[ltp] X61 or X61s (loud fan)

[Christian Fromme]

> I am also running lenny (2.6.250) on my x61s and although the fan seems
> to run all the time on full speed its not annoying even in a very quit
> room. But I've learned that fan noise is something very subjective. My
> previous laptop was really noisy so when I started searching for a new
> one I kept on reading reviews on fan noise for weeks before I decided to
> bay the x61s. Most reviews were saying that you can hardly notice the
> fan noise. When I got it I have to say that I was really disappointed. I
> could hear the noise clearly. But I guess that my disappointment was
> also due to my previous frustration and my eagerness to hear the
> absolute "silence". However, after a few days I got used to it and I
> forgot all about fan noises. But as I said, all this is really subjective.
>
> Regarding the head, mine gets also hot under the right palm rest. But
> this is due to the wireless. I read that lenovo put an extra fan where
> the wireless is in some models and mine obviously doesn't have it. I
> have to say though that I am working in a warm environment (we had
> always between 35-38 C this summer) and I am waiting to see if its going
> to be better when it gets cooler outside.
>
> The pitch noise every 5 sec is probably the Load_Cycle_Counts issue.
> Check it out with the smartctl tool. There are fixes around (the call it
> the uggly fix) and I could fix this issue on my previous laptop when I
> was running debian etch. But not with lenny on the x61s, so when its
> annoying me I can stop it manually with "hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda"

Thanks for your ideas.

You can get rid of the heat at least partly with:

# iwconfig wlan0 txpower 10

or similar. Help on mine.

I know that the fan noise reception is something subjective. I also read
about the X61 being rather calm and I really was disappointed when I
learned how loud my fan was. Even my girlfriend said it is quite noisy.
Maybe mine in really broken, but that doesnt matter anymore now.

After writing back and forth with my supplier www.business-laptops.de who
was *very* helpful and great, I decided to give the X61s a try. It'll
arrive next week and I will write a follow-up to tell you how I got along.

Thanks,
Christian