X61s occasional shutdown while on docking station. Heat?

[SteveDC]

My X61s sometimes mysteriously and ungracefully goes dead while in the docking station. It just goes off instantly.

This seems to happen more with the warmer weather and my warmer home office. The bottom of the docking station does not feel very warm, unlike the bottom the computer, so I think the docking station is acting as an insulator and making the computer warmer than usual.

If I am in a meeting all day in a cool room, with the X61s and no docking station, it never shuts down.

I understand there is high-temp protection on the microprocessor and wonder if that is what it is.

I also wonder if the fan is working properly. I can barely hear it, and I don't feel much heat coming out of the fan port, unlike the string of T-series Thinkpads I had. For those I once found some fan monitoring and control software on this site. I guess I can do the same with the X61s.

Any tips or insights are appreciated. In the meantime I will crank up the air conditioning!

[Harryc]

If you suspect temperatures, run tpfancontrol and post temperatures (CPU and GPU) under idle and load conditions in the dock.
http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/donate.html

[vastag]

I have the same problem with the x61t while it's in the docking station. When I running videos or other processor-intensive work it just shuts down. This never happens when it's out of the docking station. It's such a problem I stopped using the docking station and now plug/unplug all the connections every time. What a pain. Any possible solutions?

[Sportler2k3]

i also own a x61s and dont have any problems with heat in the docking station, even while playing games the cpu and gpu never reach 90 degrees.
emergency shutdown is at 110 degrees if i remember correctly.

[vastag]

I installed tpfancontrol and while my X61t is in the docking station, idle temps of CPU and CPU are around 65C. Under load, they zoom up to 85C or so. Is this too hot?

[Sportler2k3]

these are the same temperatures i get when using the ntb. i think these temperatures are normal

[SteveDC]

OK, installed the temp utility and have been observing for a few weeks. Very interesting.

Shutdown does not correlate with temperature. Temp gets up to 90 at times but mostly in the 70s. The heat of the case/keyboard does not seem to correlate with CPU temp.

What DOES correlate with shutdown is my external monitor. I have a Samsung 172T plugged in to the docking station. When it is plugged in I get the random shutdowns. When it is unplugged and I just use the X61 screen, I get no shutdown.

I also have a USB hub, with many peripherals, plugged into the docking station. That was the prime suspect (after temp). But I see no correlation with shutdown and unplugging that.

At the moment I am thinking some weird video software interaction when using the external monitor. Or possibly an AC issue -- poor grounding, ground loops, because of the array of extension cords everything is plugged in to.

If I have any other insights I will report.

[pgoelz]

Is the external monitor significantly higher resolution than your internal screen? If so, perhaps the GPU is overheating trying to drive the higher resolution screen. Just a guess....

Try temporarily reducing the resolution for the external monitor and see if the shutdowns cease.

Paul

[SteveDC]

I was running it at 1280 x 1024. I reduced it to 1024 x 768 and will see what happens.

Also I have been using 32 bit color. I guess 16 bit color is less computations, less heat?