Noiseless Notebook - a HowTo. I have quite a long time looking for a way to work with a completely silent computer. Since I believe that my now succeeded after several efforts, I wanted to create a manual.
WARNING: I take no responsibility for this guide. Everything is at your own risk! You should perform the steps only if you can understand how and why you changed something. Read the instructions through to the end before you begin with the individual steps.
Who is the target group?
To all who want to work silently. The emphasis here is on work, ie: word processing, Internet, a little music. And silent in the sense of really silent - that is, no background noise (no hard drive or fan). Note: I am here from a room temperature of around 20 ° C. Those who live in southern climes, and has around 30 degrees at home, is now and ever hear the fan. There are also differences between various Thinkpads and different users - mostly I'm typing in Word and on web sites recherschiere - in this case, the notebook is silent.
effort
advanced computer skills - and as appropriate: a few hours or days.
conditions
- ThinkPad T Series (in my case: T41-2374)
- Solid-State Drive (in my case: Transcend 32GB TS32GSSD25-M)
Why Solid-State Drive?
Solid-state disks are nothing but memory cards are used as a separate hard disk.
benefits : Windows XP boots in about 15s - and even after half a year. The access times are extremely short, so most applications are available now. The whole thing is completely silent and vibration-resistant.
disadvantage e: Price (32GB € 85, whereby the prices fall in the near future, massive), and thus of limited space. Furthermore, limited number of read and write cycles. Both fall for us is not significant because we are working and do not constantly move movies from one to the other partition. Below you will find also some hints how the life of an SSD can be extended considerably.
I bought for this purpose, a Transcend 32 GB IDE SSD - and I'm happy with it. Attention: Now enter the new one because it significantly faster than the old one. You recognize them by a sticker on the back in the upper right corner large "JMICRON" position.
Why Thinpad
The Thinkpads me, compared to many other notebooks (Sony, HP, Dell), convinced most. Lightweight and robust, the quality is excellent and thanks to the wide distribution, there are mountains of manuals and software. The frame is made of metal and supposedly you can put on it on as a ThinkPad without breaking. (There is a dependency to the weight of the owner). Furthermore, the Thinkpads are modular, so that keyboard, disk drives, memory cards and can be replaced easily and quickly. For example. a second hard drive instead of DVD drive can be installed werden.Mit maximum battery connections (and 12-cell Ultra-Bay) to get loose to 12h battery life. Is also very nice, that can completely control the fan via software behavior of the Thinkpads (see below).
a used T41 costs 250 - 300 € and generally offer more than a comparable notebook current class of 600 € (remember: it's working here ums). Best inspect the unit before or take one of the refurbished equipment from a dealer. Two more tips: The model SXGA (1400x1050) has a very good display. anything you can share - in general, make sure that the screen is not scratched.
alternatives :
- new ThinkPad with SSD (note here that Intel onboard graphics and ATI is built, as the latter have a much greater heat generation)
- Panasonic Rough Books there is no fan / with SSD
- some netbooks are fanless (eg Dell)
- older PowerBooks with PowerPC processors are very, very quiet.
first Thinkpad prepare:
First of all, the (used) Thinpad be cleaned thoroughly inside and out. Remove This carefully the keyboard (screws for the keyboard [with symbol marks] loose on the bottom case, slide keyboard on the power button to the back and lift slightly; necessarily before removing the flat keyboard cable on the back gently pull out). All slots with a vacuum cleaner. Dust reduces the heat - that's why we suck it away.
Next we install on the old (non-SSD) hard drive a fresh Windows XP, and then optimize it to the SSD. Note that Windows XP is installed on a separate partition so that we an image like this can create. This is then copied to the SSD
- Windows XP on formatted partition and install SP3
- modified install ATI driver instead of the original drivers (PowerPlay is activated in the network operation - this reduces the heat generated by the graphics chips (less cooling necessary) and saves electricity). Download : http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/ ~ schmitzr / ATIPOWPL.zip
- ThinPad Update BIOS and embedded controller update from the Lenovo page import
- all other IBM. Lenovo install driver and tools (especially power management and power-MaxiMiser)
- put all setting to "Power Save" lowest consumption or longest battery life (even in BIOS)
second Windows XP adapt to SSD.
The following is intended to avoid unnecessary writes to the SSD minimized. Turning off the service led me neither instability nor to power loss (in opposite part!). I recommend a RAM or greater 1 GB.
- off Indexing Service (Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Services: Disable Indexing Service, and look out)
- disable virtual memory (Control Panel> System> Advanced> Performance> Advanced disable> virtual memory to "no paging file")
- Time Stamp: Each file access is a day of the last write access show. This is not necessary, so you can switch off, which prolongs the SSD life. typing as a command line (Start> Run> CMD): (or alternatively google for a registry string)
fsutil Disablelastaccess behavior set a
- disable System Restore: Saves space and reduces file access. As we create our own image, we do not need it (you can generally do without it): Turn off Computer> Properties> System Restore> on all drives
- prefetch disable . Prefetch defragments the hard disk in the background. This is counter-productive when a SSD and can disable it. This call regedit and edit the following entry as a DWORD or add and set to "0":
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SOFTWARE \\ Microsoft \\ Windows \\ CurrentVersion \\ optimal layout]; EnableAutoLayout
- Optionally, you can still use a RAM disk. Thus, a portion of RAM used as a hard disk. The purpose of the whole, it is the cache of Windows will no longer be stored on the hard disk but in memory. The installation files are, for example, or the Firefox cache. The RAM disk speeds up surfing the web and prevents unnecessary writes to the SSD.
