T60p freezing with videos

[Patrik28]

Hello,

I have a T60p (2613-cto) machine with an Intel T7600 & FireGL v5250 combination and with 15" screen. It was bought as a used one about one year ago.

From the beginning, I have had problems with videos, specially with the online live streams. The T60p plays the videos about 10 minutes, then the screen turns complete black for a few seconds and the machine reboots.

There has not been any similar issues with cad-modelling or other tasks, which can be equally stressing. The problem seems to be with the videos only.

I am not sure if the problem is with overheating. Normally the temperatures have been around 60 / 80 deg (CPU / GPU). But to ensure, I have tried to switch the original cooling fan to a brand new T61p model (which fitted perfectly). However the lowest temperature readings can be achieved, when the keyboards is removed for better airflow. At least it will help to reduce the fan noise.

If the temperatue is not the problem, could this mean a failure with GPU? Is it common, that FireGL V5250 dies?
Does anyone have had similar freezing problems with T60p and videos?

[RealBlackStuff]

It has happened several times that the VRAM in a V5200/V5250 gets corrupted.
Usually this manifests itself through distorted colors or stripes.
If your machine's display does not distort, then most likely it is overheating.
The GPU is cooled via a thermal pad. Replace this with a polished piece of copper (shim), with a good thermal paste (like AS5) on both sides of the shim.
The T61p fan should also help, but you may need to bend it ever so slightly so that the cooling surface fits flush on the GPU.

[TuuS]

I agree with RBS, the grey pad used to cool the gpu on these models does a horrible job.

This part is just personal preferrence, but I don't like to use copper shims, that only doubles the gap the heat has to traverse, instead I make sure I have a good direct contact between heatsink and the gpu die and use Artic Silver #5. This usually solves the overheating problem, but the T61p heatsink is an even better idea. It will require grinding a small notch in your retainer clip so it fits over the larger heatsink, but this is very easy to do...

modified t60 heatsink clip


The first step I'd take would be to install thinkpad fan control (tpfancontrol.com) and watch the gpu temp when this happens, it should be obvious if it's a thermal shutdown.

Also, be very careful about bending to seat the heatsink better, it's really easy to make it worse so proceed with caution.

ps. I have a T61p heatsink if you need one, although international shipping might be cost prohibitive.

[Patrik28]

I can't remember that there was a thermal pad under T61p heatsink's GPU area, only some paste. The pad was only for the chipset.

One or two things about the T61p heatsink: it will fit, but it is higher than the original, mesured from the GPU/Chipset area. Even when I milled the block near to the heatpipe level, it was about 5 mm high (T60p heatsink was 3,5 mm). I'm not sure if the heatsink still interferences with the keyboard and is it harmful.
Pic_01 Pic_02

The second thing is that the heatsink's chipset area is bent a little lower on T61p version, where T60p one is flat. Maybe this has a negative cooling effect and a shim would be good for GPU (with T61p heatsink).

Can someone remember which shim height is correct between GPU?

By the way, which palmrest-models (FRU: ) can be fitted to the 15" 4:3 model T60p? I accidentally cracked my old one, no matter how gentle I tried to be. Those palmrest seems to be quite hard to find and can be mixed to widescreen models easily.

[Patrik28]

Actually, it went worse with the copper shim, than without it. I installed 0.4 mm shim between GPU, and now its temperature jumps up to 70 degrees in idle. The temperature was around 60 degrees without the shim.

I have a "Thinkpad T60 Fan Control V0.19svc" program to monitor temperatures, and use it manually full speed.

Edit. I tried to record the GPU temperature, when the notebook freezes, and it was around 75 deg.

Thank heaven, I still have my old T42p. When watching the same videos, it plays them steady and then fan barely spins (with undervolted M755).
I was even planning to buy an SSD to the T60p, but when this problem continues, the SSD would be a waste of money.

[ajkula66]

Time to look into building a FrankenPad, maybe...

I've owned more T60/p units than I dare count and to this day haven't really figured out why some of them ran ridiculously hot while the others remained tolerable...

That being said, 75 C is really not that high, I've gone way past that many a times with no freezing to report, so I'd tend to believe that there's something wrong on the hardware level of your setup, be it an ailing graphics card or whatever else...

Good luck.

[Patrik28]

Time to look into building a FrankenPad, maybe...

I have planned that too. But T61p system boards are in high prices, considering that they are old. When the old T7600 cannot be used with T61p board, a new CPU must be bought too, how much it will cost, $500? And with the nVidia chipset, T61 system boards tends to fail too.

Maybe the best option is to try swap the system board to a similar one.
Therefore I have few questions:
- Is there difference between FireGL v5200 vs v5250? Is the first a little cooler, because it is few % slower?
- Are all T60p motherboards same size (14", 15", 4:3 and widescreens)

There must be something broken with the GPU chip. It freezes every time, after reaching to 75 deg, despite that there are no graphical errors. I have my doubts, if that was the reason why the original owner had returned the notebook and it was sold as a refurbished condition.

