Comment 7 for bug 380303

Well apparently on Vista ( i don't have vista so can't test this ) with the thinkpad drivers the fan doesn't spin up unless the machine gets hot enough. Henrique doesn't really like userspace fan controls from what I understand, however they are useful for testing.

I have confirmed that at least on a new Linux kernel you can pretty much go about your business without the fan on at all (at low work loads) for about half and hour before the system heats up to around 40-42 degrees c. After which if you turn on the fan at around 1739 (level 1) it can pretty much cool the system back to 33-35 degrees in a few minutes.

When automatically controlled the fan never seems to drop back from 3371 after it has kicked in initially. I can only imagine that running the fan at this pace leads to reduced battery life.