Odd fan noises...

I've been using my Mac Pro for a few days and just started noticing some odd fan noise; almost a rattling sort of sound, like a very distant helicopter, like one of the fans is off axis. It sounds like it's one of the fans on the bottom. Anyone else noticed this sound in your Mac Pro or is this probably something that's just wrong w/ mine?

Did anyone resolve this rumbling sound. I am on the
phone to support about it, when I ran the extended
hardware test (from the installation cd 1) when the
fan was running flat out it was making a really loud
screaching sound for about 10 seconds.
I would say that screaching noice is not good could be ball berings in the Fans going
happens from time to time
idd get it looked at

Similar Messages

  • MBP 2008 - Odd fan noise

    Just yesterday, my MBP 2008 started making a strange fan noise, very intermittent and random, sounds like the fan is just a tiny bit out of alignment (or, forced out of alignment with small changes to the system's orientation). It's just loud enough to notice in a relatively quiet room, and at a particular pitch that's annoying as all get out.
    Not sure if this is one of the noises that's been annoying MBP owners for years now. Doesn't seem like it, but if anyone else can provide an corroboration, that would be great.

    If there's an Apple Store nearby, make an appointment at the Genius Bar and take it in. The only sound the fans should make is from the air movement/ Having said that, it's pretty difficult to diagnose sounds without actually being able to hear them - thus, get a tech to listen
    Hope this helps...

  • Odd Fan Noise

    I bought my MBP a few weeks after they announced it in June I think.
    My problem is that I noticed late one night when everything was dead quiet that the fan was producing a slight but noticeable grinding noise. I know for a fact it didn't used to make that noise because I've used my MBP in a dead quiet environment and never heard it before. It also comes and goes, so it's not audible all the time.
    I also think that if I take it to a Genius Bar, they might dismiss it because I'm sure it can't be heard in the commotion usually found in the Apple Store.
    What does this mean? I suspect my fan is faulty and beginning to deteriorate, and could end up as bad as some of the MBPs on YouTube with the faulty fans.

    If the noise changes with the speed of the fan, then very likely the problem is the fan. If you get an error code, then the fan should be replaced. The error code would indicate a mechanical problem with the fan, like a failing bearing. You don't want to risk the bearing failing and seizing so that the fan doesn't work, because without the fan functioning you run the danger of your Mac overheating. I believe that your 13" MBP just has a single fan, so there is no second fan in case the fan fails completely.
    If no error code, then maybe the problem is just a foreign object or some kind of interference. Even so, it would be wise to keep an eye on it and have it evaluated at some point. Your fan should be silent when it idles, and just make a whir when it speeds up. A foreign object or interference will just make the fan work harder to do its job.
    Good luck, and thanks for the star!

  • Retina MBP making fan noise - Apple store unwilling to help

    Hi All,
    Any adivice would be appreciated with my problem.  So I got a Retina MBP when it first came out and noticed it had a ding so I took it to the Apple store and exchanged it - no questions asked.  The newer unit they gave me, which I currently have is making a very odd fan noise.  It is faint but apperent when working in quite enviroments like at my office.  Its really annoying.  I took it to the Apple store recently and explained the situation and told them that the original unit i had didn't have this problem at all so I know its not the typical fan noise.  They maxed out the CPU, RAM, etc. and said they couldnt' here it and as such, are unable to replace my unit.  I told them that I do not do that much intensive work on it and only can here it when its quite - they probably wouldn't here it in the loud store. 
    As a result, I have now recorded the faint sound coming from the fans but I don't know what the best approach is to have the just replace my unit.  Should I take it back to the apple store with the recording?  Should I just call apple care?  Apple is getting worse and worse in my opinion with customer service.  I remember a time where, if i was unsatisfied with their product, they would exchange it no matter what. 

    Hi,
    Yeah Apple solved it.  I called Apple Customer Support, not "Applecare" and the person was very helpful.  I told them that i recorded the noise - it was in my downloads folder.  The person set it up so I could mail in the laptop through an Apple store and they replaced the fan.  I was without a laptop for like a week though. 
    Hope that helps.

