[ltp] T41 fan broken?

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 09:17:55 +0000

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Nate <nrs27@cornell.edu>
> I'm unsure whether my fan has been working properly for a while now 
> because it just never seems to be on very fast. I'm running FC5, with 
> ibm_acpi.
> 
> Today my fan mysteriously ramped up to what sounded like high speed for 
> the first time in 6+ months. About 6 months ago I sent it to IBM with 
> bad video memory and they replaced the main board (they said). At the 
> time the fan sounded rattly and but still pushed a lot of air when it 
> spooled up. Today the volume of air was not great however even though it 
> was loud. I was not doing anything unusual at the time. I then read 
> about ibm_acpi and wanted to see if I could get the fan to ramp up 
> again. I started playing multiple videos and managed to get the temp up 
> to around 85/86 degrees C, but the fan never changed speeds noticeably.
> 
> Below shows how quickly the cpu can cool down after I take the load off.
> 
> [root@blackbox ~]# cat /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal; date
> temperatures:   85 50 34 65 36 -128 31 -128
> Sun Aug 13 21:59:56 EDT 2006
> [root@blackbox ~]# cat /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal; date
> temperatures:   59 50 34 61 36 -128 31 -128
> Sun Aug 13 22:00:43 EDT 2006
> 
> To gauge the effectiveness of the fan, I let the cpu get up to 89 C by 
> turning off the fan and loading the cpu. I was afraid to let it go any 
> higher so I turned the fan to max (which is hardly perceptible, I'd 
> expect some significant noise) and the cpu temp went down to 86 and 
> stays constant for minutes. Is there a maximum cpu temp before hardware 
> protections shut the machine down or similar protection?
> 
> I still have 6 months of warranty left on the machine. I think I'll end 
> up sending it in for a new fan, but I need the machine right now, so 
> it'll have to wait.
> 
> Can anyone recognize these symptoms and can confirm this is unusual 
> behavior and a hardware problem?
> 
> -Nathan
> -- 
> The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
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I hadan R40 that suffered from a loud fan.  A good cleaning of the fan unit quited it down, but if it's under warranty, try for a replacement.
P