North bridge pad and audio distortions

[Watcity]

Hi guys
This is my first post to the forum and would like to say thanks for all the information here. it's great.

2 munth ago I bought a t60 with gma 945 400mhz a3 revision. from ebay. I have replaced the t2400 to a t7200 added 3gb of ram and installed a ssd. Currently on windows 10.
The system is good and quick for basic tasks.
However they is a problem with video playback, audio artifacts from the get go, followed by freezing and distorted video after an hour or so.
Netflix plays alot better than YouTube. Also this happens on stored media as well as streaming. At first I suspected limitations on the system. But the inevitable freezing after gradually deteriating audio and video artifacts lead my conclude its a hardware issuse. Upon inspection on the north bridge chip. At some point the thermal pad had been cut away and replaced with a ton grease......

Would the lack of contact of the heat assembly be causing this performance issuse? and what was the thickness of the original pad?

Temps are only avaible for the CPU witch is 35-45c idle and 68c under load

Any general optimization tips would be great.

[axur-delmeria]

Would the lack of contact of the heat assembly be causing this performance issuse? and what was the thickness of the original pad?

It's possible. I don't know the exact thickness, but I suppose it's between 0.5 and 0.8mm.

In a pinch, I was able to use thermal pads for MOSFETs like this on the northbridge. It was on an X60, which uses the same chipset (Intel 945GM) as the T60. I also used it on an Atom N270 netbook, which also uses the 945 chipset.

[Watcity]

Ordered some 0.8mm pads online. Will post the results after fitting.

[jdhurst]

Also make sure the Audio driver is for Windows 10 from the Lenovo website. I have a T61p which will not properly run Windows 10.

[Watcity]

I don't belive they did a audio driver for the t60 running windows 10. The audio driver currently is a generic Microsoft one from 2012. The one on lenovo website is a 2007 driver. But I will try that one and test the results.

[micrex22]

Is this an early T60 which has IBM badging and no lenovo badging?
I had an early T60 which exhibited similar behaviours (the system would glitch out and freeze). I couldn't figure out a fix and eventually the board died. This was with XP back in the day.

[Watcity]

its a 1952 version. so 1st half of 2007. i wanted a nostalgic workhorse and not disappointed. however the perfectionist in me has latched onto this annoyance.

update: the 2007 lenovo audio driver has no effect on the stuttering. witch are markedly worst playing anything over 480p streaming.

[jaspen-meyer]

I've seen similar behavior from an R61i after upgrading from a T5250 to a T8100.

Could you give up more detailed information about the ram you put in the machine.
Model number and any other information about the ram would be (perhaps) helpful.

To be clear, we're talking about VIDEO distortion and not audio distortion, correct?

You ought to try running linux, perhaps from a live CD, to confirm it's a hardware issue and not (another) bad windows driver.

[Watcity]

Will try Ubuntu this week. The problem is mainly audio and not ram related, as I installed 1gb +2gb samsung modules from another set up. And took out the 2+1gb sticks when upgraded the cpu. The audio distortion is same. Ram did come to mind but I've since ruled that out. The distortion happens @ random but several times per minute. A spilt second of what sounds like feed back. Weather it's streaming or local media. The video distortion is dropped frame rates. Alot especially in higher quality sources. Followed by the computer freezing with artifacts on screen.

[iganas]

Will try Ubuntu this week. The problem is mainly audio and not ram related, as I installed 1gb +2gb samsung modules from another set up. And took out the 2+1gb sticks when upgraded the cpu. The audio distortion is same. Ram did come to mind but I've since ruled that out. The distortion happens @ random but several times per minute. A spilt second of what sounds like feed back. Weather it's streaming or local media. The video distortion is dropped frame rates. Alot especially in higher quality sources. Followed by the computer freezing with artifacts on screen.

Check CPU utilization during those stutters. Could be that it spikes to a 100% and thus has no cycles left for them sounds. If such is the case, then we could branch out to either software or hardware failure, and you'd better hope for the former one

P.S. don't expect GMA 950 to run anything beyond 480p smoothly, mine starts struggling with 720p 30fps, anything higher is just unwatchable

[axur-delmeria]

Followed by the computer freezing with artifacts on screen.

This in particular is troubling, and increases my suspicion that it's a heat-related issue on the northbridge chip.
It could also be the RAM, but then the memory controller resides in the northbridge (as unlike the Core i series which have them in the processor itself), so the northbridge is still a suspect.

[jaspen-meyer]

fwiw, On my x61s I get distorted video and freezing watching streaming video IF using a 1x1:1 wifi card. A 1x2:1 card fixes the problem.

Audio feedback... are your internal mic(s) on?

Which version of bios are you running:
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... uj16us.txt

My question about ram, which you didn't answer, was about clock speed.

[Watcity]

The northbridge was the problem. Salamt + kudos to you sir. The 0.8mm pad fits well and completes the contact to the cooling array. The audio distortions have gone. And video is alot better. Still struggles with HD but it is a gma945 after all.

The ram is ddr2 pc2-5300 @667mhz 2gb Samsung plus same configuration lenovo 1gb . I ruled that out as a problem early on. as the t60 had this problem before and after a ram upgrade.

[axur-delmeria]

The northbridge was the problem. Salamt + kudos to you sir. The 0.8mm pad fits well and completes the contact to the cooling array. The audio distortions have gone. And video is alot better.

That's great news!

Still struggles with HD but it is a gma945 after all.

I think it boils down to the graphics drivers and the video playback software.
Since it doesn't have native Win10 drivers, you might end up using Microsoft's generic graphics driver, which is obviously not optimal.

Even with proper drivers, the efficiency of the video software also matters. I've demonstrated this to an acquaintance who has a T60-- first, with VLC (choppy playback) which he had been using, then getting smoother playback with MPC-HC when playing the same video.

Video streaming through the web browser is inherently sub-optimal, because the browser adds to the CPU load, and eats up quite a bit of RAM as well.

[TuuS]

Have you considered swapping the motheboard for a T61? We have the only known quantity of new NOS nVidia T61 boards right here in this forum and you can send me a PM if this interests you.

As for the northbridge, it usually cools better with thermal paste if done properly and a good quality paste is used. The fact that someone already switched makes me suspect they may have been chasing the same problem before selling the laptop, but if it's working ok now, then I suspect the heatpipe was bent, or not adjusted so the platform provided contact from the metal to the chip which is required when using thermal paste, but not so much with the pad.

[Watcity]

Yer I suspected they experienced problems after a drop. Pure speculation on my part. But the full contact has resolved the issues. I have considered a frankenpad with a t61 board. I use the t60 for running a ide, while learning c programming. So it doesn't have to be fast. Although gaining a greater perspective into the inner hardware is always beneficial.

Anyhow I have the 14inch 4:3 t60, and from what I understand the t61 varient requires modding the chassis. Not so sure I have the time for that right now. Tempting as it is.

[TuuS]

Modding the chassis isn't hard, but for the 14" model it's not even necessary, you can swap in a T61 frame and base cover. If you ever decide to do it let me know, I probably have a few kicking around, although I'll be away for a couple weeks so couldn't look until I return.