  • IMac Fan Noise - Not The Usual Problem

    Hi,
    I have seen plenty of discussions on iMac fan noise but mine is a little different. A week ago, a 'tink' noise (similar to tapping your fingernail on a glass) started coming from my mid 2011 iMac. At first, I thought it was the "click of death" for my hard drive, so I replaced it myself. This didn't fix the noise, so I ran an extended hardware test. This came back with a 4MEM error. I had some spare RAM, fitted it, ran the test again, no 4MEM error.
    So, I booted the iMac again. 'Tink'... 'tink'. I finally located it to the bottom right of my iMac, where the optical drive fan is located. This fan has always rattled a little now and again but now it seems intent on driving me round the bend with its very own form of torture. At first, the 'tink' was now and again, but now it constant. 'tinktinktinktinktink'. Is there a way to stop the optical fan for now? I don't use the optical drive often anyway. Or would it just be a replacement fan?
    Resetting SMC or PRAM does nothing.

    This may be way off target, in which case ignore me. Do you have an app called Free Memory installed? There have been a few posts on here where it seems to cause repetitive odd noises to occur, particularly when running Mavericks?

  • Freezing upon start up and odd "chirping" noise from the base of my Macbook Pro summer 2011.

    Sometimes when I start up my macbook pro it freezes and I get the "thinking" icon in place of my mouse.  The only way to resolve this is to force shut down my computer.  Also, when I put pressure on the bottom of my computer to lift it up I get this odd chirping noise.

    That could be the stepping motor in the hard drive making noise.  Sometimes the noise means nothing, other times it could mean a problem with the hard drive and it could fail soon.  Could be a fan out of allignment.  If you can backup your data, do so.  If you an get to an Apple genius bar, take it in and have the techs run some tests to find out what the noise is.

  • Noticeable fan noise

    My fan (one of them, or both) seem to be making this obnoxious noise when they are running. The temperatures are normal, the fans are operating correctly, But when they spin up and spin down, there's this extra noise that goes along and it wasn't there before.
    I fear that I dropped my Macbook Pro at one point--meaning it was in a sleeve and against the wall in an upright standing position and slipped to the floor to the flat positon. Could that have caused some misalignment? What should I do?
    Not related to the noise or the fans, but when I make an impression on my trackpad I hear an odd tap sound. Just thought I'd hit two birds with one stone (question) here.

    Today I layed the mac face down on the desk, removed the power cable and all periphials. I pluged the mac in (still face down) and powered up. The fan noise was still happenig. Just above the power supply I began applying a small amount of pressure against the case. As I increased pressure the fan noise got worse. In the spot that made the most differene in noise I continued to massage the case (if you will) assuming the fan enclosure was probrobly jared durring shipping causing the blades to rub the case as the fans turn. I then powered down, removed the cable, and took of the memory door just below the apple between the speakers. This is a great design by the way. Changing memory is almost as easy as pluging in a USB device. Anyhow, I made sure everything was tight and secure in there, closed the door, put the mac back upright, and powered up again.
    Under this current boot I am not experiencing the fan noise. Maybe the fans moved enough to stop rubbing the case. Lets hope. I would hate to have to take this back to the apple store. I am in Lexington SC and the nearest apple store is in Charlotte NC 1.5 hours away. It's been runnning for aprox. 30 minutes now. "Still holding" Thanks for all of the responce.
    Mesaman

  • Problems with new Yoga 2 Pro (battery, fan noise, yellow, screen orientatio​n, on-screen keyboard)

