L520 - random sleep and constant fan [ Edited ]

[Bardamu]

The most critical issue on my week old L520 is that it goes into sleep mode seemingly randomly even while I'm doing work. (In fact, it went into sleep mode twice while writing this post.)

I have the newest (3.59) Power Management Installed with all settings set to keep the system awake, plus updated drivers for both Lenovo and Microsoft via the Think Vantage Toolbox update feature.

According to TP Fan Control the temperatures seem fine, except perhaps for the 6th and 8th sensor, where the temperature always hovers around 60c or a little below.

http://i55.tinypic.com/20rnqc0.jpg

I'm unsure what components the 6th and 8th sensors are attached to, but the temperature doesn't seem critical and I doubt they are to blame for putting the system to sleep.

The other issue, which could be related, is the fan never shutting off, even while the system is in idle with low cpu temperatures as seen from TP Fan Control. It would seem that the bios fan control settings are linked to the 6th and 8th sensor temperature, which never drops very far below 60c.

When TP Fan Control is set to ignore the 6th and 8th sensors in smart mode, the fan turns off, but the temperature of the 6th and 8th sensors only rise very slightly.

This seems to suggest that the fan only has a very minor effect on the components monitored by the 6th and 8th sensors and that it is therefore pretty silly if the bios fan control is indeed regulated by these sensors.

I would try changing the "Optimize Fan Control" setting, but it is mysteriously missing from the system settings in Power Management.

I would be extremely thankful for any input on either of these issues. 

Moderator Note: Image size > 50k, converted to link.

[TheGh0st]

Hey Bardamu, I also have this issue on my L520 and found several other L520 user on other forums, who confirm the constant fan too. I really hope that Lenovo will release an update for the bios, to get rid this issue.

[Bardamu]

I'm sorry to hear that. It seems there are a few too many issues with the L520.

The fan issue is puzzling as well, since the review on notebookcheck.net states about the L520: "In an idle state or when surfing the web, the cooling fan switches off for longer periods of time."

Perhaps it was an issue introduced in a driver or bios, which was released after the review?

As far as I can tell, there used to be multiple ways of adjusting the fan speed and noise on a Lenovo. 

In my Lenovo, though, there are no options to do that anywhere. The bios doesn't have any and the "Optimize Fan Control" setting that used to be there in the Power Manager is nowhere to be found, despite being referenced and described in the help text.

It seems Lenovo  for some reason has removed the possibility to regulate the fan.

[tc35]

suppose I buy the L520, and the laptop will have the random sleep problem, do you think that I will be able to return it without paying 15% restocking fee?

[Bardamu]

In Denmark that would be no problem, but I'm not sure how it is in Boston.

My guess is though, that my particular L520 has some underlying hardware problem that is not common to all L520's, but which is connected to some or all of my issues.

[tc35]

Besides the fan issue and the random sleep issue, what other issues are you encountering with L520?

[TheGh0st]

I have to say, that my L520 does not have this random sleep issue. But I'm mainly using Linux. Nevertheless I will send my L520 back, because of the fan issue. If you don't mind the fan, it is in all points a great laptop. Nice display (you can read in directly sun), nice battery running time and nice chassis.

[Bardamu]

I called Lenovo tech support and they suggested I send the laptop to them for repair.

The guy i spoke to was unsure what exactly was causing the issues, but mentioned they had been having some trouble with motherboards being faulty recently, so his guess was that the motherboard needs to be replaced.

He also mentioned that the fan is definitely supposed to turn off when the laptop is idling and that this could be related to the motherboard issue as well.

[Alpo]

Hi all!

I bought L520 a while ago. Same problems are also occuring with my laptop that have been descriped before and something else as well.

i3-2310M

4 GB ram

Bios 1.07

Power manager 3.59

1. Constant fan. The fan won't shut down even if temperature of the CPU goes much below 40 C. I'm using TPFan control as a temporary solution for this.

Is there a possibility to lower the rotation speed of the fan at fan 1 level? I think rotation speed is too fast for level 1. It keeps the machine very cool so even less speed would do the work just fine. So could Lenovo staff re-think the scaling of the fan speed or is this even possible?

2. Sleep problem. It goes to sleep or hibernation mode occasionally just like that, even in the middle of working something.

3. Hard drive shutting down. This is a new problem that has not been reported here before. Hard drive is shutting down, even quite often. When there is some work for the hard drive this doesn't happen. But when idling or just surfing the internet or doing some light work, hard drive keep switching off and then on when it's needed. I guess you can't hear this if the fan is going, but because I'm using TPFan control I can hear this very well when it happens.

4.  Speedstep problem when battery is detached. CPU works only at 750 MHz or so when the battery is removed and only AC cord is plugged in. There seems to be one thread about speedstep but that's something different. This is not so big issue than those mentioned above, but should be fixed as well.

5. Hard drive clicking. Well actually I fixed this already. I refer to this. 4 second timer is just too short and I changed it. Actually it's a common problem with WD hard drives and I also changed the timer for my desktop hard drive (WD green). You can read more for example here: http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5357

This laptop is actually for my girlfriend. I thought I was choosing a good one, but there seems to be a lot that needs to be fixed. I'll try to remove power manager and let's see if that helps to any of these issues. Have anybody tried that yet? It could also be a problem with the motherboard, not just bad bios or power manager. 

[ColonelONeill]

1. I think they're looking into this.
2: Try running a battery gauge reset. This used to happen to me when my T400 was new.
3. Go into Power Manager and set the hard drive to never spin down.
4. This is intentional.
5. More of a WD problem than a laptop problem.