  4. tabrisfreewill

    tabrisfreewill Notebook Consultant

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    a high pitch noise, just as mentioned in the thread john pointed me to
     
    tabrisfreewill, May 23, 2011
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  5. turned2black

    turned2black Notebook Consultant

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    Mine seems pretty silent too. I CAN hear it occasionally, but it's way quieter than my netbook and about the same as most 14" or under laptops that I have used.
     
    turned2black, May 23, 2011
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  6. tabrisfreewill

    tabrisfreewill Notebook Consultant

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    It is not loud as in the fan volume, but in that the fan makes a "high pitching" noise whenever it spins. Don't you guys have that problem? This is for the new x220 only.
     
    tabrisfreewill, May 23, 2011
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  7. gauden44

    gauden44 Notebook Consultant

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    Are you talking about a high-pitched electronic sound, such as what some computers emit when their processors are speed-stepping (or whatever it's called) and what old tube TVs used to emit?
     
    gauden44, May 23, 2011
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  8. floz23

    floz23 Notebook Evangelist

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    That high pitch sound is called microphonics.
     
    floz23, May 23, 2011
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  9. JohnsonDelBrat

    JohnsonDelBrat Notebook Evangelist

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    My fan noise is more like someone whistling at an extremely high pitch. As the fan ramps up to higher rpm it just gets louder and louder. Higher rpm = higher whine. Then when the fan shuts off, the whine is gone.
     
    JohnsonDelBrat, May 23, 2011
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  10. GomJabbar

    GomJabbar Notebook Consultant

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    I wish there was an end to all this whining [pun intended]. :p

    No whine here that I can tell.

    EDIT: Someone at Lenovo Forums said: "The noise has a distinct frequency line around 2.2kHz and pulses with a period of ~5 seconds. I downloaded a tone generator and played a 2.2kHz sine tone. Nope, not hearing this from my fan - even with my ear next to the fan exhaust port on the left rear side of my X220. Tried running FurMark 1.9.0 and still no whine [my ear got hot though].
    http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen/index.html#102
     
    GomJabbar, May 23, 2011
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