has proven useful for this use a free program called Gavotte Ramdisk. Details see: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/27/free-ramdisk-for-windows-vista-xp-2000-and-2003-server/
I recommend the use of a 64 - 128MB large disc after the ramdisk is set up, , the folder for the cache to be changed: Control Panel> System> Environment Variables - here are the directories for TEMP and TMP in the upper and lower windows (total of 4 entries) adapt to the ramdisk. Furthermore, you can still install flash fire which the SSD provides a write cache and makes them a bit faster - not with me hats worked. (Recent SSDs have submitted a cache, so you will not need this tool.)
third CPU undervolt
This step reduces the voltage of the host CPU. This is the power consumption and especially the heat - compared reduced most effectively - to other measures.
- RMClock download ( http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml ) install and run it.
- "turn
- under" under "Settings" "Run at Windows Startup Profiles" is the "CPU performance state editor. Here the right voltage for each multiplier is registered. The jöher the load on the CPU, the higher it selects the respective work of State for themselves. Our task now is to find the lowest possible value with which the system is stable. For this purpose, eg on the VID at 6.0x is set to 0.7640V and 1.3080V VID on at 17x. The values in between the program automatically adds.
- apply to the States, you go to Profiles> Performance on demand, enabled P-state transitions "and click on all PSTs (0,1,2 ...). Then back on profile and change in profile selection all four posts of "Performance on Demand". Click "Apply".
- Now you have to check whether your system is stable. It does that, then you can reduce the tensions, it does not, then you have to increase it further. With me, which worked wonderfully above values.
- RMClock has always run along in the background so that the CPU remains cool.
4. Create image of partition
this you need a program a la Acronis True Image, etc. that can be started from CD and create an image of your partition. This is the backup that can be recorded at any time again and brings back your system to its initial state. Quite useful, it is therefore a partition with Windows to have that can be restored at any time and another partition with your data - this is not changed by the restore.
- image of the Windows partition and create copy on a USB stick
5th SSD aligner correctly
OK - this is certainly the most difficult and dangerous but also the most important step. The good news: Have you done it once, you need him never to repeat - not even after a format. The problem is that Windows XP with SSDs can not handle and it is partitioned like a normal hard disk. This reduces the one hand the life of the SSD on the other, their speed. To prevent this, one has to partition the hard drive manually. For this you need
BartPE and Windows XP CD. Addiction to you an explanation on how to create a BartPE Windows Live CD, and adds that the program under BartPE CD
diskpar . BartPE now generates an image that you burn to CD.
- the SSD must be fresh, meaning it can look out there are no partitions. If this is not so - delete all partitions!
- old hard drive to expand and SSD to the Thinkpad installed (this is a screw in the lower edge of the housing (right - to solve below), and two more on the drive cage)
- BartPE boot from CD
- the "BartPE" menu " CMD "option. Now you must go into the command line in the directory by itself is diskpar
- diskpar-s 1 run once Y, press Enter. N REPORT Enter again or Y or anything else press
- Diskpar you now displays information about the disc No. 1. If you press on Y and Enter, then continues the program and erase everything on the disc to create a new partition. Diskpart shows under "Disk Size" the size of the disc. If the displayed size of your disk, then some more. Do you have another hard drive in the notebook and the size is not equal to the SSD, then you have confused the disc and proceed You must not under any circumstances - your data on another hard disk will be lost otherwise! To cancel, press Ctrl + C. Try instead diskpar-s 0 from - or a different number
- are you sure everything is correct, then press Y and Enter
- will it be requested: "Please specify starting offset:" Carry this 64 is a (applies to above Transcend SSD), then Enter
- even then: " Please specify partition length. Here you give the size of your Windows partition in MB. I was happy with 12000th All other partitions can be created easily with Windows, then press enter.
- Now format yet: Enter In the command line:
- "dir"> enter - down is the free space on the disc this must be about the value that you have previously entered for the size - this is the case, then:
- "format c: / fs: NTFS"> Enter . At the end you get asked for a name for the partition.
6th Windows image to the SSD play
The image is on the USB stick (see above) and is now on the newly created partition, copied to the SSD. This is your still in Step 4 - only that your not generated image, but restored.
7.Check
Should have worked out everything, then you have a totally silent, thanks to the notebook SSD is very fast too. If the fan off and rev up to do, then there are the following programs to help the:
- TPFanControl : stable, everything has to be set in an inf file
- PFControl : stable, everything is set in a GUI be - more options
It is best to have the fan switch from 48-52 ° C. With both programs you can turn off the fan completely. Here, however, be extremely careful! If your CPU on the 80 ° C threshold occurred, then it's good-bye! In general, make sure that the CPU exceed 60 ° C is not permanent, this will reduce the hardware life.
That's it - I am looking forward to your feedback.
