Thinkpads Forum

I have a ThinkPad X200 tablet which feels very hot even when the computer is running at a very low CPU load. I did not hear the usual noise from the fan, and there seems little flow blew out from the fan slot. I suspect the fan is stopping running or is slowing down dramatically. How can I check it, and how can I control the speed of the fan?

I have tried a tpfancontrol program for Windows with no luck... Thanks for your advice.

Regards,
i2000s

Try different hardware monitoring software like HWMonitor or AIDA64.

And for the more important questions:

1. How old is the laptop?
2. Have you ever cleaned its heatsink?

It has been five years old. I cleaned the computer last year or so. The fan starts making noise a few month ago when the CPU load is high and when the computer is leaned in some angle. I feel the air flow is low recently, and am not sure if the fan has totally stopped or the sensor is broken. I tested the temperature yesterday. Here is the screencap:

Any idea? Thanks.

92°C looks very hot for a LV CPU. I have got an x200t too and it hardly goes over 70°C, and this after some time at 100%. Idle temperatures are below 40°C.

I once repaired a X61s fan that made a loud noise and didn't work properply (the x61s was going hotter and hotter until it became unstable and powers off, but the BIOS gave still no "Fan error" message.

I simply dissasembled the whole fan case (in this model it was very easy to do), extracted the little propeller, put a drop of sewing machine oil on the axis, cleaned everything from dust, and reassembled all. Now the fan works properly and silently and the laptop doesn't overheat anymore.

I don't know if the fan in the X200t has got a similar design, but it's worth a try...

Thanks for your response.

After a search, I found the noise of the fan happened before may related to this issue: http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/threads ... ved.22517/
I guess I need to open the case and check the fan first. If it's working still, I may need to follow your instruction and put a paper zip before assembling back. If the fan is broken, then possibly I need to replace the cooling system or just the fan...

I also has an X61T. The fan makes noise after 7-year using. It fails from high for many times. Water splashes on the machines many times. The computer just did not die. Finally the screen crashes due to a hit by a big book from a bookshelf. It displays vivid pictures. It may not worth me to fix it any more. I only use it to do some hardware compiling jobs for Arduino robots. I will sell it some day. ThinkPad rocks.

It has been so hot for a while, but the computer is still working well even maybe without a fan...

it is very strong that when I disassemblied the computer, I found that the fan is running (in Ubuntu). It is just very quiet. The CPUs seem a little hot in Ubuntu so far. What could cause the overheating problem?

The temperature at idle time is tested as below:
this@this:~$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +37.0°C (crit = +127.0°C)
temp2: +43.0°C (crit = +105.0°C)

thinkpad-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1: 3444 RPM
temp1: +37.0°C
temp2: +51.0°C
temp3: N/A
temp4: +38.0°C
temp5: N/A
temp6: N/A
temp7: N/A
temp8: N/A
temp9: +40.0°C
temp10: +45.0°C
temp11: N/A
temp12: N/A
temp13: N/A
temp14: N/A
temp15: N/A
temp16: N/A

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +43.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1: +43.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)



Below is the temperature in Ubuntu when CPU load is around 50%:
this@this:~$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +62.0°C (crit = +127.0°C)
temp2: +65.0°C (crit = +105.0°C)

thinkpad-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1: 3340 RPM
temp1: +62.0°C
temp2: +52.0°C
temp3: N/A
temp4: +55.0°C
temp5: N/A
temp6: N/A
temp7: N/A
temp8: N/A
temp9: +48.0°C
temp10: +48.0°C
temp11: N/A
temp12: N/A
temp13: N/A
temp14: N/A
temp15: N/A
temp16: N/A

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +65.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1: +65.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)


Below is the test result when CPU load is 99% for 3mins:
this@this:~$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +74.0°C (crit = +127.0°C)
temp2: +75.0°C (crit = +105.0°C)

thinkpad-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1: 4027 RPM
temp1: +74.0°C
temp2: +53.0°C
temp3: N/A
temp4: +64.0°C
temp5: N/A
temp6: N/A
temp7: N/A
temp8: N/A
temp9: +52.0°C
temp10: +49.0°C
temp11: N/A
temp12: N/A
temp13: N/A
temp14: N/A
temp15: N/A
temp16: N/A

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +76.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1: +76.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)


Notice that: when testing, the computer case is removed, and there is no harddrive installed.


The test underwindows is shown below:

The TJtemperature is set to be 105 C-degrees.
I hear the grind noise of the fan in windows, but I cannot tell what cause this noise.

Wish you have an idea what the problem is. Thanks.

Have you changed the thermal paste yet?

axur-delmeria wrote:Have you changed the thermal paste yet?

I did not remove the fan this time. But last year, I changed the paste (using the silver5).

A strange thing just happened while I am about to finish the test in linux. The fan suddenly run fast pulsely. Peak rpm is close to 11k when the cpu load is not very high, and the temperature is just around 40 C-degrees. Then it slows down to 6k rpm. Then the fan totally stopped running and the temperature goes up rapidly. Here is the record after the fan stopped:

ubuntu2:~$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +80.0°C (crit = +127.0°C)
temp2: +80.0°C (crit = +105.0°C)

thinkpad-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1: 0 RPM
temp1: +80.0°C
temp2: +57.0°C
temp3: N/A
temp4: +67.0°C
temp5: N/A
temp6: N/A
temp7: N/A
temp8: N/A
temp9: +58.0°C
temp10: +54.0°C
temp11: N/A
temp12: N/A
temp13: N/A
temp14: N/A
temp15: N/A
temp16: N/A

What's the problem? The fan is dead now?

Update:
1. after a restart to Windows, the fan starts running again. I suspect the stop of fan was caused by the CPUBURN tool I was using in ubuntu. I tried to read the speed of fan using OpenHardwareMonitor and FanSpeed two software in windows, but the speed of the fan cannot be shown. I did not find the fan chipset through the software. For normal computers, the fan speed can be shown in these software. Maybe these two pieces of software do not support the thinkpad motherboard.
2. I managed to install the TPFanControl software for windows. But don't know how to correctly set it up. I did not find trusted sample of setting online so far. Hight CPU load will often lead to some grind noise of the fan.
3. I set up the tpfancontrol for ubuntu (learned from the thinkpad wiki). Seems it runs well so far. The fan is not dead at all.

Question: seems the temperature of my x200t is still too high compared to the reported posts in this forum. Should I further check anything to confirm the cause? Any suggestions on making the temperature down for my case?

The most obvious one has been mentioned already: clean up and replace the thermal paste.
Next one is to replace the fan with a known good one.

RealBlackStuff wrote:The most obvious one has been mentioned already: clean up and replace the thermal paste.
Next one is to replace the fan with a known good one.

I think you are right. I would wait until I got a chance to replace the fan unit and the thermal paste at the same time. The sensor seems working fine. I am using the fanspeed control software in the dual systems to adjust the fan speed accordingly. I remember the computer has been relatively hot before and after I changed the thermal paste last year. It may be the time to renew the fan unit. Thanks.