IdeaPad S series Netbooks

[#1]

All,

Yes, 57 was to be the S10e version which should have incorporated the same fan control methods as 58/59 on the S10.  

I saw a comment about a mechanical nature to the sound of the fan - possibly the fan blades interferring with the housing? If this is the case, then the BIOS update is not going to change the sound signature of the fan, and service would be the best route to take.

Best regards, 

Mark

[#2]

Mark,

You are completely missing the point or just avoiding the issue all together, the noise of the fan is that the blade design causes a loud airflow noise at the rpms its running at.  This has nothing to do with blade hitting the housing and is a bit ridiculous to suggest such as the past 64 pages of posts makes this pretty clear.

Can you please please pretty please answer this question so we know if we're beating a dead horse or not as the key here is that when the fan comes on, even on build 59 its TOO **bleep** LOUD! :

"Could you please advise your team of BIOS developers to decrease the fan speeds at least for 30%. If it is not possible to do by means of BIOS will you please inform us about it."

If the answer to this question is NO, then we all know this issue will never be resolved unless Lenovo issues a recall to replace with a new fan type that allows for fine tuning fan speeds or with has a better blade design to reduce airflow noise.  If the answer is YES, then PLEASE get the development team to focus on reducing the fan speed.

Message Edited by perkj on 04-03-2009 09:03 AM

[#3]

Dear Mark,

I know I am not a computer specialist and, probably, my English is not perfect also, but I am afraid that you did not read accurately; my comment was absolutely clear: I said that the noise of the fan changed as the RPM decreased a little and become something LIKE metallic AFTER THE BIOS UPGRADE. Now, even for a noob like me is hard to believe that a BIOS upgrade may change the blades position in such a manner that they will hit the walls .

During this afternoon, I made another small test: with prime 95 and the CPU at full, the temperature did not jumped over 50C (with CoreTemp) and the fan was quite decent. I started simultaneously a movie on “Full Screen” and the temperature jumped at 53-55C. And now comes the bad part: I stopped the Prime95 with the movie still on screen and the temperature remained high and the fan at almost same RPM. So, is it possible that the GPU (chipset) and not only the CPU may be also responsible for our troubles? In this situation, I think we have a cooling system problem and not a simple "fan control" trouble.

[#4]

I think bios version 57 makes some noteable progress towards a resolution.  The fan is not nearly as erractic as it once was...which is a plus.  The fan still comes on more than I'd like...but I like this bios version better than the 51 version.

[#5]

Hello Mark, all

I am a S10e user that has been following this endless thread without intervening, waiting for the promised BIOS update. Now that it's out I rushed for it and flashed my netbook.

I am normally running Ubuntu Linux 8.10 on the S10e.

Unfortunately I fail to see any improvement, at least in Linux. After a few minutes of heating up, the only way to get the fan to stay silent is the system to be totally idle. Any minor spike in processor usage is going to cause it to run for one or two seconds then off.  Clicking on a web link is causing it to run. Even in power save mode.

I don't mind the noise level, it's the erratical behaviour that's so annoying.  Paradoxically, loading the system makes things better. The fan will run continuosly for a few minutes probably cooling the system enough for it to stay quiet for a few minutes more, exhibiting a better, and less annoying, hysteresis.

I am not sure, at this point, the update is supposed to fix things for Linux users as well. The behaviour is so similar to what it used to be, I had to reboot and double check the flashing process was successful  (and it was, in fact).

Can you at least confirm the changes are not supposed to be OS dependent?

thanks,

wh

[#6]

@ Gleb

Well Gleb i dont know how you want me to measure the risistance. There are no lables on the fan itself,i dont know the volts or the amps. 

required equipment?

Message Edited by kaizer1911 on 04-03-2009 11:02 AM

[#7]

Perkj, Danmarc,

I agree that the bios wouldn't induce fan interference - but my point was that at some RPMs, an intereference sound will be more evident than others.  So I was suggesting this as a possible reason why, as you note, that following the bios update your fan sounded more mechanical...

Here's my perspective - there are several hundred folks involved in this discussion and everyone has their own experience, point of view and opinion which is fine, yet some act as if all 200 other people are saying exactly the same thing and express impatience that Lenovo is being deliberately obtuse on this matter, when in fact not everyone is  saying exactly the same thing.

For example, Danmarc doesn't feel 57 was progress while Zentech does.  Same BIOS, two different experiences, two differnent points of view....

Most members complained initially that the fan turned on too soon, and ramped directly to the high speed too soon, and then because the on/off thresholds were only  a couple degrees apart, there was annoyance caused by the frequent cycling. 

So our engineers changed this, to raise the turn on temperature, to step through the speeds rather than jumping to the fastest, and to leave the fan on for up to 30 seconds to reduce the "hunting" of the fan caused by minor temp changes in the system.

The way in which the system functions can also be affected by the ambient temperature as other members have reported here and in private feedback of their testing.

It may well be that the fan on some or all systems has a louder acustic signature at some RPM points than others.  

I don't think there is any one thing I can say here which will please every member here in this thread as much as I would like to.   We do our best to listen to the majority feedback, and coupled with our own engineering observations, produce updates which we believe will be to the benefit of the majority of customers.

This isn't to say that minority opinions aren't valueable, but just that it may be difficult or impossible to craft a solution that makes the fan behave in a way to suit every individual preference.

Mark

[#8]

Thanks Mark, but can you tell us if the BIOS can vary the fan speed and if it would be possible to have a 30% reduction from where the speed is set today

[#9]

As already said here, after few minutes, the fan starts to spin for few seconds even when loading a web page or scrolling a text and then stops. And the cycle repeats over and over. This is the most annoying thing, starting and stopping all the time. The BIOS 57 draw the lower limit slightly downwards, which is not bad, because the fan works longer instead of keeping starting and stopping like out of control.

So, in my opinion, if a new BIOS revision will control the fan to start work at a little higher temperature (not much, maybe 4-5-6 degrees higher), the S10e will be a perfect machine for the purposes that most of us bought it.

Later edit

Reading again most of the topics, I do not think is a problem of different opinions, because, since the first post of this thread in January, almost everybody complained of the fact that the fan starts to soon and then stops also to soon.

For the moment, the BIOS revision decreased the lower limit so maybe is time to increase also the higher one.

That assuming is not a hardware problem.

Message Edited by Danmarc on 04-03-2009 09:55 PM

Message Edited by Danmarc on 04-03-2009 09:57 PM

[#10]

kaizer1911

I have seen the label. It says that the fan's max voltage is 5 V and max current is 0.40 A. Which means that the resistance should be 5V/0.4A=12.5 Ohms.

I assumed that you had a multi-meter or an ohmmeter.