    I purchased the Yoga Pro 2 on Thursday October 17. I love the computer for so many reasons, (especially since it replaces my 4 year old Compaq that was 6.5lbs!) however, I am also having a few issues with it.
    It is the i7/8GB/256GB model from BestBuy. I am experiencing the same yellow issue as is mentioned by many on here. I didn't realize it, though, until reading these forums and then comparing to my old computer and my ipad and iPhone. A little disappointed, though it looks like Lenovo may be working on a solution.
    But the real reason I originally came to look at this forum is because of 2 things: my fan and battery.
    The fan (on the right side of the keyboard) is always on! I didn't expect this, and am wondering if mine is a lemon or if others are noticing the same thing. It's pretty noticeable, especially in a quiet room. I was showing off my new computer to a friend and the very first thing she said was that it was loud! She was using a MacBook pro, which wasn't making any noise at all.
    The second thing is the battery... I am attaching 4 photos all taken within a few minutes of each other. If you cant see them, they are all of the battery meter on my screen. I am listing the time of day (to show how much time passed), percent remaining, and time remaining:
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    10:05  (88%)  8 hr 48 min
    10:09  (86%)  4 hr 54 min
    10:29  (81%)  5 hr 12 min
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    Another issue I had... I turned on my computer to show it to a friend (same friend who said it was noisy) and the screen image wouldn't flip when in any of the modes. This means I showed her the stand mode with an upside down image. Even in tablet mode I couldn't get it to flip. I turned the computer off and then on again, and luckily it decided to work, but it was frustrating, and I hope it's not something that becomes an issue.
    Also, when I have the computer in tablet mode, the keyboard automatically pops up when I click somewhere to type... but this doesn't happen in stand mode or tent mode. Is this normal? I would have thought that the keyboard would appear in any of those modes, since the real keyboard is not accessible in any of them. And of course now that I am testing it out while writing this, none of the modes (including tablet) is having the keyboard come on screen. Of course, I know I can always choose the icon on the task bar to bring up the keyboard, but it would be nice if the computer did it automatically since it knows there is no other keyboard accessible in those modes. Is this an issue anybody else has had?
    I really do enjoy using this computer, but some of these issues really need to get worked out if I am going to keep it. I'd love to hear if anyone is experiencing anything similar, and if there are any good fixes!

    I just got a Lemontine Yoga 2 Pro i5/8GB/256GB from lenovo.com and the silver one from BestBuy in the same configuraiton.  The silver one has no issues except for the crazy number of hours remaining on the battery which is fine, doesn't bother me.  The fan noise is very quiet, and you can only hear it if you put your ear up to the vents in a quiet room.  
    Now the Clementine one...It was heating up pretty good.  I put my ear to it on many occasions and can hear nothing at all, the fan is either missing LOL or doesn't work.  I had an issue where I left the thing on for 4 hours, but sleep is configured after 5 hours.  When I tried to use it, it showed me the screen brielfy, then blank.  Tried hard reset, called Support, nothing.  Support says its dead.  Ok, an hour later, it turned on.  I'm guessing it was too hot and was in some mode to protect itself, like a smartphone that is left out in the sun for some time, it won't power on till its cooled down.
    I'm still in process of trying to get a hold of Lenovo to swap it, but since they no longer sell this configuration, I doubt they'll be able to get me a new one. 
    The silver one from BestBuy us solid though, love it, best in class in my opinion...actually got it from Future Shop sorry...from Canada, but they're essentially the same store.

  • HP TouchSmart 610-1280qd CTO Desktop PC Fan Noise

    Hi,
    Can you tell me if a loud CPU fan is normal for this computer?
    The CPU fan is working very hard and the CPU and GPU are all ~38 degrees Celcius. The bios reports 1100 CPU Fan Speed and 3800 system fan speed. It sounds like my CPU fan is actually spnning faster than that.
    Thanks 
    SOLVED: I spent some time with technical support and they had a model in the lab and confirmed that the loud fan noise is not by design. I returned my Touchsmart and received a new replacement and it is almost silent. I checked the BIOS and the fan speeds are reporting 1100 CPU Fan Speed and 2100 system fan speed with the same low temps above. I believe in my original machine they did not install fans right by swapping the plugins on the motherboard; I do not have solid evidence of this though.
    I hope this help and just know that these machines should be very quiet most of the time other than some low level harddrive access noise.

    Hello sal4303.   I understand your screen is going blank.
    Have you tried changing the settings for how long it takes your monitor to turn off?  Here are the instructions.
    Let me know if this has an effect on your issue.
    Have a lovely afternoon!
    Please click the white star under my name to give me Kudos as a way to say "Thanks!"
    Click the "Accept as Solution" button if I resolve your issue.

