X220 - fan constantly on / revving up and down [ Edited ]

[JNavas]

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audioenthusiast wrote:
When you listen to the pulse, it almost sounds like the system is giving it a little punch of electricity every five seconds and then letting it spin...then giving it another pop five seconds later, etc. The fan sounds like it's slowing down until it gets the pulse to get it back up to speed again. And as I rest my hands on the keyboard, the click sort of feels that way, too.
I have no idea whether that's what's actually happening or not, but that's how it feels. I'm not sure it has to do with adjusting the fan speed between levels. When you set it to be on level 1 in TPFanControl, it still has the five second pulse/tick, even though it's not adjusting it up to level "2". But maybe it has to do with adjusting the fan speed up 150 RPMs or so to prevent it from spinning down too much.

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nicbex wrote:

Actually, Iv'e gotten the pulsing problem now aswell, contrary to my earlier post in this thread/other threads. It seems like the spins too slow, and therefore it gets an electric push to start spinning again, therefore making this "pulsing" sound of sudden increase in RPM. 

So I would say, this problem is probably not isolated to only some people. I haven't had this for my first two months, but now it suddenly started.

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The problem is likely "hunting" because of insufficient hysteresis in the fan control logic,

as I described here, so it can come and go depending on conditions.

[brus0li]

@nicbex 

Do you have the problem regularly now or is that just a rare case?

[nicbex]

I would say constantly. Since I'm mostly doing light work on the computer it doesn't really get hot.

[tjaeger]

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JNavas wrote:

The problem is likely "hunting" because of insufficient hysteresis in the fan control logic,

as I described here, so it can come and go depending on conditions.

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If what you say were true, then (1) the fan speed would constantly switch back and forth between two levels and there wouldn't be any short (less than 1s) pulses (2) the problem could easily be fixed running tools like tpfancontrol.

It's pretty obvious at this point that the issue affects every single X220(t), it's just that not everybody notices it or is bothered by it and it might be masked by background (including HDD) noise.

[JNavas]

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tjaeger wrote:

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JNavas wrote:

The problem is likely "hunting" because of insufficient hysteresis in the fan control logic,

as I described here, so it can come and go depending on conditions.

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If what you say were true, then (1) the fan speed would constantly switch back and forth between two levels and there wouldn't be any short (less than 1s) pulses (2) the problem could easily be fixed running tools like tpfancontrol.

It's pretty obvious at this point that the issue affects every single X220(t), it's just that not everybody notices it or is bothered by it and it might be masked by background (including HDD) noise.

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I respectfully disagree. The symptoms vary considerably from machine to machine -- my X220 does not exhibit fan pulsing -- and fit my hypothesis quite well.

[tjaeger]

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JNavas wrote:

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tjaeger wrote:

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JNavas wrote:

The problem is likely "hunting" because of insufficient hysteresis in the fan control logic,

as I described here, so it can come and go depending on conditions.

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If what you say were true, then (1) the fan speed would constantly switch back and forth between two levels and there wouldn't be any short (less than 1s) pulses (2) the problem could easily be fixed running tools like tpfancontrol.

It's pretty obvious at this point that the issue affects every single X220(t), it's just that not everybody notices it or is bothered by it and it might be masked by background (including HDD) noise.

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I respectfully disagree. The symptoms vary considerably from machine to machine -- my X220 does not exhibit fan pulsing -- and fit my hypothesis quite well.

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No, the symptoms are exactly the same for everybody that's described them so far and pulsing happens at the affected fan speeds reliably approximately every 5 seconds and has nothing to do whatsoever with the current temperature.

[JNavas]

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tjaeger wrote:

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JNavas wrote:

I respectfully disagree. The symptoms vary considerably from machine to machine -- my X220 does not exhibit fan pulsing -- and fit my hypothesis quite well.

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No, the symptoms are exactly the same for everybody that's described them so far and pulsing happens at the affected fan speeds reliably approximately every 5 seconds and has nothing to do whatsoever with the current temperature.

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1. That's not what I said (wrote).
2. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

[skydesigner]

after I sold my x220 one or two month ago, I came back  to check if there´s finally a solution to the pulsing (the whine will NEVER go away...it´s just the fan).... I´m glad I´ve sold it, because NOTHING changed or happened to solve the problem. Soon they will introduce a new model and forget about this thread...

[Hemmet]

The pulsing intervals in my machine are irregular and vary depending on the rotation speed. My impression is that the pulsing intervals are short in high speeds and get longer the slower the fan rotates. Except for when it goes in full blast - then there's no pulsing at all. I guess it doesn't have time to breath in then!

Anywaya I'm going to send mine for repairs and see if they can silence the fan somehow. I wouldn't bear to listen to the whining and pulsing for the years that I plan using the machine, so something has to be done.

[Amphibulus]

"Depending on what i do, between 45 and 55 dgr. celcius.  If i am converting many pictures (RAW -> JPEG with enhancements) i could reach 65dgr."

Well, that's the difference. My is at 65C when it's idle (or lite work) and go up to 85C when I make it works a bit more. And it can go up to 97C if the cpu is at 100%.

So I guess all that issue is because of the computer temp. Mine was really quiet when I got it, but I don't know what was the the cpu temp. But after few updates, it started to be way warmer and the fan run all the time..