Thinkpads Forum

recently my system temperature has been running too hot, 80 C with just firefox and background apps running! and i've expirenced crashes when there is large cpu load b/c system goes above threshold. what could be the possible causes of this?

I know that there are no software problems...
my system is in top form.

Even in windows almost idle, CPU temperature is at 70+ C. Something is obviously [censored] up, most likely on the hardware side.

Do you think I need to clean my heatsink/fan? This machine has been running for months non-stop. I think its gotten dirty... has this happened to anyone before??

Sounds like you need to clean with compressed air the fan fins, and clean overall the heatsink. Would not be a bad idea to replace the thermal compound on the CPU with Zalman STG or Arctic Silver 5.

Is your GPU running hot too?

benottomex wrote:Sounds like you need to clean with compressed air the fan fins, and clean overall the heatsink. Would not be a bad idea to replace the thermal compound on the CPU with Zalman STG or Arctic Silver 5.

Is your GPU running hot too?

im not sure the temp. for the GPU, I use Mobile Meter, and that doesnt show the temp. for it.

as for the cleaning. I would have to dis-assemple to components. i've never taken ibm laptops apart before... is there anything special i need to know? btw, i do have some thermal compound, its more generic tho..

You should be able to check your gpu temp with the ATI control pannel. If your machine is running that hot, I would send it in for repair. No need to void your warranty playing around with thermal compound.

rosemarycane wrote:... No need to void your warranty playing around with thermal compound.

yea good call, i was wondering if this would void my warranty (which still has more than several months of life)

Yeah, some people will say go ahead and do it because the techs might not notice. I would say place it safe and leave the original thermal compound on there.

If your temps are that high, you definetly need to have your machine looked at. I would recomend on-site service if you can upgrade. I hate sending my machine to Solectron.

Well, I've a bad habit of trying to fix things by myself.
Here in my country, usually you'll have to send your laptop to another city and wait for God knows how many weeks until you receive it.

So is better to be a handy man, and do most of the repairs by yourself.

Your problem is not that bad, for sure there's dust in the heatsink/fan

In thinkpads taking keyboards out is reall easy right?

I would blow out the dust, take the keyboard out, blow out any more dust, put the keyboard back in and see what happens.

Also, I really don't recommend leaving laptops on 24/7. Fans have a lifetime measured in hours. In a desktop when the fan dies no biggie, just buy another one and pop it in 10 minutes max. In a laptop it's much more involved if possible at all by the end user (though, I've never opened up a thinkpad).

I have been running 24/7 for several weeks my 2 Thinkpad before I got this T41p (A22e, T30) and I've seen no failures on the fan. Except for the T30 which I had to lubricate it with oil.

Also, I'm undervolting my CPU and using the TPFanControl to avoid the fan turning on (especially at night)

benottomex wrote:I have been running 24/7 for several weeks my 2 Thinkpad before I got this T41p (A22e, T30) and I've seen no failures on the fan. Except for the T30 which I had to lubricate it with oil.

Also, I'm undervolting my CPU and using the TPFanControl to avoid the fan turning on (especially at night)

Well, it won't wear out over the period of weeks. I'm talking more along the lines of 3 years.

In that case (the fan fails) it's very easy to replace it by yourself and considering that happen in a period of more than 3 years, then you could get a very cheap fan on eBay.

benottomex wrote:In that case (the fan fails) it's very easy to replace it by yourself and considering that happen in a period of more than 3 years, then you could get a very cheap fan on eBay.

Ah, good to see IBM isn't like the consumer laptop world - I've gone into Compaq and HP laptop and they put in proprietary fans that they don't like to sell the end-users, and are soldered directly onto the board.

oHH,back in 2000 I used my first laptop (Compaq Presario 1685), but it didn't last even 2 years. A suspected failure in the variation of voltage caused the motherboard, the processor, the keyboard and other components to failed.

1 month later I decided to buy a Thinkpad A22e (Celeron 800MHz, 128MB RAM, Win98). I loved the first moment I used it! And I thoght it was a slim machine, nothing compared to the T4x series

Ok, back to the issue at hand.

I have realized that the speed of my fan is not being properly set! When the laptop is plugged in, the fan barely spins!!! When I plug the power out, the fan begins to spin and the temperature is lowered to 50 C. This is so whacked! At which point did this break? I didn’t mess with IBM’s system.

What I’ve done temporarily is set power setting to maximum batter life which undervolts the cpu. The temperature is running ~55 C. But in the long run how do I fix this?

Why is my fan not spinning when my power is plugged in?


P.S. I wouldnt mind blowing some dust otta there, but then again, running as high as 90 C, it probably all burned

-edit-

I do have the fan control utility, but when I set it to smart mode, nothing happens. Plus I dont want to have to rely on this, IBM internals should be able to take care of it as before when everything was spinning at the right speed

Well, you may have a software conflict issue.

First:
Try removing the Battery Maximiser software, reboot and see if the problem still exists.

if not

then you should try restoring your laptop to factory state (There could be some piece of software that is causing you fan to malfunction, primarly IBM software)

If restore does not help you should considering sending back to Lenovo your laptop.

This type of failure is not characteristical on Thinkpads, I'm 95% is caused by software glitch / interference with other program you installed

Ok this puts me in a direction to solve the problem. I'll try removing/reinstalling the ibm power management software.
i've also got MobileMeter and Fan Control utilities, i can imagine they could be doing any harm. The odd thing is that I havent really installed any software that would possibly have a conflict with this.

btw, restoring to factory state is not my type of thing, either is sending the laptop back, this issue is not dramatical enough

so the app thats possibly causing the issue is software for hardware? could it be temperature monitoring software? or does it have to be something more substantial such as Fan Control utility?


side note:
IBM doesnt use high-end thermal compound?
isnt this essential to keeping cpus cool?
i see that you use Zelmans, did this generally improve temperature?

Well, your problem to me seems to be software related.
First uninstall the Battery Maximiser utility, restart. Then uninstall the IBM Power Management Driver, restart
Get rid of any utility that monitor the CPU temp (TPFanControl does not need to be uninstalled, since it don't make a change in Windows registry)

If you still have the problem, you could use a Live CD to boot into Windows, then with a USB Flash Drive loaded with the TPFanControl software, you load the program and monitor when the fan is activated. If it goes above 60C without turning on, then send you machine to warranty.

Concerning the Zalman STG1, is a good product, better than AS5 IMO, because it's easier to apply. However I couldn't tell you the big difference I encountered when I removed the CPU/GPU thermal goop. I did replace the thermal compound after 3 weeks I got my laptop, and didn't have a standard to measure the CPU/GPU on loads.

Also, due to my specific machine, stock machine (sold to a IBM employee), it lacks any Windows serial number, no tag specifying the machine type and serial number, no stickers (Designed for Windows XP, ATi, Intel Centrino) on the left side as most commercial laptop have, mine does not.

MY CPU also even undervolted it runs @ 46-49C (600MHz @ 0.716V)
Guess this laptop is not a genuine T41p or T42p (2373-GEG mobo) but branded as T42p (looking near the right hinge)

Strange enough, also this laptop didn't come with a 60GB 7200rpm HDD, instead a 40GB 5400rpm was fitted.

benottomex wrote: Also, due to my specific machine, stock machine (sold to a IBM employee), it lacks any Windows serial number, no tag specifying the machine type and serial number, no stickers (Designed for Windows XP, ATi, Intel Centrino) on the left side as most commercial laptop have, mine does not.

thats badass.

thanks for the detailed advice. i'll have to play around with it.
my fully undervolted cpu has not been runnning more than 60 C
so i don't worry as much... but i certainly will get this solved