  • Big fan noise problem: the rear fan won't shut off, the BIOS won't update, systemupdate locks up

    I received new ThinkStaion (oh boy, lots of memory and CPU speed, yay!)
    I unfortunately left the originally installed Vista OS on there.  Very much regretting that as I believe it contributes to the following problems (BIOS).
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    So after the replacement, the rear fan will not shut off. Jet engine noise all day. I went into the system settings and selected "Quiet" for the Fan settings but that did not help.
    Research on this forum resulted in the possibility of a BIOS update fixing the problem.  Comparison to my co-workers systems which arrived at the same time shows this BIOS is woefully out of date, so even if it does not fix the fan issue I want to update it.  However, everything I've tried to do is failing for one reason or another. 
    (The fan issue does need resolution since in one week I will end up sharing an office (first time in many years, thanks IBM for nothing!) so since I don't want us both to have to wear noise cancelling headsets, I'd like to fix this without having to just pull the @#$@ power to the fan. Grrrr. )
    I downloaded what I felt were the appropriate Lenovo apps to update both the BIOS and the serial number but none seem to work properly from the command line in Vista.  One of the two (can't recall which) asks me to reboot and it never actually shuts down. Eternal "Shutting Down" message. Ga!  The other throws some gosh awful
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    http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-69701
    eternal reboot
    BIOSD attempt:" 2xjy26usa
    http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-69701
    error 1275 no admin priv - I AM the administrator account, there is no other acct to use!
    Then I decided Vista might be the problem and found sites recommending flashing the BIOS from a bootable USB.  So I started down that path and after burning the wrong version, finally geting the AIK Vista tools installed and to the point of trying to make the USB bootable, it won't allow me to put the OS boot on it.  Ah, for the days when a simple "sys a:" took care of that.
    So, after reformatting the USB and pounding my head in the wall, keyboard, etc. I am at my wit's end.  What to do.  I just want the fan noise to go away.
    This does seem to duplicate other forum messages but I can't get anywhere on this.  Help!
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    FYI to all the helpful folks here (and any looking to shut their jet engine off as well): Flashing the BIOS did the trick.
    First I had to find a website with DOS OS files and put those on the USB instead of Vista.  Oldie but a goodie, but at least it booted! No other versions would.
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    It did take two boots to get it back to normal (first one gave very alarming messages about no operating system being found but I think it was just a remnant of the reboot that was triggered from the DOS session).  A second boot returned life to normal and blissful silence from the server.  And I was finally able to get the model and serial number back in there to get rid of the bootup message it throws for that too.
    Ahhhhhhh. 
    Thanks to all for the hints - I believe I had gotten the idea of flashing the BIOS to solve this from some other thread I found here.  This is a very nice forum to have bookmarked.  

  • HT3964 How do I stop my Macbook from overheating and making a fan noise?

    My Macbook Pro 17 Inch keeps overheating and making a fan noise after I use it for... say... an hour.
    I use Windows on my Macbook, is this related to my problem? If not, do I need to get my fan replaced?
    It gets annoying whenever I play a game, and then suddenly my Mac goes to sleep for no reason (probably due to overheating).
    The fan noise is kept to a minimal when I use a web browser, or listen to music, but it goes up when I start an application.

    Since overheating is something the computer tries to prevent, it will shut down if the temps get too hot, thus your experience is not overheating.
    You can have a look at Activity Monitor (Menu Bar > View > Show All Processes) and then sort by CPU to see what the culprit is during downloading.
    A hot Mac is not that big of a problem, the fan takes care of the heat and if you do not mind the noise, then that is it.

  • Macbook pro- OSX lion 10.7.2 fan noise

    I just bought a macbook pro laptop, upgraded it to the Lion version, it is now 10.7.2, with processor of 2.7 GHz intel core i7, memory of 8GB, 1333 MHz DDR3. Whenever I am on a program like imovie, safari, iphoto, charging my smartpen...etc.... the fans goes off like crazy. It lasts for a very long time. Sometimes the noise get so bad, it goes from loud to louder...... I don't know what the problem is.
    I am a new mac user, I have no idea how to install, delete, clean softwares. Please help?? Thank You ... 

