needledik's undervolting tutorial rocks

I know this is old news for a lot of folks here, but after procrastinating for a few months, I finally got around to trying it out neededicks undervolting tuorial... damn, that was time well spent

Thanks dude....

by following his directions, (and filling in the gaps since RightMark's software has changed & I have a different processor.... so different approaches and settings were required, etc.. ) on a multi-hour sustained 100% CPU run, I lowered my 2.13 ghz Centrino temp by an average of 18.5 degrees Celsius. That's dropping the 100% full bore CPU temperature by 65 degree's Fahrenheit.

Pretty Impressive.

Now, I'd love to find a tutorial for

1. Getting Thinkpad fans to work in conjunction with the reduced temp..
2. And maxing out the ATI 3200 drivers in terms of undervolt/overcolck -and totally up-to-date

I'll start looking for some tonight, but if any experienced soul already knows of good tutorials/utilities in existence, on these topics.... it'd be kind of you to post links to them here. I see lots of questions on Thinkpad fan noise, (this is getting pretty picky, but hey,,,, it should be as tight as you can get it) anyway... I've not yet seen the definitive answer., not the way this undervolting tutorial worked....., and there's got to be one.

Thanks guys

So, for the fan control issue, do people have a preference for

• tpfancontrol
• Speedfan

Which is the superior tool? Are their better even options?

Right now I'm runing Prime95 torture and using Speedfan set to a CPU temp of 55 degree's desired, 60 give me a warning, the fans are running all the time, ((It's not like hugely loug, if I was listening to music, I wouldn't hear them)...

AND I've got a stable temp of 51.C at a 100% load..... But the temp stays the same when I kill prime95 and the fans still stay on.... but damn....with the undervolt and Speedfan, the machine is almost 33% cooler under Max CPU load --and I didn't think it was that warm to start with

But it'd be nice to reduce the fan spin when the CPU/Disks are not running at 100%

I have a T43p 2668 --2.13 ghz with the ATI 3200 card and the 7200 rpm drive....

From what i saw from last nights research.... tpfancontrol looks like the way to go.

I'm reading Shimodax's thread at http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic...5e9dcd787ae960 ... I downloaded; installed, and modified the .ini file as he directed... then ran prime95 and see what's up and report back....

QUESTION: to get this stable, anyone have feedback on any sensors to set to ignore? Or which specific Torture test to use?

Right now, Im using Prime95's "stress it all to the MAX", and don't have it stabalized yet... It keeps crashing after about 10 minutes, no matter what I config the fan speed


==EDIT--

It's Stable Now

This whole thing was about Undervolting the CPU and Controlling the fans on a T43p 2668. Here's what worked for me.


(1) Use the "Maximum Temp" Torture in Prime95 on Every step in the process.... including determining initial values with RightMark.

(2) To get this stablized, I had to go back to "RightMark CPU Clock", and step my VID up one step (in my case, to 1.068V), maybe because I chose a wrong test that didn't generate enough heat, I dunno... Anyway... It worked yesterday for HOURS

Anyway... I did that, tested it... Naturally it's OK, (yesterday it was fine at the next lower setting --for HOURS)

I set the tpfancontrol.ini to these values (tried a few different values along the way, but these seem to be the sweet spot for my particular machine in terms of balancing temperature/fan activity & System Stability underload

Level=50 0
Level=55 1
Level=56 3
Level=57 5
Level=58 7
Level=60 128

I've been running Prime95 "Max Torture" for well over five straight hours now, Listening to WinAmp (with a big complex WinAmp visual plugin running full screen on a 21" monitor (RightMark says that it uses 30% of the CPU by itself --Plus The Torture Test)

and I'm writing this post in Firefox on the lappy's screen) and the CPU temp just fluctuates every few minutes between 57 & 58 degrees c....(Stock was 74 degrees c. and the fans full bore) Now the fan's fluctuate with the temp, at obviously lower volume...

(I'll definitely kill tpfancontrol's little "beep" --fan speed change notification-- thang though --it's making me completely nuts).

My Thinkpad is now NOTICABLY COOLER AND QUIETER --while running the CPU full bore-- than it was simply idling right out of the box... There is less fan action, and when I'm not deliberately torturing it, the fans are often completely off. When running, the fan's rpms are obviously reduced --BUT the machine is still **far cooler** than stock under the same load...

