Thinkpads Forum

What range of CPU temperatures do you expect or, for those who have one, do you observe on the T61p? Using PCWizard 2007 I've observed mine as low as 50C and as high as 86C on both cores (though I think it has been even hotter than that and I just didn't have PCWizard open). I'd say the average would be low to mid-70s. At what point should one be concerned about the temperature? As I write I have been doing some word processing for the past couple of hours and have Firefox and Thunderbird open and both cores are at 83C.

Have you checked the actual CPU usage using the task manager?
It is OK if you got 83C with both core are running at 80-100%, but normal usage like Word, Firefox and Thunderbird shouldn't make your CPU usage go above 30-40% (except watching Flash movies in full screen in some case).
The max temperature for Core 2 Duo CPUs are rated at 100C.

That's very helpful, thank you. I will monitor the CPU usage and temp and report back.

Okay, so here's what I noticed today. When I started up the computer this morning, it was running at about 50-55C. It stayed below 60 while I was just doing some non-CPU intensive work. I also monitored the Frequency in PCWizard and it would fluctuate between 1200MHz, 1600MHz and 2495MHz. Then I put it in suspend to go and do something else. When I un-suspended it, I noticed that the Frequency stayed at around 2395 no matter what and the computer became warmer (into the 80s). Then I put it in suspend again and left it for several hours. When I unsuspended it it was already at 70C and starting getting warmer and the Frequency was still stuck at around 2395MHz. So, I restarted the computer and, like at the beginning of the day, the Frequency would fluctuate between 1200, 1600 and 2400, and it ran cooler. It's fluctuating now and both cores are at around 62C (subsequently I put it in suspend again and then unsuspended it right away and now it's staying between 2393 and 2395MHz and the temperature has already climbed to 72C).

I'm the first to admit I don't know anything about this stuff, so this may make no sense whatsoever (but that's why I'm asking here). Could it be that putting the computer into suspend is somehow making the Frequency 'stick' at around 2395MHz and that, in turn, is making the computer run hot? Does this need to be fixed? If so, how can this be fixed?

Don't know if this will help, but take a look...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938725/en-us

famman wrote:Okay, so here's what I noticed today. When I started up the computer this
...
into suspend is somehow making the Frequency 'stick' at around 2395MHz and that, in turn, is making the computer run hot? Does this need to be fixed? If so, how can this be fixed?

You are not the first one to experiment some strange speedstep behaviour with T61. Your informations are usefull to find out what's happened. My T61 most time never go down lower then 1600 MHz.

Is your Windows up to date ? You run the Lenovo pre install or your own one ?

GomJabbar wrote:Don't know if this will help, but take a look...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938725/en-us

Thanks. I checked. I'm using enerystar power plan and both settings under 'USB selective suspend setting' were already enabled.

Pascal_TTH wrote: Is your Windows up to date ? You run the Lenovo pre install or your own one ?

Yes, windows is updated. I also have the most recent bios installed. I'm using the Lenovo pre-installed Vista Ultimate.

I'm seeing 1197MHz at the moment (had to restart after my last suspend though to get it to do that).

I'd greatly appreciate it if some fellow T61p owners would take a quick moment to report what temperatures they are seeing on both cores using PC Wizard 2007 at idle. Thanks!

famman wrote:I'd greatly appreciate it if some fellow T61p owners would take a quick moment to report what temperatures they are seeing on both cores using PC Wizard 2007 at idle. Thanks!

I am interested in that too. Especially the 14" SXGA+ T61p.

Pascal_TTH wrote:
You are not the first one to experiment some strange speedstep behaviour with T61. Your informations are usefull to find out what's happened. My T61 most time never go down lower then 1600 MHz.

Is your Windows up to date ? You run the Lenovo pre install or your own one ?

1600Mhz? If I remember correctly, the Santa rosa platforms can bring down the frequency to 800Mhz with both FSB and multiple reduced. What is the FSB when the CPU is running at 1600Mhz? Sounds like the FSB stays at 800Mhz instead of 400Mhz?
Could this be solved by a BIOS update?

I'm getting 52C with PC Wizard 2007. I have a T7500 processor. Perhaps the FSB is being underclocked and the software monitoring tools are unable to detect this, and are therefore reporting the processor speed incorrectly.

I used XP Pro and ran both PC Wizard 2007 (v.1.73) and Intel Thermal Analysis Tool to make my observations.

I was getting about 42C with TAT (which also showed both CPU operating at 800Mhz), while at the same time, I was getting 48C with PCW.

Now, one observation I made must be noted. PCW showed my CPU as a T7700, when indeed the CPU is only a T7500.

Then I booted Up Vista and ran only TAT. It showed between 51C~53C and CPU frequency switching between 800~1200Mhz.

Note:

(i) in both XP and Vista, I used a customized Power profile which sets CPU to Adaptive, and FAN speed to "Balanced" for DC and "Maximum" for AC.

(ii) the readings above were taken with AC.

Thanks for the responses so far. Mine seems to run warmer. I've noticed that it tends to run in the high 50s (according to PCW) until I put it into suspend and then take it out. I discovered that my APC's software had something to do with the Frequency sticking at 2400MHz. When I uninstalled that program, the frequency will fluctuate between 1200-1600-2000-2400. Nevertheless, even with this corrected the computer still runs warmer after having been in suspend (just not as bad as before), often idling in the mid-70s after having been in suspend. I called Lenovo and they said that it shouldn't idle at anything over 60C.

Hi

you can try programs like RMClock to manage the Speedstep behavior.

cu