    Thanks a lot for replying, but what exactly does the istat widget program do?
    Also, the fan noise seems like a normal noise every time I launch a program, but it's getting to the point where I am frustrated(annoyed) of the fan noise. I would've thought that upgrading to a Mac book would cause less fan noise because of it's high processor. Sometimes I feel like I should go back to a Dell or HP because of this problem, but at the same time, I love my laptop. ;)

  • Mac Pro 2x2,8 Ghz - Fan Noise - Please help evaluate

    Hi Guys,
    Since yesterday, I'm the proud owner of a Mac Pro 2x2,8 - Really happy - really nice machine.
    However I'm slightly irritated by the posts I've read all over the internet, saying that you can't hear the fans of this machine at all in idle.
    As you may have guessed, my box is not silent at all - it is quite quiet compared to other noisy PCs, yes, but no match for the previous iMac 24" which it replaced. You could hardly hear the iMac versus now the Mac Pro... you notice it's there... sitting under the desk - audible.
    I realize that fan noise is highly subjective, and I'm using the Mac in a completely silent environment. No AC, no nothing. I've tried the following: removing the hard drive and silencing the graphics card... Upon bootup the Mac would quickly "turbo" it's fans and then go to it's normal state. The loudest fan (which is drowning out all other noise) is the one at the bottom front (CPU?).
    Looking at istat, it's in normal parameters (500rpm or so) and doesn't move up or down...
    Comparing it to other devices, it would sound like a PS3 when having played 1 hour (fan speed at level 2-3) or an (quiet) xbox in idle mode (dvd not spinning). I know... geeky comparisons
    Now, again - not close to my interpretations of "whisper quiet" "can't hear it at all"... "only hear it when I put my ear to the grill" "sounds like it's cooled passively"
    Which makes me think that either
    a) people out there are deaf /
    or
    b) my Mac needs a closer look by a genius
    Would really appreciate your opinions.
    Thanks,
    Tom

    hey tom,
    you might have the same problem i have. I have the 2.8 octo 2008 mac pro. and it used to be whisper quiet. I was amazed. But recently as in the last few weeks the graphics card fan has become audible. I put in an e sata adapter last week and while inside the mac pro I took a look at the fan to see if it was dusty or visibly distressed. Nope. Couldn't find anything wrong with it. So now i'm just dealing with the noise. Which is too bad cause I really really really don't like fan noise. But the air conditioners on most of the time now so I really can't complain about a little fan noise compared to the ac's grumbling.
    but i'd like to know if others are having this problem
    thanks,
    jayson
    www.oldchildprojects.com
    Message was edited by: woodybrando

