Thinkpads Forum

My 42W7874 nVidia board in my 15" Frankenpad failed due to the GPU failing a few weeks ago. I had no choice but to revert to the original parts out of my T60p. This thing is such a POS! It is POWERFULLY slow and runs so hot compared to my T61p parts that failed. I just can't take it anymore. I'm afraid of the nVidia boards that will fit my 4:3 machine for obvious reasons and am worried that the Intel boards aren't as fast.

I was just gmail video chatting with my wife with the fan set to max on TPFanControl and it locked up. I had to force shut it down and upon reboot the GPU and CPU temps were over 100 degree's. They had to be hotter than that when it locked up. The only process that it was running was the video chat, this machine is simply too hold and inefficient to handle this one task. I want a fast Thinkpad back, but reliable! If it was like it was with the 42W7874 board I would probably keep this machine for a few more years at least.

I'm sitting on the fence of selling this UXGA+ IPS machine (possibly with a spare perfect new screen) and getting a machine with good hardware (like a Macbook Air/Pro) or putting another decent board back in this thing. I know I'll get cussed out for mentioning Mac around here but let's face it, the best Thinkpads have already been built and are on there way to being obsolete. These T60 and prior machines seem to be far superior except for newer processors and such.

I'm honestly surprised that a T60p board (what CPU is on it, BTW) would misbehave in such a manner...

Not knowing the specifics, I'd tend to believe that you might be facing a software rather than a hardware problem.

What OS are you running? Presuming it's Windows of some kind, how many processes are running on a freshly booted machine?

Put the T61 fan on it, and make sure to replace/apply fresh Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.
You DID apply paste when you put the old board back in, did you?

Hey guy's. Yes I used AC5 paste when reassembling the machine. The machine is currently running a factory install of XP. It just really doesn't seem to like the video chat. It took several minutes for it to crash but the temps just kept going up and up. The heatsink corner of the machine was too hot to touch to the issue seems to be removing the heat from the heatsink rather than from the chips. The fan blows a noticeable amount of hot air out the side but I guess it's just not enough.

What CPU is in that T60p?
T2xxx runs relatively cool, but is only Core Duo.
T5xxx at the same speed runs cooler than its counterpart T2xxx, and is already Core 2 Duo.
T7xxx runs hotter than T2xxx to very hot (T7600), is also Core 2 Duo.
Either CPU, combined with a T61p heatsink, should run cooler than with the T60p heatsink.

Hello,

I just put a T61 fan from Tuus into my T60p. I am running W7 64 bit, GPU idles at 62-64C, temps while running video are at about 65-68C, CPU runs in the 50's. Running TPFC, which keeps the fan at about 2900 rpm. The fan is pretty much on all the time at this low speed. With the original fan while running video temps would be 74-78C.

When installing the T61p fan it does take a bit of fiddling to get good contact with the GPU.

Bruce

This one has the T2600. It's idling around 48 on the CPU and 66 on the GPU just surfing the web. If I video chat for a little while the temps go up and up. I still have all the T61p parts except for the board, the GPU is toast.

I'd definitely change the fan and look into upgrading to a T7200...which will help the machine run both cooler and snappier...

And try Skype instead of Gmail's video chat.

I've got the T9*** from the T61p board and I'm wandering if I should just invest in a new board of some sort to re-Frankenpad this thing or just upgrade what is already here.