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What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:11 am
by diablo2man
My T400 was quite cool on dock before I install win 7. But currently it is around 60c/140f when idle. Some jobs like unrar or installion of software would make it easily go to 75c/167f. Is it normal? it is already used by 1.5 years. Thanks.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:59 am
by Harryc
I mainly run Linux on my T400, but at the moment it's CPU is idling at 39*c, hard drive at 29*c, and GPU at 42*c. I am switched to the ATI GPU. I don't think I've ever seen the CPU temp go higher than 60*c. You need to figure out (2) things. First, is speed-step working? Does the CPU speed ratchet down when at 0% usage? Secondly, you need to look in task manager for CPU usage at idle. If it is significantly higher than 0%, then what processes are running? Those would cause heat.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:51 am
by Chiana
What are you using to gather the temps?

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 12:06 pm
by LegendaryKA8
That doesn't sound normal, but I have definitely heard that increased heat output is a common complaint when upgrading to Win7. I don't know exactly what causes it, but my theory is that Windows is downloading/installing updates, running its disk indexing stuff, and a bunch of other processes on a new system... you may see your temp calm back down in a few days. My T400 running Win7 Pro x64 runs a pretty balmy 35-40C, depending on the use I put it through. If you're using TPFanControl to monitor temps, make sure you're using the BIOS mode setting; what your problem might be is you're on one of the smart modes that turns the fan completely off until your machine hits a higher temp, say 65C or so.

I don't even think I've even seen my T400 go over 70C, even when doing heavy gaming on the ATI HD3470. This has been by far the coolest running notebook I have ever used.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 12:46 pm
by Aiwi
My processor reports 32°C on both cores using RMClock on my T400 with Intel P8400 (2.26GHz) and discreete graphics. Even after excessive gaming it never goes higher than 45°C. (I'm using Windows 7 64bit)

Maybe you have dust around the fan?

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 2:44 pm
by diablo2man
Chiana wrote:What are you using to gather the temps?

TPFanControl

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 2:45 pm
by diablo2man
Aiwi wrote:My processor reports 32°C on both cores using RMClock on my T400 with Intel P8400 (2.26GHz) and discreete graphics. Even after excessive gaming it never goes higher than 45°C. (I'm using Windows 7 64bit)

Maybe you have dust around the fan?
Probably, but how I clean that?

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 2:47 pm
by diablo2man
LegendaryKA8 wrote:That doesn't sound normal, but I have definitely heard that increased heat output is a common complaint when upgrading to Win7. I don't know exactly what causes it, but my theory is that Windows is downloading/installing updates, running its disk indexing stuff, and a bunch of other processes on a new system... you may see your temp calm back down in a few days. My T400 running Win7 Pro x64 runs a pretty balmy 35-40C, depending on the use I put it through. If you're using TPFanControl to monitor temps, make sure you're using the BIOS mode setting; what your problem might be is you're on one of the smart modes that turns the fan completely off until your machine hits a higher temp, say 65C or so.

I don't even think I've even seen my T400 go over 70C, even when doing heavy gaming on the ATI HD3470. This has been by far the coolest running notebook I have ever used.

The thing is, even I make it idle on the bios setting page (not in windows), the laptop is still hot

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 3:49 pm
by Volker
diablo2man wrote:The thing is, even I make it idle on the bios setting page (not in windows), the laptop is still hot
The bios doesn't know much about power management, its quite possible that the processor is doing quite a lot while "idling" on the bios screen.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 12:14 pm
by albo
hmm,

according to everest ultimate, my cpu is running around 79 deg C. I'm currently securi-erasing an entire usb drive, and have another one plugged in (but not drawing power). CPU usage is pegged around 55% due to a zombie process I just killed. It's about 85 degrees in my workspace right now, but lordy, i put my hand near the heatsink/fan exit and it's *hot*. (Update: killing the zombie process immediately dropped my CPU temp down to around 68 deg C and now dropping slowly).