  • T530: Unbearable fan noise

    Probably similar to this thread, the T530 I recently received has fan noise issues. I've invested considerable time in solving this, but found that a solution can be achieved with reasonable effort only by Lenovo:
    Introduction:
    Most ThinkPad models do not provide the operating system (or the user) the ability to set the fan speed directly (e.g. in rounds per minute) or in a fine-grained way (e.g. as a percentage of maximum speed). Instead, there are "fan speed levels", usually 9 levels (level 0 through level 7 as well as the level "disengaged"). For each level, a particular fan speed is defined and the Embedded Controller tries to achieve this particular fan speed by measuring the fan speed and adjusting the electrical properties of the fan (e.g. voltage or pulse length or something like this).
    The fan noise problem:
    Every time the internal temperature sensor reaches 50 °C or so, the fan starts with about 1900 rounds/minute and then quickly goes to about 2737 rounds/minute, where it is loud. Then it takes about 20 seconds, the temperature drops to 45 °C, then the fan is switched off. Then, after maybe other 30 seconds, the cycle repeats and the fan is switched on again, ...
    There are major problems with this behaviour, because:
    The fan is not running continously, but pulsating.
    The fan is running at level 1 at a much higher speed than needed, creating unnecessary noise.
    I have measured the individual fan speeds for individual fan speed levels:
    The fan speeds at different levels are as follows:
    Level 0: 0 rounds/minute
    Level 1: 2737 rounds/minute
    Level 2: 2944 rounds/minute
    Level 3: 3033 rounds/minute
    Level 4: 3074 rounds/minute
    Level 5: 3597 rounds/minute
    Level 6: 3773 rounds/minute
    Level 7: 3773 rounds/minute
    Level disengaged: 4754 rounds/minute
    Solution draft:
    A minimum solution to the problem above would be introducing another fan speed level between 0 rounds/minute and 2737 rounds/minute, with about 1900 rounds/minute. The reason this makes a difference is that there is a fundamental difference between laminar flow and turbulent flow, where the laminar flow makes nearly no noise and the turbulent flow makes a lot of noise. (Whether an airflow is laminar or turbulent is easiest influencable by affecting its speed.)
    As you can see on the observed mapping from fan speed level to fan speed, level 6 and level 7 map to the same speed.
    Thus, no particular fan speed would be lost if the mapping would be changed to the following:
    Level 0: 0 rounds/minute
    Level 1: 1900 rounds/minute
    Level 2: 2737 rounds/minute
    Level 3: 2944 rounds/minute
    Level 4: 3033 rounds/minute
    Level 5: 3074 rounds/minute
    Level 6: 3597 rounds/minute
    Level 7: 3773 rounds/minute
    Level disengaged: 4754 rounds/minute
    Solution implementation by user is impossible:
    The problem, however, is that, while a user can decide which fan speed level should be active at a particular time, the user cannot decide which fan speed should actually be achieved for a particular level. Thus, the user can either decide to have 0 rounds/minute (which is not particularly sustainable, because the equipment becomes hotter and hotter) or to have 2737 rounds/minute (which is not particularly sustainable either, because both the user and other people arund the user's Lenovo computer are distracted from work).
    The mapping from fan speed level to fan speed is actually stored in the Embedded Controller Programm ("ECP"). This Embedded Controller Programm is freely changeable or configurable by the user. Only Lenovo has the source code to this Embedded Controller Programm, and actually only Lenovo may know how to disassemble such a binary Embedded Controller Program in case the user wanted to change it. Thus, even advanced users cannot fix this problem by fixing it where it should be fixed.
    It should be noted that, because fan speed is a long lasting issue at Lenovo, a third party has been even developed an after-market hardware solution: TPFC. However, this solution probably voids the warranty, and it work arounds the problem at the wrong place, and it costs time and money and effort to actually install it.
    Only Lenovo can fix this problem:
    How Lenovo should fix the problem
    Thus, this is my call to Lenovo to fix this problem (at least for the T530 series, but probably W530, T430 are also affected). Ideally, the solution should be as follows:
    Change the Embdedded Controller Program such that the mapping from fan speed level to fan speed is as follows:
    Level 0: 0 rounds/minute (no noise level)
    Level 1: 1500 rounds/minute (low noise level, sweet spot)
    Level 2: 1700 rounds/minute (low noise level, sweet spot)
    Level 3: 1900 rounds/minute (low noise level, sweet spot)
    Level 4: 2100 rounds/minute (some noise level)
    Level 5: 2600 rounds/minute (high noise level)
    Level 6: 3100 rounds/minute (high noise level)
    Level 7: 3773 rounds/minute (high noise level)
    Level disengaged: 4754 rounds/minute (high noise level)
    The reasons for this fan speed design are as follows:
