Thinkpads Forum

Hi all,

This is a problem I've been thinking about for a while now. A ultrabase base (x6) came with my X60 tablet, but I've never used it.

The x60 gets very hot on the bottom after more than an hour of use, and i use it for 3-6hr intervals. There aren't any openings/vents on the ultrabase and I think the heat will buildup if i use the base.

To those ultrabase users, do you have any heat problems?

Also, I can't use a laptop cooling pad with the ultrabase.

Any help appreciated.

Joseph

I think you might want to download NHC (notebook hardware control) and see what temps your machine is getting to see if you are possibly having an issue.

Mine gets hot on the bottom too, so I ran NHC and checked the temps, there were 50's . It also depends on what surface it's sitting on as to how hot it feels on the bottom, but not to the point where I would consider shutting it down

I have ran mine in the Ultra Base with no real issues either.

You could run the machine out of the utra base, check temps and then run the machine in the Ultra base and decide for yourself if it gets hotter.

A note re the cooling when docked; the X60 series BIOS runs a more aggressive fan-control profile when docked (the most noticeable part of which is that it never bothers with the 'low' fan speed setting, only medium and high).

This was confirmed by an IBM service tech who looked into this for me. (I was wondering why my X60 was silent when undocked, but started making more noise when docked yet sitting somewhat idle.)

rek is correct.

Thanks for the replies.

Kyocera: good to hear about your experience with testing out temperature diffs. I'm unfamiliar with "NHC (notebook hardware control)", is it a trusted 3rd party software? is this the website, http://www.pbus-167.com/ ?

rek and erik: good note on the high fan settings when docked. So...could this fact suggest that the high fan setting was designed for higher temperature/heat when docked (due to low heat dissipation from underside)?



Regardless, I think the base could be designed with vents to help with rid of heat, or have an integrated built in fan (like in http://bit.ly/5zRbXM)

Taking a look at the Ultrabase in my hands right now, it in fact has some vents. No fans, but there are a series of vents on the bottom left that seem to exit where the PC card cage is on the X6x, and a little gap to allow for air circulation under where the main system fan is.

I've never really had any issues with overheating while using my Ultrabase.

Not wanting to hijack your thread, but whats the advantage of an ultrabase over an external dvd drive.

paul*robertson wrote:Not wanting to hijack your thread, but whats the advantage of an ultrabase over an external dvd drive.

The ultrabase serves as a port replicator, so it's handy to dock it you're at home (or at the office).

I use mine pretty regularly when at home, and the temps (per NHC) are just fine whether in or out of the ultrabase. I haven't made an actual comparison but the system runs cool either way.

Mike

I was getting flaky operation while on the Ultrabase. I suspected high temperature but using one of the temperature/fan speed utilities (I forget which one) I saw it was not getting that hot. (The issue is some adverse interaction using an external monitor. I posted on it elsewhere but never resolved it.)

Kyocera: good to hear about your experience with testing out temperature diffs. I'm unfamiliar with "NHC (notebook hardware control)", is it a trusted 3rd party software? is this the website, http://www.pbus-167.com/ ?

Yes, that is the website. I have installed and kept it on some machines in the past to keep and eye on them. But most of the time i create a restore point, install NHC check temps or whatever I need to check and then go back to the created restore point. That's just how I do it .

Again, thanks to all that responded about my initial question of "potential increase in heat buildup in the x60/x61 while docked on x6 ultrabase"

From responses given so far, seems that no one is having heat problems.

Btw, I posted another interesting question that you may help with in "Thinkpad - General HARDWARE/SOFTWARE questions" regarding using different thinkpad AC adapters. link:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 12&start=0

I don't see any issues related to heat when I use my X60t on the dock. I can't run NHC reliably on Vista, but the temps feel similar docked vs undocked. As stated above, the fan does run more when docked. The only potential negative to that would be power consumption, but I can't think of a time I would have it docked and not plugged in.

Wife's X61 does seem to run hotter when on the Ultrabase.

Ok, I'm running my X60 in an ultrabase and it does seem hotter. Runs cooler with display open, however I am running an external display and when I try to select for external display only (w/TP display also open), that option is not available. Anyone know how to do this?

Thanks

Ok, once I reinstalled software was able to change default so that I can switch to an external monitor with the Thinkpad monitor up. VAST difference in heat plus am no longer baking the LCD.

scrannel wrote:Ok, once I reinstalled software was able to change default so that I can switch to an external monitor with the Thinkpad monitor up. VAST difference in heat plus am no longer baking the LCD.

just out of curiosity, what software did you reinstall and what default did you change?