Overzealous T43 System Fan?

Hi All,

Long time no post. Alwasys get good advice here.

My ThinkPad T42 died about two weeks ago and I replaced it with a "newly used" ThinkPad T43 form Ebay. Now, I'm very happy with the machine so far; it looks and feels factory new (and HOW I MISSED the ThinkPad keyboard and little red erasor).

Silly Q perhaps, but I noticed the system fan rarely goes off. It' not loud, it's not spinning out of control, and, occasionally, it does stop. But compared to my T42 it's definitley way more active.

My first thoughst are some system control setting is set to "maximum" and I just haven't found it yet.

Another thought is that the T43 DOES have a dedicate ATI X300 GPU as compared to Intel onboard on my T42 (does this mean I could actually run a game here - LOL!) and that the dedicated GPU may create more heat than before (yes, I've set the ATI catalyst settings down from maximum).

Was wondering if anyone had any thoughts here? Is this something I should be concerned about?

 

Here is the service manual:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-58837

It is simple to take the keyboard out (p. 80), underneath you will see the fan, cooling fins, etc. Hold the fan steady with a screwdriver and use some compressed air to blow out any dust, especially from around the cooling fins. You can buy cans of compressed air at an electronics store or office suppliers.

If it still seems noisey, check at Lenovo for updated drivers. Read the instructions carefully, when you run the download it only decompresses the files, then you need to run the installer.

Matt