Thinkpads Forum

A while back when I was considering an x60 many complained that the palmrest got very hot, especially when using wifi. Is this a problem for the x61 or x61s? I'd like to replace my x31, but not if it will be uncomfortable due to heat.

thanks

Yeah, the X61 handrest does get quite warm. Apparently the wi-fi card is the problem.

On the notebookreview.com review, they suggested that if you have the WWAN option, then an additional fan is present to cool both wireless cards. I'm not sure the extent to which this makes a difference.

It isn't uncomfortable to the touch, but if your work environment is warm, it does get quite annoying. I also have a sound card in the PCMCIA slot, which also produces a lot of heat, so I get the worst of it.

-Nav

scrawledinwax wrote:Yeah, the X61 handrest does get quite warm. Apparently the wi-fi card is the problem.

On the notebookreview.com review, they suggested that if you have the WWAN option, then an additional fan is present to cool both wireless cards. I'm not sure the extent to which this makes a difference.

It isn't uncomfortable to the touch, but if your work environment is warm, it does get quite annoying. I also have a sound card in the PCMCIA slot, which also produces a lot of heat, so I get the worst of it.

-Nav

I've heard that even with removed wifi-card the palmrest on the X60, (so probably on X61 too) gets hot. It seems there are other circuits in this area wich produces some heat - wifi adds heat too of course. On my X60T the palmrest gets warm but not uncomfortably hot, but the bottom - near the cpu for example - can get anoying hot and even on idle (dynamic switching) cpu-temp climbs surprisingly fast to above 50 degrees, wich is normal for a first generation macbook but can't be described as average in any regards, I think.

The right palm rest on my x61s feels a bit warm but it is definitely nothing to complain about. I suspect that the palm rest was warmer on the x60s given the number of complaints regarding that particular model. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Lenovo fixed the problem completely but it has not been an issue for me and I honestly never even think about it unless I start reading these forums

heard that removing the modem card would reduce the heat too!!!

My X61 has a warm palmrest but not disturbingly warm, and certainly not hot. I'm using an Intel 4965AGN card, which supposedly produces less heatthan the Atheros cards.

I have found the power settings make a big difference in the heat. I use the "power source optimized" setting wiht a few tweaks. When its plugged in to the wall, it maxs performance, and it definately gets toasty and quite warm (I'd almost say hot). But on battery, the machine stays quite cool, and none of it gets warm, even the right palm rest.

Not related to the X61 but this might help:

My X60T came with a 100GB 5400RPM drive, I upgraded to a 7200RPM drive of the same size. I can say that there HAS been an improvement on speed (have been running Vista Ultimate for sometime) but the palmrest seems to get a LOT hotter than when using the 5400RPM drive; before I would notice it; now is a PITA on my hand.

I am considering going back to the 5400RPM drive. From what I read on the X61's these are available with the 7200RPM drives as standard...maybe there is a relation on the heat issues!

Hi, a newbie here. Here's my two cent.

I am not familiar with X61, however.

I made some modification on my X60. Anybody who has interest in
the hot palmrest problem may want to visit my site:
http://210.155.219.234/X60Heat.htm

The surface temperature at the highest spot dropped by about 3'C.
It was about 14 deg higher than ambient, now 11 deg.
I intended to spread the heat to wider area, easing the hottest spot
where palm normally stay.

Tak

I think the palmreset-issue is related to power-management. Someone posted, he had no problems under vista with his X60 and wireless set to "max battery" or so. This is my setting too, and I can't complain about a hot palmrest with X60 / Vista. Perhaps with X61 other modification has been implemented wich prevents the palmrest to get hot with wireless set to "max performance" - could be tryed out be any X61-owner.

My LEFT palm rest is what gets "hot". Actually, I don't really feel a lot of heat, but I noticed that my left palm does in fact get very sweaty after about 30 minutes or so of us. I'm plugged in most of the time so it is probably running hotter than normal. At 1st, I thought this was because my fan was not working properly but when I put my ear there, I could clearly hear it running (gotta love how quiet it is).

I do have WWAN as well. I read about it online, the hot issue, but in all honesty, there was no way I was going to let that bother me unless people were burning themselves using it. It's not terribly uncomfortable and if you're busy you'll probably not even notice until you take a break and realize your palm is sweating.