Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
recently I switched from L7500 (1.6GHz) to L7700 (1.8GHz) and the machine feels much hotter.
1. In both cases the same intel 6250 wifi card was being used.
2. TPFC is installed, showing 58-72 C
3. Fan is clean no specific bad noise
4. The machine is quite fresh, so I don't think that the thermal paste could be dried.
5. the heat comes mostly from the bottom (below the processor).

My question is: can it be so that L7700 is generally hotter than L7500 or there is some other reason?

some info for consideration:
L7700 has 8gb ram VS L7500 had 3gb
W7 x64 VS W7 x86
same sxga+ on both
same ssd on both

Please share your opinion and experience...
Thanks

The L7700 will run warmer than the L7500 -- for any given processor, higher speed means more heat. Heat from the additional memory will be negligible, and 64-bit vs. 32-bit Windows does not matter for this issue.

Perhaps there is some change in the running processes, and the L7700 is running at 98% CPU utilization because of some rogue background task, whereas the L7500 was running at 5% CPU utilization ... that's where I would look. If you are running Windows, the "System Idle Process" task should be 90+ percent when the machine is not doing anything. Take a look there ...

[As an aside, note that the Intel chipsets on the X61[s] units run noticeably hotter than the chipsets on the earlier X60[s] units -- nothing to be done about it!]

Good luck!

The machine is quite fresh, so I don't think that the thermal paste could be dried.

There is always a possibility that the thermal paste has dried. These are six-year old machines we're talking about, after all.

Also, undervolting always helps in reducing temperatures.

Yes, in the same family of CPU, faster will run hotter. Some people will go as far as downclocking purposely to run cooler.

Thanks for the hints.
Fan control shows 64-70C all the time while L7500 is 48-60C.
I will refresh the thermal paste. Meanwhile, I need some guidelines for undervolting. Is there good writeup somewhere?

Is SpeedStep enabled or disabled? I have L7700 which is around 43C idle because it slows to 0.8-0.9 GHz. When running at 1.8 GHz the temperature increases to 52-55C.

85101 wrote:Is SpeedStep enabled or disabled? I have L7700 which is around 43C idle because it slows to 0.8-0.9 GHz. When running at 1.8 GHz the temperature increases to 52-55C.

I don't know. what is that?

yeah found the speedstep in bios and it was enabled. on power: automatic, on battery:battery optimized

Started experimenting with lower voltages. Seem to be a bit cooler...

Rather than make a bunch of new posts in a thread like this, just click on the "edit" button on the right bottom of your last post, and add your further developments to the existing text.
Please only add now posts AFTER someone has replied.

It was the thermal paste indeed. I cleaned the fan, reapplied the paste and the temp now stays below 60°.
BTW, I tried undervolting as well, but it didn't seem to help much.

Thanks for your help

I think it is too hot. I run an X61s with overclocked L7500 (pin mod fsb),
controlled by IBM_ECW, using web with about 42 Celsius. I use undervolting.
I tried the better cooler, the one with the two copper-heatpipes, the graphics-chip
runs about 4 degrees lower, cpu seems nearly the same temperature.

Robert

the 7500 seems to be a bit cooler in general I have both 7500 and 7700 and the later seems hotter even with thermal paste reapplied.

It may be that the two machines have different heatsinks. My L7700 X61s had been running kind of hot even after I reapplied thermal paste, the bottom under the CPU was warm as well as the whole left part and the VGA port. The fansink was a "tin can" style with aluminium contact point for CPU. Then I switched to another design of 42X3804 with black Panasonic fan and copper contact point for CPU, and now my X61s runs cold, as it should.