Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
my 1 year old T61 has recently begun to be constantly noisy. It's clearly from the ventilation.
However, at the same time, core temps (measured by speedfan) are between 65 and 70°C (not Fahrenheit) even when the CPU is idle.

What should I do about it? Directly call Lenovo or first look for dust in the fans? Is there a CPU and a case fan? How do I access them? Should I do it myself or would it void warranty?

Any good comments are appreciated.

Steve

Hello Steve,

try a vacuum cleaner, but throttle it´s power and clean your vents.
Here you´ll get videos and hardware maintance manual on how
to open your machine. You can also use a can of fresh air and blow the dust out carefully.
http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/

Agotthelf wrote:Hello Steve,

try a vacuum cleaner, but throttle it´s power and clean your vents.
Here you´ll get videos and hardware maintance manual on how
to open your machine. You can also use a can of fresh air and blow the dust out carefully.
http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/

thank you your recommendations and this excellent link - it's a very useful reference to have.

i already called lenovo and they will send me a technician on site who will replace the defective part.

I'll keep you updated.

Steve

i called lenovo service last week. having 4yr-on-site-warranty i hoped they would send me someone. today they called me back and asked me to reinstall the whole machine, just to exclude that it's the software's fault. otherwise, if they sent a technician and it revealed that it wasn't a hardware problem, they would charge me the onsite visit (at 100 EUR/hour minimum).
i cannot describe how disappointed I am. backing up all the data, reinstalling windows, having a technician come, and subsequently reinstalling all my software and having everything set up correctly would take me like one day of work.

i really don't know what would be the best now. maybe i'll try to fix it myself.

Steve

Steve06 wrote:i called lenovo service last week. having 4yr-on-site-warranty i hoped they would send me someone. today they called me back and asked me to reinstall the whole machine, just to exclude that it's the software's fault.i really don't know what would be the best now. maybe i'll try to fix it myself.

Steve

Sorry about the poor advice from tech support. It is relatively easy to remove the keyboard and access the cooling fan. It's good to try and blow out the vents, but very important to gently hold the fan so it will not spin too fast and damage the bearings.

The back of the case has little keyboard icons next to the screws that you would remove. Just be very gentle and make sure the keyboard is not forced when reinstalling it. There are delicate little tabs that must match.

The Lenovo site may have a hardware maintenance manual which would show how to remove the keyboard.

i'll try to clean the fan as you said, but i think the problem is more related to the cooler and/or the heatpad, since otherwise the system wouldn't get as hot in the first place.

i cleaned and it the temps are a bit lower now, but i'm not sure what temperatures would be normal in idle mode and under full load?

right now it's around 60°C in idle, +/- 5°C

Steve06 wrote:i cleaned and it the temps are a bit lower now, but i'm not sure what temperatures would be normal in idle mode and under full load?

right now it's around 60°C in idle, +/- 5°C

That is about what my T60s run at light load. Under heavy load it is common for me to see 70 degrees (C) for short periods, and the fan will run at high speed then. (for 15-20 seconds at a time)

Vista will run a machine a tad warmer than XP, due to more services running in Vista.

Did you see dirt on the fan blades, and did dust come out of the vents when you ran air thru them during cleaning?

I keep my computers elevated at the rear slightly rather than set them flat on the desk. This seems to allow for cooler running as the reflected heat from the desktop does not bounce back against the bottom of the ThinkPad.

The slight elevation also gives me a improved angle for typing and viewing the keyboard.

There was some dust in the vents, but not a lot. I used a vacuum cleaner and turned it on to the maximum.

Most of the time, I run my T61 docked on an advanced mini dock, so it's a bit elevated, but i don't think this particularly promotes air flow.

I'd like to hear some other's temperatures, especially with T61s and similar specs.