Best Temperature Monitoring Tool

[DaElderGeek]

With my old T60p I had serious HDD and CPU heat issues until I started using an Antec USB dual fan laptop cooler with it. When I upgraded to a T61p, a docking station came with it. It runs much hotter with the docking station but TP Fan Control seems to keep the cpu and gpu temps around 60c at idle. The problem is the HDD's run much hotter. The main is a Seagate 750GB 7200 rpm and, according to Acronis Drive Monitor, runs about 44C at idle. The HDD in the ultrabay is a Hitachi 500GB 7200rpm which runs about 42C at idle. The shutdown temp is 52C and I must have reached that temp today moving data files of the main in order to keep data separate from software. It went straight to shutdown with no warning. I'm using both TP Fancontrol and SpeedFan to keep a watch on things. They usually show pretty close readings for most things except the gpu. As I write this note, TPF 6.2 shows the GPU at 61C while Speedfan shows the gpu running at 71C. As near as I can tell TPFC doesn't track HDD temps but SpeedFan and Acronis show the same readings for the HDD's. Anybody have experience with these tools? Which one should I believe; TPFC which shows the GPU at 60c or SpeedFan which shows it running at 70C?

[DaElderGeek]

I did some more poking around and found a recommendation for HWMonitor (http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonito ... story.html) which agrees with SpeedFan. It says my Nvidia is running at 70C +/-. I'm betting that's not good I just applied a little Arctic silver to it yesterday. Should I bite the bullet and get a new heatsink/fan assembly? The current one seems to be fine and TPFC says it's cranking at 3300 RPM +/-.

Any thoughts would be

[DaElderGeek]

I did some more poking around and found where TuuS had sort of answered my question on the Lenovo forums.( http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-pri ... d-p/675077 ). I'm now reasonably sure what I need to do.

[Dos3.1]

I'm using TP Fancontrol on a T60 and it's showing the GPU at 83C constantly. The fan is actually slowing down at times (like if I pick the unit up to get air flow under it), but the GPU stays at 83C. Any idea what is going on, or how to fix it? Thanks.

Added: just let the system cool and restarted. Off the hop, here are the readings:

CPU 42°C (0x78)
APS 31°C (0x79)
PCM 34°C (0x7a)
GPU 80°C (0x7b)
BUS 40°C (0xc0)
PCI 43°C (0xc1)
PWR 40°C (0xc2)

Fan: 3774 RPM

i'm thinking maybe the GPU sensor is bad, or the TP Fancontrol is not working right on this T60...for the temp on the GPU to get so high so fast. Maybe I need to open the unit up and see if needs a clean and new thermal paste.

I'll also get some other temp software and check the readings.

[Cigarguy]

HWMonitor is indeed an overclocker's favourite. A very useful tool. A T61p with 570M will run hot. How and why it is hot is dependent on a lot of variables. Further googling and reading would be your best bet at this stage.

[theterminator93]

Something's not right for sure; my T61p with a T9500 and the 570m idles at ~45 CPU and ~50 GPU. If your GPU is indeed that hot (you'll know by the base of the laptop near the FCC ID sticker being hot), I'd start by removing the heatsink/fan, cleaning them both well, checking for physical damage and reinstalling them carefully to ensure proper contact with the CPU and GPU's die. If it's not hot, the GPU might have a bad sensor or be showing signs of the dreaded defect (if it's an affected chip).

FWIW, my fan settings are as follows:
Level=45 0
Level=50 1
Level=55 3
Level=60 7
Level=65 64

I've also got a sensor offset of -12 for the GPU sensor; it was reading too low otherwise.

[Dos3.1]

Yes, the unit does get hot quickly, on the underside, and the right palm rest...so, there is something going on. I will take it apart and have a look, thanks for the tips.