Even with having to step my original undervolt figure up to the next highest one, my CPU is stilll running 17-18.c cooler at 100% CPU Load, than it did stock, and the fan activity and noise has been cut in half.

Knowing I was closing in --Before I started this last torture test... I checked a lot of of low CPU usage ativities (like 2D CAD, email, web browsing, writing, other office apps, etc.) the fans are completley off... or just a barely audible whisper... and the machine (at least for short term) was running at 52-53.c....

These two tweaks together were totally worth the time and effort -- particularly for all the times when I'm NOT Maxing the CPU/Graphic card and HD --not to mention bettery battery life.

If I plan to torture the CPU all night, I'll probably set it on BIOS Control and go to bed... but other than that.... Wow... it's really much quieter...

--EDIT #2
Even LESS FAN NOISE! Cool!

Changed the tpfancontrol settings to

Level=53 0
Level=54 1
Level=56 3
Level=58 5
Level=61 7
Level=63 128

I moved the "full screen Winamp Visualization" (nice one, too... one of the most complex and beautiful ones I've seen) off the second monitor and onto the laptop, and reduced that window to 1/2 of the laptop screen ( I still want to heat up the vid card, but I took it off "full screen, full color @ 21")

Then I started Prime95 and let it run with nothing going on (still running two monitors, Winamp, RightMark CPU, and Firefox---but no visualization running, or any other usuage for 4 (Four) hours.... it tpfancontrol ran it with the temp at constant at 59.c -- Level 5 fan (which is about *half* the sound level 7.

Four hours, and it never varied

An hour ago, (with Prime95 still working the CPU and OS 100% --and it has been for four (4) hours), I started working the graphic card with the visualization. ( I don't own any games, but --according to RightMark, this visualization alone will work 20% of the CPU all by itself)... I've done web searches, edited files and downloaded files and installed files.... and with all this going on, the fan speed finally moved up to Level 7..... still running prime95 perfectly with RightMark....

Wow... Temp just hit 63.c --my tpfancontrol "kill" setting.... the machine beeped four times, and auto switched to the IBM/Lenovo default fan control

AND,,,, NO ERROR IN THE TORTURE TEST -- didn't even blink.... seamless transition!!!

AND... In the time it took me to type the last two sentences, I re-checked --and the temp had dropped and tpfancontrol was back on "smart monitor" and in control at a lower temp -- Now it beeped again --back to Default.

NO ERROR IN THE TEST --either way....

And so --with the undervolting and higher tpfancontrol settings, the machine runs *slightly warmer*, (but cooler than default) with less fan speed switching --by far-- than I experienced last night under the original settings.... Definitely smoother - and no errors

Since the same is true if the machine is at idle or low use.... the fans are COMPLETELY OFF or running at Level 1 if it's just sitting there, or with minimal use (i.e. Winamp Visualization turned off --but still two displays)

Quiet, eh?

Most impressive to me was actually witnessing the transition of fan control from "tpfancontrol" to "Thinkpad Default" and back again --with no failure in Prime95's Testing.... nary a "blip" in the torture test..... After seeing that a few times, I trust tpfancontrol to not fry my machine or f*ck up a data transfer.... As usual, YMMV.

IMO, the two together... Very nice!

NOTE:.... As the fan shifts states, there is still the rythmic "whir-up" sound increase people have been complaining about... It goes from "0" to "1" and back..... totally off 5 secs, on .5, off 5.... like that, But the volume is such that if I have anything on the speakers, I can't really notice it

So, I dunno about the "whir-up" issue.....When the fan is off, I also hear "tick" sounds... maybe sensors?, or Drive noise?

I know Wth these particular settings and tpfancontrol the "whir-up" seems to (1) occur with most speed shifts; and (2) most often when there is almost no load on the sytem other than itself and running two idle displays (I haven't trimed the system down yet)

Once I put a mid size load on the system (like "start working"... or run the WinAmp Visualization I've been using, it warms up a bit and shifts gears. Then the fan settles into one speed..... If I do more, it gets warmer and jumps a notch... and then sits there.....

It has to get really Hot before I hear a lot of fan noise and speed switching --a mid range CPU/OS load & the fan sounds pretty constant; appears to be stable and is half the volume of the Default controller at idle

Many Thanks to Needledick for pulling together his undervolt tutorial, Shimodax for creating tpfancontrol, and to Jmmmmm for turning me onto it.