Just taken delivery of a brand new P16 Gen 1 and I'm really surprised and concerned about the fan noise and the CPU temperatures especially as this only seems to be an issue when its connected to the dock (Thunderbolt 4 Workstation Dock).

When it's connected to the dock, I can boot up into Windows and almost immediately the fans come on full blast. After a couple of minutes the fans slow down to a just about acceptable but still audible background level. At this stage the only applications running are MS Teams and Outlook. If I do anything else, like open Control Panel, launch a browser or even open a new tab, the fans come back on full blast. Typically I find that even with just Teams and Outlook running the fans keep coming on every few minutes.

Looking at the CPU temperatures the average temperature for each core appears to be around 70 degrees C! Cores 4 & 5 frequently spike at 100% briefly and the minimum temp for all cores is around 50 degrees C. The load on each core is typically around 5% with the exception of cores 4 & 5 which show 30-50%.

By comparison if I boot up just on battery, disconnected from the dock, the laptop is virtually silent. The fans don't come on and the average CPU temp is around 40 degrees and the highest spikes are around 70 degrees.

My first thought was the System Cooling Policy in Advanced Power Management as on battery that is set to Passive whilst when plugged in it was set to Active. I tried changing both the Passive but it made no difference and there is no way anyway that it should be running so hot with nothing but Teams and Outlook running.

Interestingly I found that sometimes if I disconnect the dock, boot up the laptop on battery and log into Windows, then connect the dock, I don't get the problem and no matter what applications I run, the fans remain silent and CPU temp is cool. However, whilst this works most of the time, it doesn't work all the time.

If this makes any difference, the laptop is running Windows 10 Enterprise 64bit Build 19044. I've attached a screen grab of the CPU temps during one surge of fan noise.

Welcome to Lenovo Community Peakoverload!

Try a BIOS update. You may download the update via our official Lenovo support website. Just enter the P16 serial number. 

Regards,

Hassen_Lenovo

Unfortunately it already has the latest BIOS.

Hi,

Just Outlook and Office apps should not make your fans spin up to full speed. Have you tried changing the Power Mode setting? If you click on the battery there is a slider. Also, Windows 10 can have an affect on this, because Windows 10 cannot handle properly the E cores and the P cores of the CPU. AFAIK it basically treats all the cores the same. So it can start pushing a performance core even for Outlook, which would otherwise run perfectly fine on an E Core. Last time I checked, Microsoft was not keen on supporting P and E cores in Windows 10, only Windows 11. 

(On a side note, Teams is a real battery hog, pushes the CPU too much. Especially video meetings can tax just about any machine)

Power modes in Windows could help with cooler CPU / less fan if you don't intend to push the machine to the max. You can try switching the battery power mode to Best Power Efficiency even while plugged it (left hand side of the slider). It will restrict the CPU somewhat and make the fans not run easily on full speed. I find that about half of my workday I can easily go with that setting if I don't want noise. I use Balanced mode (middle of the slider) the rest of the time, when I need performance, but the fans do kick in. 

As for the plugged in / unplugged operation. Unfortunately I don't have a solution to this problem, but I can confirm I have observed the same behavior. If I cold boot the P16 on battery, it behaves much better than if I have it hooked up to my desk setup and just unplug and go with it. 

If I just unplug Windows predicts 2 sometimes 3 hours of battery life.

Cold booting predicts 4-6 hours depending on what I start doing. It is also much more silent and cooler than if I just unplug and start using it on battery.

As for the temps, 50-60 while idle (or light work) is what I get also. If you had a ThinkPad P15 G1 or G2, those were pretty similar as well. Before that, P52 and P53 were maybe a bit better, but not by much. On load, 100C is also very normal for the P series. I don't think these values are out of the ordinary for these types of machines. 

You could also try to put something under the back legs of the computer to prop up the back, by 3-4 centimeters (1.5"). It does wonders for the airflow under the computer and improves thermals a little bit. 

Strangely under Power Options there is only one Power Plan, that being Balanced. Also under the Advanced Settings of this plan (or any plan I manually create), there is a severely limited set of options, far fewer than you would normally see.

I've had to edit the registry to add Processor Power Management and its System Cooling Policy and its Maximum and Minimum Processor State.

Even more interestingly, if I make any changes to the Maximum Processor State, it makes no difference whatsoever. At the moment I've got this set to 40% for both battery and plugged in and yet still every couple of minutes the fans come on full blast.

Gonna try changing the battery slider to see if that makes a difference but it sounds like it should do the same thing as the Max Processor State and System Cooling Policy but maybe the Lenovo Intelligent Cooling overrides these?

There should be only one power plan, Balanced, like you said. 

I was referring to the slider in the battery options. I am sorry I got it mixed up with the value names (they changed how it looks in Windows 11). The values are (from left to right, in Windows 10, when plugged in):

• Better battery
• Better performance
• Best performance

Lenovo uses the value of this slider to optimize how the machine behaves. Referes to this setting as "Intelligent Cooling". I am not sure the individual power setting values for the plan affect this. It is this battery slider that you need to change. See attached picture.

When set to Better battery it will not allow the CPU to go really fast and will also not turn on the fans so easily. If you try to push the computer in this mode, it will warm up a bit (because less fans is used) and will not go as fast as it can. 

When set to Better performance the computer will act "normally". When perf is needed the CPU will go faster. If it warms up, fans will kick in. 

When set to Best performance the computer will try to go even faster, sometimes letting the chassis get a bit warmer than comfortable.

It is also mentioned in the manual (I know, I know, it is not sexy to read the manual these days :D)

https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/pubs/tp_p16_gen1/index_en.html#smart_performance

When using the computer only for office work / lightly, try setting it to Better battery. Your computer should work more silently. 

Nice work on the steps you've taken!

And we thank you for your feedback, rest assured that Lenovo is working harder to provide the best product experience for our customers.

Feel free to post again.

Hassen_Lenovo

I am having a very similar problem. I even have an external laptop cooling fan underneath the laptop at all times and it's fans are still running. I am noticing CPU% remaining at 40-60% with only Teams running (O365). I have tried to move the battery slider as suggested below. Fans are still on, but not at full speed, and CPU has now dropped to 31-33%. Still awfully high with basically nothing running. 

I bought this computer to be able to support the large datasets I work with on a daily basis - the speed - or lack thereof - of this computer is highly disappointing. 

Hi guest37011,

I am sorry that you are having this issue. Are there any particular software or processes that consistently cause high CPU usage, or does it occur even with minimal applications running? For thermal management, ensure that the laptop's vents are not blocked and that it is placed on a hard, flat surface to improve airflow. While using an external cooling fan is a good start, you might also try propping up the back of the laptop slightly to enhance airflow further. Additionally, the Lenovo Intelligent Cooling feature can sometimes be overly aggressive, so checking the settings in Lenovo Vantage for any possible adjustments could help manage the cooling more effectively.

Best regards,

Hassen_Lenovo