    The "sweet spot" where both the fan will run most of the time and where the user would not complain is between 1500 rounds/minute and 2100 rounds/minute. If the fan needs to be faster to keep the system cooled, then the user is likely to run the system with considerable load to CPU or GPU. In this case, there is no option to reduce the fan speed, but also in this case, the user probably accepts the fan noise for the computing power delivered.
    The "sweet spot" in terms of CPU load is where the users do not accept fan noise while actually generating only minute CPU load (e.g. during web browsing or writing documents, where the CPU and the GPU is mostly idle). For many users, this is their normal working state (e.g. working in a quiet office, a very quiet library, a quiet bedroom, a quiet boardroom, ...). These scenarios are where Lenovo ThinkPads currently fail to deliver, unnecessarily
    The "sweet spot" needs higher resolution (more fan levels allocated to these fan speeds), because slightly different load patterns may make it necessary to go from one level to the next higher level, but then the next level still should be bearable. Conversely, the higher levels (e.g. from 2600 rounds/minute on) do not need such a high resolution, because for most of the users, these levels will be only attained rarely anyway, and then they are accepting the noise.
    Currently, there is no fan speed level at the sweet spot. With the proposed fix, there would be 3 fan speed levels at the sweet spot, with a neighbouring fan speed level (2100 rounds/minute) still being bearable when considering the performance delivered.
    There is no fan speed level below 1500 rounds/minute. This is ok, because the fan is nearly inaudible at this speed anyway, and below a certain speed, there is a risk (depending on the fan) for the fan to actually not rotate at all (e.g. due to friction).
    How much time and effort would Lenovo need for fixing the problem:
    The Lenovo engineer responsible for the Embedded Controller Program of the T530 should need less than one day to change the source code of the Embedded Controller Program and to recompile it. The engineer may need one additional day to test this program (e.g. for different types of fans), and there may be a need for an additional day to release the update to the BIOS and ECP. All in all, Lenovo should not need more than 3 engineer-days (maybe worth 1800 USD) to fix the problem.
    Why Lenovo should fix the problem:
    Probably the whole current T series (T530,T520,T430,T420) as well as the current W series (W530,W520) fails the users in any of these scenarios (among others):
    User working in a quiet office.
    User working in a quiet library.
    User working in a quiet bedroom.
    User working in a quiet boardroom.
    Thus, the Lenovo T series is currently not usable for many business users and almost all students. This problem should cost millions of USD of revenue, while fixing it would cost it maybe 1800 USD.
    Incidental remark: Lenovo subsidiary can do better:
    Lenovo has bought the majority of the Germany consumer electronics company Medion. Medion currently offers a consumer level notebook "E7222" for 499€ including German VAT. Despite of this low price, this notebook delivers very good fan control (that is: the notebook is nearly silent when the CPU is near-idle). (However, being consumer-grade, it does not offer a docking-station or a FullHD screen or WWAN.)
    What will I personally do:
    Some weeks ago, I had a powerful W530. I returned it due to fan noise for cash refund. Now I have the T530 (Serial number: R9RRF26) which has exactly the same problem. The deadline until I can legally request a cash refund runs until 2012-09-07. I hereby ask Lenovo:
    To fix the problem and release an ECP or BIOS update until 2012-09-06 (it is doable, see above) or
    if the problem cannot be fixed in this time (e.g. due to bureaucracy): provide me with a written statement (e.g. e-mail or forum post is sufficient) that my legal cash refund deadline (German law: §355 BGB) will be voluntarily extended by Lenovo (to some date Lenovo thinks it needs to fix the problem).
    If none of the above happens, I will have to return the T530 as well. This is the 2nd chance Lenovo has gotten from me, there will be no 3rd chance. I would have to turn to Fujitsu (they do have business-class machines with big batteries, FullHD, WWAN) and they probably have better fan control.
    Solved!
    Go to Solution.

    kaawee,
    Thank you for the considerable thought that you put into your summation / analysis and proposal for a change.
    I don't agree that you are wasting your time as we did make EC changes on the X220 and T420s to change fan behavior (along with several other systems).   However, not all customers agree that the changes made the system behave the way they wanted and were completely satisfied (hence some of the dissenting opinions expressed here).
    We are interested in feedback on T530, W530, T430 fan concerns and we are investigating.   It is possible that a future change might be made, but I cannot say for certain that it will, nor can we commit to making this change within 4 days (2 now remaining) from your original posting.
    Best regards,
    Mark
    ThinkPads: S30, T43, X60t, X1, W700ds, IdeaPad Y710, IdeaCentre: A300, IdeaPad K1
    Mark Hopkins
    Program Manager, Lenovo Social Media (Services)
    twitter @lenovoforums
    English Community   Deutsche Community   Comunidad en Español   Русскоязычное Сообщество

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