[ajkula66]

Well...

If you were to switch to a T61 board, you could sell your T7600 for a nice amount of money and get a T9500...

Widescreen boards will not fit, while the ones between 14" and 15" standard models are interchangeable.

As for the V5200 it runs as hot as V5250, you'll gain nothing there when it comes to temperatures.

Good luck.

[TuuS]

When switching to a T61 you can actually get a similar cpu even cheaper. For example, a T7600 in a T60 would compare in performance to a T7500 in a T61, or a T7700 would provide better performance and both chips are cheaper then the T7600, in fact I could get both the T7500 and T7700 for the cost of a T7600. The T61 with Intel graphics is one of the most reliable boards ever made and although there were never any 4:3 systems originally manufactured with the updated nVidia gpu, I do have a few brand new NOS replacement boards with GPU chips dated 2010, long after the problems were resolved. These are ideal for building a frankenpad if you want powerful graphics. You can do the conversion on a budget and have better performance assuming you resist the urge to get the fastest possible cpu option.

[Patrik28]

Thanks, but T7600 is actually fine for my notebook, I'll do more demanding works with a desktop workstation. And staying below 3GB memory limit is fine too.
I have even done some works with T42p (P-M 755) and Inventor 2011, however sometimes with the complex assemblies, the graphics will mess up. The hardware is probably at its limits.

With the T60p, I'm still thinking about the original replacement board. It is the most economical way. After all, T60/T61 are getting old, and have to be replaced at some day. For example at work we changed from T61 to W530 notebooks, and it was not painfull at all. Maybe the most negative thing was the large brick-charger.

[TuuS]

If you want a T60p board I have a few available. One that just came in might interest you, it's was a new replacement board that was installed by lenovo warranty and bears the updated fru 44C3981. The discrete graphic boards, x1300, x1400, v5200 and v5250 range from $40 to $89 plus shipping.

[aothunterpl]

with me were also reported problems (also with an open GL)

She helped change the graphics driver for Radeon Omega drivers.

I have to look for the version I recently restored the system and I have 3.8 but do not work well and the computer freezes on video.

[Medessec]

I was going to mention... if CAD and other graphics-intensive stuff doesn't seem to phase your T60p, but some measly videos on YouTube and livestreams do, you may want to look into updating your ATI driver for your OS, updating Adobe Flash, Shockwave, updating your Browser, and Java. Failing that, update Windows and possibly consider reinstalling Windows altogether.

I haven't had these problems with my T60ps, but I run Windows 7 and I keep a pretty clean install. However, I've had countless similar reports from my friends with their laptops, my friend had a similar problem with his HP DV7(which btw, also runs ATI graphics) and updating Adobe Flash fixed the problem. The correlation seems to be 64-bit Windows 7 drivers with ATI graphics cards.

[aothunterpl]

I try to have everything up to date on my Win XP

I do not exclude that he has got a sh .... t I'll have to go back again a rescore the system + drivers

[FryPpy]

1. You can try older drivers from Lenovo web site.
- Locate your thinkpad drivers and copy URL (address) of recommended driver (now it is <http : //download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/79d179ww.exe>)
- open readme for this driver and find "VERSION INFORMATION" section.
- download older drivers that can be downloaded (not all hosted on lenovo site) using URL with replaced driver name part
(for example 2nd release => 79D122WW => <http : //download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/79d122ww.exe>).
- Methodically probe all downloaded drivers. Uninstall installed driver -> reboot -> install other -> reboot -> test it with flash | games | CAD.

2. If no one can survive;)
Setup windows graphics acceleration level. I haven't EN windows XP, so i can't write correct names of menu items and dialog elements.
Right click on the windows desktop -> use bottommost item ?Properties or Options?.
In a dialog ?Screen properties? use rightmost tab (on top of dialog) ?Options?.
Use rightmost button (under colors combobox) ?Additional?.
In a second dialog ?Properties? use rightmost tab (in a second row) ?Diagnostics?
Locate ?Hardware acceleration? slider and pull it to the left (one tick in a time). + Apply + Ok + Apply + Ok.
-> Methodically probe all hardware acceleration levels: set -> reboot -> test it with flash | games | CAD.

3. Write there report about your achivements.

[aothunterpl]

Thanks for your help obad case and I know what and how.


Somewhere, sometime I had some good omega drivers but I lost it somewhere.

Regards

[Patrik28]

In case of somebody is wondering, how I solved my problem, the failure was on the motherboard.

I tried nearly everything possible on the software side: many different drivers, even Omega, WinXP reinstall...
Then finally I bought an used motherboard from user lab and haven't had any video-problems since the switch. Even the GPU temperature is slightly lower with the same fan.

One problem solved, another ahead. Now the main battery is going to dead end and I should open wallet for a new battery.
But thanks to lab, my T60p is back in use.