[Sparky191]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chinchy Actually, the Hitachi Travelstar hard drives, at 7200 RPM are much quieter than the corresponding 4200 and 5400 RPM versions. At least that has been my experience thus far swapping out the hard drives on my trusty old T20.

Mine too. Just depends if its designed to be quiet in the first place. Most of the modern drives are.

 

[Daroid]

I use a T42 2379-DXU, i can hear the harddrive, but it is mostly slight vibrations and depends very much on what the laptop is placed on. It's a 7K60 drive, and while i think it could be a lot worse i think it is still somewhat noisy. More silent than the most silent desktop 3.5 drive i've heard though.

The fan should definately not be running. If it does it will be at very low RPM (lowest setting). I would check with CHC as Iron Dreamer suggested and see what the idle temperature is, it should be around 42 degrees C.

Better play it safe, not that it can overheat and damage it....

 

[granodemostasa]

how do i find the idle temp?
i increased the ram to 2GB, got rid of virtual memory.
I'm still afraid to do the software thing because of what it might do to the warantee- i'm not convinced it's safe yet.
the 72K rpm thing from Hitachi sounds like an idea, and could be a great reason to expand my hard drive
also: don't get me wrong when i say it's loud, i dont' mean that loud. i have a WD hard drive that was on my old computer that now has it's own external hard drive shell, it's far louder than the ibm. mine is a T42 2373-K1U.

 

[Ferbose]

My 1.83 GHz Centrino Toshiba laptop has little fan noise.
I thought fans should not be loud in a Centrino laptop.
Well, I guess your Thinkpad is recently bought and therefore really a Chinese owned brand (Lenovo).

 

[Daroid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa how do i find the idle temp? i increased the ram to 2GB, got rid of virtual memory. I'm still afraid to do the software thing because of what it might do to the warantee- i'm not convinced it's safe yet. the 72K rpm thing from Hitachi sounds like an idea, and could be a great reason to expand my hard drive also: don't get me wrong when i say it's loud, i dont' mean that loud. i have a WD hard drive that was on my old computer that now has it's own external hard drive shell, it's far louder than the ibm. mine is a T42 2373-K1U.

You find the temperature with the CHC program, it will not void your temperature. The program that might void your warranty is Fan Control, CHC is not dangerous at all. http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm
I don't think the fan control in CHC works on thinkpads.... just install it to look at temperatures, that's it.
It could be something as simple like if the heatsink is not mounted properly.

BTW. Lenovo/IBM has two versions of the fan - a long and a short, both will fit 15", but i'm in doubt wether it will fit 14.1".... but the longer is the quietest....

Ferbose,
Depends if it is 1st gen Dothan (21W Thermal power), second gen Dothan ("Sonoma" - 27W T.p). Core Duo: 34W T.p. (afaik). Shouldn't be a problem with slight fan noise in a T42 with a dothan. Also they have been assembled in China for many years now (before IBM sold the division to Lenovo), and most parts are third party manufacturers

 

[FX-ears]

I agree that Hitachi Travelstar hard drives are really quiet ... now I don't know if you move around your laptop a lot or just use it as a computer at home most of the time, but constructors tend to over-protect the fans with several metal/plastic grids that reduce the airflow and create more noise, I removed one of them on my laptop and the fan now runs a lot quieter when spining ( firts because it blows more air, and also because the grid "whistle effect" is gone).
On a pentium M laptop getting rid of all the dust should do the trick ... it's a low TDP procesor ... doesn't really need a lot of cooling .
If you feel really confident sticking your hands into a laptop, using better thermal compound than the stock one (like artic silver) can improve thermal perfs sensibly ... I reckon those thinkpads were actually the first computers to use heatpipes for cooling ... so removing the heatsink could be a bit tricky.
Guess you have already done it ... but a nice defragmentation can help with the HDD noise ...

 

[granodemostasa]

i defragement ever 2-3 weeks, including yesterday. i've also created a power scenario for play back only which i'm going to test later today. For the most part this computer is a do it all, i travel with it to classes all day, to work, do presentations and it's my primary home computer. it gets about 40 percent playing time on the road and 60 at home-so getting rid of some of the protection isn't really an option.
question: does the travelstar from hitachi have the shock protection that comes with the 40 gig hard drive?
the replacing the fan is interesting. i'm not sure if this T42 is a first generation or second generation dothan.

 

[Daroid]

Yes, i think the shock protection will work on any harddrive that will fit, i.e. all 2.5" drives.
T41: Banias
T42: Dothan
T43: Sonoma (i.e. second-gen Dothan)
T60: Yonah

Can you do a recording of the fan/noise a few feet away ?
also, have you searched http://forum.thinkpads.com ? - might be some useful posts about this somewhere

 

[geoges.ravel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa since my soucre is my laptop and my laptop stands about two feet from my head i can really hear the hard drive and the fans going. any way to make it quieter? My laptop is a Thinpad T42 2373-K1U 5 months old 14.1 inch screen 1.7GB Pentium M 2GB Ram, 2700/333mhz 40Gig Hard drive (dont' know the speed, probably 5400)

I would suggest that you get some closed cans. While what other people said do help reducing the anoyance, it is difficult to elimiate the noise from a laptop.

 

[granodemostasa]

i installed the Notebook Hardware control, my system's temp is 46 degrees and 1.69-1.7Ghz it says. i dont think a fan is on, only the hard drive is spinning.

 

[Daroid]

Ok.
Did you set the system to "High System Performance" ? If so, it will run at ~1.7Ghz no matter what.
The HDD noise: Is it more like a constant tone, or more "airy"-whoosh type of sound ?

 

[granodemostasa]

Yes.
at "music playback" i did everything that is in high system performance except slow it down to 600MHz, and now it's at 42 degrees.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Try putting it in the next room, running your headphone cable under the door.

Try switching to sealed headphones.

Try shutting it down.

[size=xx-small]Sorry, J/K...[/size]

 

[granodemostasa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dusty Chalk Try putting it in the next room, running your headphone cable under the door. Try switching to sealed headphones. Try shutting it down. [size=xx-small]Sorry, J/K...[/size]

1. i wish, but that would take away the purpose of listening while typing and studying.
2. I rather like my HD650 and dont' see a sealed can that can match it at that price. I do use my iems for the library, directly out of the laptop-not bad but not quite the sound i get with the Audiophile-usb>>>Meier>>>HD650
3. maybe i should get a CD player
seriously: with the software ive tried everything but two things: the hitachi hard drives and taking the heat sink out- the heat sink will kill the warantee so it has been out for a while, i'll do some research on hitachi's HD's.

 

[Norbert]

I have a similar problem with a loud laptop. My hp pavillion sounds like a jet coming in for a landing because it has a desktop Pentium processor crammed into it with significant cooling. The only solution I found was to switch to IEM's. Currently I'm using er6i's which completely block out all noise--blissful silence. I see an upgrade to er4's or an equivalent in my future.