T40 Power Issues - USB or heat related?

Message

mstanisz · #1 Post by **mstanisz** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 1:38 pm

Hi,

I just purchased a T40 off of Craigslist. It was in great shape and the owner said he never had any issues with it. The only thing he mentioned when I picked it up was that the upper USB port is broken. The plastic piece inside it cracked and is missing. He plugged in a device that morning and said it immediately shut down. I figured that was from the short-circuit protection and that it still was a decent laptop.

It worked great all day until it was installing a few programs and it shut off suddenly. It looked like a heat issue, but I also remembered what he said about the USB port, so I tried plugging in a device next time it turned on and that also caused it to shut down. I disabled USB in the BIOS to be safe.

Next, it would only boot to the Windows XP logo and then shut off as it was logging in. Now, I can't even get it to start safe mode or normal mode without shutting off immediately. However, if I leave the laptop paused in the BIOS setup, it runs fine.

I ran prime95 on it to stress the CPU, and it shut down after a few runs. That looks more like heat.

I've searched the forums and seen several posts about the fans and GPUs. I really don't think it's GPU related and I took the fan out and looked at it and it appears to be running fine.

I'm not sure if there's a short circuit somewhere, a capacitor on the board is fried, or it's overheating. My first impression was that when windows booted, anything that loaded related to ACPI shut it down. Now, however, it seems to be an overheat issue.

Any input would be great, I'm not too sure I'll be able to get the guy to take it back.

Thanks!

Matt

madkat · #2 Post by **madkat** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 5:14 pm

apply fresh thermal paste between the cpu and heatsink
maybe it's just that...

mstanisz · #3 Post by **mstanisz** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 6:08 pm

I will go ahead and grab some paste. I tried it again after several hours, and it booted almost all the way into safe mode. Next time, not as far. It certainly appears to be heat-related.

As for the fan, it spins up initially then turns off. I imagine there's a sensor controlling it. Could something have happened to that sensor? Maybe I need to wire the fan so it's always on? I'm considering a new fan as well...

Matt

mstanisz · #4 Post by **mstanisz** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:48 pm

Well, I cleaned off the CPU and put on some new paste. The laptop booted into safe mode and stayed on for 10 minutes straight! Unfortunately, the moment I opened an application and CPU load increased a little, the thing immediately shut off!

I've bought a fan/heatsink replacement to make sure that's not the issue.

Still wondering if it could be something else...

zdriver · #5 Post by **zdriver** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 1:03 am

Download and run mobilemeter to get a fix on what the cpu temp is doing. Its a small program, will also tell you the current cpu clock speed and more. Normal idle temp should be about 40 c.
If the cpu is set for adaptive, it shoud idle at 600mhz.
Take a look in that bad usb port and make sure none of the damaged pins are shorted together or bent.

zdriver · #6 Post by **zdriver** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 1:05 am

Download and run mobilemeter to get a fix on what the cpu temp is doing. Its a small program, will also tell you the current cpu clock speed and more. Normal idle temp should be about 40 c.
If the cpu is set for adaptive, it shoud idle at 600mhz.
Take a look in that bad usb port and make sure none of the damaged pins are shorted together or bent.

mstanisz · #7 Post by **mstanisz** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:52 am

Thanks zdriver for the suggestion. I tried starting into XP normally this morning, after the laptop sat in my cold room all night, and it immediately shut off when it booted into windows. However, I'm now in safe mode again and it's fine. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with ACPI or other sensors that may be broken.

I wasn't able to run the program since ACPI isn't on in safe mode. However, the fact that it shut off so suddenly when I just started it cold, and now I'm in safe mode and it's just fine, makes it look like it's not heat that's doing it.

mstanisz · #8 Post by **mstanisz** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 10:15 am

I found this forum post, which sounds very similar:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=70370

I ran PC Doctor, and all the ACPI thermal sensor tests passed. Unfortunately, I don't have another T40 laying around to swap a board out with, so I'm wondering if there's something else I could do.

Matt

madkat · #9 Post by **madkat** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:55 am

does it run "normal" without shutting down when not plugged in?
did you install mobmeter? what frequency your cpu is running at?

bad GPU can run well on battery ant cause shutdowns on AC because of the ATI powerplay, that reduces frequency and thus heat of and emmited by the gpu...

hope its not your case...

zdriver · #10 Post by **zdriver** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:25 pm

What programs were you installing when the thinkpad first developed the problem? You said it was fine until you did this.
Sounding more and more like a software problem, runs in safe mode, shuts down in protected mode. Possibly even a virus.
Boot up on something else, such as a live linux cd and see if things run normally and stable.

mstanisz · #11 Post by **mstanisz** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 3:57 pm

madkat wrote: does it run "normal" without shutting down when not plugged in?
did you install mobmeter? what frequency your cpu is running at?

Nope, same thing with and without the AC adapter plugged in. I wasn't able to get a frequency reading since it only will run in Safe Mode, and ACPI isn't enabled then.

zdriver wrote: What programs were you installing when the thinkpad first developed the problem? You said it was fine until you did this.
Sounding more and more like a software problem, runs in safe mode, shuts down in protected mode. Possibly even a virus.
Boot up on something else, such as a live linux cd and see if things run normally and stable.

To be exact, I was installing Microsoft Office when it shut off. It was after about 30 minutes of uptime, installing all the Thinkpad/Lenovo Software Updates and some minor programs, such as Flash.

I booted up with a Knoppix CD, same thing. It begins extracting the .bin file to boot the kernel, and it shuts off. As another test, I booted the linux CD with the "noapic acpi=off" options, and it still shut right down at the same spot.

mstanisz · #12 Post by **mstanisz** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 9:51 pm

Just thought I'd post a quick question. I was going to give this to my parents for Christmas, but I can see I've caused myself more trouble than it might be worth. Do you guys think I need a new board/CPU? I'm debating whether to sell the notebook for parts/repair or see whether it is possible and reasonably cheap to fix. What do you think?

T40 Power Issues - USB or heat related?

T40 Power Issues - USB or heat related?

Who is online