T43p excessively hot

[AniDanny]

I was recently having troubles with my desktop computer overheating. It was up near 190F in the CPU and video card. I found out the heatsink wasn't properly attached (my own fault), and used rivatuner to get more out of the fan, now it never goes above 110F. I then thought to use HDMonitor on my laptop, since it tends to run hot, and it lists ACPI (I'm assuming the video card?) at 185F, when the computer's not even doing anything intensive.

Unfortunately, rivatuner doesn't seem to offer much here, as it doesn't seem to detect the fan. Is there anything else that can be done to reduce the temperature of my laptop? Or is it normal for these models to be that hot?

[aaa]

Use tpfancontrol to see temps and control fans. Yes, 85c (185f) is unusual.

[AniDanny]

I downloaded it... but I don't understand how to use it. As far as I can tell it only monitors the temperature (which has been ranging from 80C-90C). I read the Read Me and it didn't help much.

[Johan]

@ AniDanny:

With respect to getting your T43p less hot, you should (/could!) install the free "Notebook Hardware Control" program (NHC) - see the thread GUIDE: How to max out your battery life.

NHC is a very advanced ”tweaking” program which will, amongst other things, allow users to decrease the CPU voltage and decrease the GPU clock frequency. By decreasing the CPU voltage you however don't loose anything (except the high power consumption/dissipation/hot ThinkPad, high fan noise and the short battery time!); what you do is rather adjust your particular, "personal" CPU to the minimum voltage setting which is sufficient for stable performance - in stead of continue using the default and a bit too high CPU voltage that Intel has specified to make sure that all CPU's manufactured will run OK with (the thing is simply, that most CPU's will actually run exactly as well with slightly lower voltages - and that's your job, using NHC, to find out how low you can go!). As for the GPU speed (clock frequency), then this is by default set relatively high, enabling e.g. games or very graphic-intensive programs to run without problems. However, for many less-demanding graphical applications - such as browsing, writing etc. - there is really no need at all to run the GPU at its maximum clock-frequency; browsing and mailing etc. will run equally well at far lower speeds. Hence, by reducing the CPU voltage to the lowest, stable limit, and moreover reducing the GPU frequency to some lower, sufficient value, a double advantage is gained: a) Lower power consumption hence longer battery time and b) Less heat generated, resulting in the fan being triggered less often to go ”on”, because the laptop is being far colder! The result on e.g. my T42p’s is that under normal use the fan will only come ”on” for less than 50 % of the time (while being used in a typical indoor environment, around 20 C ambient). When the fan is ”on” it will run at the lowest speed, which is audible, but certainly not in any way disturbing or annoying (and note that I am very picky with e.g. fan noise!).

You may also find valuable information about NHC in thread NHC 2 is out!!. The homepage for NHC will also help you configure safely. The program "Orthos" mentioned in the battrry-maximizer thread can be downloaded from the Stress prime homepage. In the sticky Managing Pentium-M Speed/Voltage with software you will find many, many users experience with respect to lowest, stable CPU voltage for various CPU’s. Further info in the thread New Centrino Software to reduce fan noise and heat.

Yet an additional feature of NHC is its ability to control the fan – this is e.g. discussed in in the thread Enable fine-grained fan control with NHC on Thinkpads.

By a first glance "all the above" may perhaps look a bit complicated - but it actually isn't. Even if you perhaps feel that you are "not a computer expert" and that "this is far too complicated for you", then... don't think like that! Read the threads pointed to, and then follow the guidelines - and you will be happy with the result!

Johan

[aaa]

NHC might help a little, but this sounds like a hardware problem for it to get this hot when idle (if you've confirmed that the computer is really not doing anything). I would check the fan again, make sure it spins, doesn't have dust, that the heatsink has good contact and is using thermal paste, etc. BTW, which temperature was it that was going that high?

[Johan]

... to get a good impression of how cold a T43p fan can become, see the thread T43 fan noise... really that bad? - quite impressive, for a T43p!

Johan

[AniDanny]

*Presses the Easy Button* Well that was easy!

So, by the instructions in that thread, I set my power settings back to the thinkpad default, and set the fan speed to be always at 7. In about 15 minutes the temperature dropped from 82C to 57C. I've now set it back to automatic fan control to see what temperature it ends up at. If it gets too hot, I'll just leave the fan on full-blast all the time (because the noise REALLY doesn't bother me). Or maybe less-than-full-blast but still enough to keep the temperature low. Would it be bad for my laptop to have the fan at full-speed all the time?

[sjthinkpader]

Every year or so, you should remove the fan and clean it out. That usually fix high temp problem at idle.

[Tim M]

I would agree with the others that the temperatures experienced by the OP are most likely a hardware issue (poorly attached or failing fan, I suspect). In that case, using NHC would simply be a band-aid that does not address the root problem. I would recommend opening up the TP to ensure that all is well with the fan and heat sink.

My T42 (now truly a T42p given all the mods I've done ) had a similar issue with GPU overheating which was due to a sloppy job of heat sink removal on my part. After addressing that issue, my idle temps (with NHC undervolting the CPU and the GPU speed unchanged) are in the upper 40C range.