Well, he did not promise to solve the problem. He just said they are getting a G550 from one of the members of this forum. But that does not make this situation less sick. Mark is not responsible for the fault. He is just trying to do something about it. I guess it even is not on his job description. However he is the only one whom we, disappointed customers, got hold of. So, sorry Mark, do not take it personal. No one else is listening to us. I could not get hold of anyone in Sweden, when called support line in Latvia, some nice guy from India, redirected me to service center here. Guess what, they (in that service center) have not even heard about existence of G550. So, I am one of those angry customers. I just have no time to run around to look for solution. I was denied return by retailer. I will write of my money spent on this machine and as soon as I will have possibility I will buy myself another one, but not even close to Lenovo or IBM.
In business schools they teach that with every leaving loyal customer, company is loosing at least 14 new customers. This might be the case. Just multiply 50 or so to 14 and you will have a minimum figure close to 1k customers. Can Lenovo afford it? I guess they can 
!
tshaiman:
You need to contact CPM Israel, at - http://www.cpm-israel.com/
The number is - 1-809-258-990
They answered pretty quicky, and called me 3 times to schedule a pick up, so in terms of service it seem alright.
I also contacted the importer I purchased from (Amtel, I think there are a few) and complained about it. (09-9607000)
They redirected me to Lenovo, but asked me to contact them if Lenovo gives me a hard time.
BTW today my fan just kept on working all the time with no pauses.. so I wonder whats going on here.. 
giemini wrote:
Hi everyone!
I also had problem with my fan in G550. I wrote "had" because I don't have it anymore. I sold my g550 more than 3 weeks ago. I bought different laptop, different brand. It is beaulifuly silent.
Glad to hear you've found a laptop you're happy with.
giemini wrote:
I was really liked my g550. I bought it before Christmas. It was fast, nice looking, price was good. I heard that noise but I just though that it should be like this. I found this thread accidentally and then I realized that tha fan is really annoying.
Yes, although I've not used one myself, the reviews I've read seem to agree that the G550 is a nice machine. Of course, nothing is perfect.
I find the second part of your statement a bit troubling: If the fan noise didn't bother you before, why did it bother you after finding this thread? I would guess because you started focusing your attention on it, rather than what you'd been doing with your G550. It's of course up to you what you pay attention to. And personally I don't like to put up with noise, either -- though at the moment I'm listening to the collective whirring of 5 hard drives and at least that many fans. 
I just think it's good to be aware of things like the bandwagon effect that can happen in social settings like this forum. And to honestly ask yourself: Is this a problem for me? You don't need to justify or even tell your answer to anybody but yourself, but it's a healthy practice (in my opinion ) to ask yourself that question.
In your case, you found a laptop you're happier with, which is great.
giemini wrote:
I sold my g550 because Lenovo for over a month did completely nothing! People, let's face the truth: that's ridiculous! Company which is manufacturing thousands such laptops a year did completely nothing when customers from all around the globe complained! I am just speechless...
I sold G550. Very good decision. I stopped reading this thread after this but today I just wanted to check how is new upgraded BIOS doing. I was 100% that after a next month Lenovo will release new BIOS. I can't really believe my eyes... The problem is still not solved...
It's untrue that Lenovo did nothing. Rather, they collected information from people in this thread, examined a few G550s, and are now working on a BIOS fix. I understand that it's frustrating that a BIOS fix is not yet available. I suppose the question is: What is a reasonable period of time for such a fix to take? Naturally end users like us (I am an end user too, of ThinkPads) want the fix ASAP. And it can seem to us that a fix should be simple and quick. But there are many complexities that we don't ordinarily think about, that result in a fix taking longer than we'd like. I can't pretend to know all the issues that Lenovo is dealing with, but some might include:
- Electronics (especially CPU and GPU) generate heat, the fan needs to run to keep the laptop from overheating and either damaging itself or shutting itself down. Given that the fan must run at least part of the time, what is the optimal strategy for managing fan speed? For longest life of the electronics, it might be best to keep the fan on all the time so that temperature remains nearly constant. But some people (how many?) find even the lowest speed annoying. So maybe it's best to keep the fan off as much possible. The way to keep it off the longest would be to turn it on only when temperatures are nearing critical levels and then run at the fastest speed until temperatures were below a safe level, then stop. But then the fan cycles between fully off and the fastest speed, which some people (how many?) find annoying, maybe more annoying than having the fan run at constant speed. The best solution is probably somewhere between those extremes. But finding the solution that works best for most people is maybe not so simple.
- In addition to noise annoyance levels, there is electronics life and fan life to consider. Probably both electronics and fan live longer if fan runs at more constant speed and electronics at more constant temperature.
- And then there is heat safety: if the bottom or other parts of the laptop become too hot, they become uncomfortable for the user. So fan control must prevent uncomfortable temperatures, too.
- There are multiple temperatures that are measured: CPU, GPU, charging circuit, etc. What are safe limits for each one, and how do you combine the multiple measurements to control a single fan?
- BIOS programming, from what I've read, is quite difficult: it's done in a very low-level language (like assembler) and the program must fit in very limited memory. And it deals directly with hardware that rarely behaves exactly as the documentation says it should. You don't want to fix one problem and create another. So testing is required -> more time.
- At any given time, the BIOS programmers probably have many different requests for updates. So like anyone else, they must prioritize. Let's imagine that a new BIOS for another machine is causing it to lock up at boot. A critical problem like that must take priority over a fix for G550 fan control. Yes, the G550 fan is annoying some users. But their laptops continue to work.
- etc, etc, etc
My point is simply that we end users are unaware of all the considerations that go into a fix for a "simple" problem like G550 fan speed control. So we underestimate the amount of time such a fix should take. And become frustrated when a fix isn't available as quickly as we assume is reasonable.
giemini wrote:
Lenovo, I will never ever buy anything you manufactured again.
As a very satisfied ThinkPad user, I would just say: it's your decision, it's your loss.
Best regards,
Frank
P.S. For ThinkPad users there is TPFanControl, which allows you to set your own fan control strategy. I've used it on some ThinkPads, which has meant worrying about points 1, 2 and 4 above. Also the worry that software fan control is less reliable than using the embedded controller (BIOS) hardware fan control. (What happens if the software and/or Windows crashes?) Nevertheless, it might be a good time for an enterprising programmer to come up with similar fan control software for the G550 and other IdeaPads.
EDIT: Here is user-developed software fan control for the S10 and S10e. Maybe one or more of these programs could be modified to work with the G550?
Results of Your Ideal Business-Class Laptop survey, concluded 2009-07-29.
Did someone help you?
Say thanks! with a kudo.
Even better: Pay it forward, help someone else.
VIP_man wrote:I would like to thank the mod. fmyhr of LENOVO team an interesting interpretation of the laptops.
I should make clear that I speak only for myself.
My connections with Lenovo are:
- satisfied user of ThinkPad laptops;
- volunteer moderator of this forum.
OK, now back to our regularly-scheduled program...
Thanks,
Frank
Results of Your Ideal Business-Class Laptop survey, concluded 2009-07-29.
Did someone help you?
Say thanks! with a kudo.
Even better: Pay it forward, help someone else.