I'll be keeping an eye on it during idle, but, this sounds pretty extreme, no? Any ideas what I might do?

thanks!

t400 2764-CTO
ati 3450
6 gb ram
Win 7 Pro x64

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 1:33 pm
by GrandMasterKhan
That is way too hot. The Nvidia GPU in my machine gets about 58C on idle and the CPU is nowhere near that. Try GPU-Z as a temp measure.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 2:27 pm
by albo
I see no temperature readouts in GPU-Z, and no way to select it in the sensors tab.

anyway, everest reports my GPU temp as 65 deg C. My CPU varies between 5 and 12% usage at idle, more or less, with a suite of apps running - firefox, media player, etc.

So, any ideas as to what I can do to figure out if there's a problem here? A lenovo tech will be coming by my house in the next few days to do other things to my T400, so I can take a look at the state of the heatsink then, etc. Anything I should be looking for?

thanks!

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 3:45 pm
by GrandMasterKhan
2nd tab labeled sensors. Not sure why your machine is not reading. If the room temp is 85C you need to turn on the AC for your own health let alone damage your electronics.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 3:51 pm
by albo
yeah, it's not reading temp. Don't know why.

And - "aloha"? You tell me to turn on the AC, but aren't you supposed to be basking in the tropical heat too? ;-)

thanks,
al

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 4:45 pm
by albo
regardless, RealTemp agrees with Everest, so I imagine its right. And the exhaust feels really hot. I think it really is running at 65 deg C.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 9:50 pm
by MrMarbles
Mine is running pretty hot too. About mid 60s C when idle/web browsing to 70s with moderate load (30-50% CPU load) upwards to 80 and higher during high loads (gaming). I made "legs" for the laptop to stand on to make room between the desk surface and sometimes even use a small table fan to blow under it. It helpes a little but still CPU temps rarely go below 55C. This is a bit annoying because temps above 70C start to affect performance and the table fan is noisy when I turn it on. Can anyone tell me if this is normal? Anything I can do to make the system run cooler?

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 9:54 pm
by GrandMasterKhan
It is Summer. Turn on the AC and see what you get. My GPU runs 58C at idle and 61C when AC is off with multiple IE windows open including Flash based and two or three Office apps (hot as I can get it). Flash doesnt mix well with 64 bit W7.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 10:59 pm
by MrMarbles
GrandMasterKhan wrote:It is Summer. Turn on the AC and see what you get. My GPU runs 58C at idle and 61C when AC is off with multiple IE windows open including Flash based and two or three Office apps (hot as I can get it). Flash doesnt mix well with 64 bit W7.
A fair point, though I'm using Vista. Still, my CPU is P8400 which is supposed to run fairly cool - it is only 25W after all.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 12:01 pm
by Navck
Get a blower bulb (Photography) or a can of compressed air.

If you dare to remove your keyboard: Put your finger on the fan, aim your cleaner of choice and blast the fan in the directions of the vents.
If you're afraid of removing the keyboard: Have the fan running with your machine, aim at the vent and do short, quick blasts into the vents.

My T410 was running 10C (Idle) to 30C (High end) hotter than it should of been due to the fine dust getting into the heatsink. That took only a month to happen for me. (Environment and fan constantly running.)

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 2:11 am
by Colonel O'Neill
Switchable T400 with P8700 here.

HTML (no flash) web surfing + MSN + Winamp at 39 to 42 degrees Celsius. (Integrated mode. On Discrete, the temps gain about 3 degrees in this condition.)

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 7:03 am
by albo
and what's your ambient temp? a request: for all those posting cpu temps, please include ambient temps as well. thanks!

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 9:34 am
by GrandMasterKhan
Braddah, I'm assuming by ambient you mean normal usage. Then its 59 to 60C for the GPU. CPU is nowhere near has hot. I even uninstalled the temp measure for that after seeting it so many times.

BTW, W7 machines run cooler not hotter. I think you are working on a black colored table? Try to use a light colored table or put a sheet of white paper underneath.

Turn on the AC. Dont be so cheap. lol.

Check this: http://www.beowulf.org/archive/2002-April/006845.html

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 10:47 am
by albo
no, sorry. By "ambient" I mean the environmental temp - the air temperature of the room where the computer is sitting.

and, my electricity bills already top $200/month, so cheap i'm not, but rich i'm not either. plus, excess energy usage ain't good for anyone, nor the planet, so there's that too. but i digress - i really don't know why my cpu is running so hot. oh well.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 12:43 pm
by emeraldgirl08
Your T400 have a fever? Give it some Tylenol and make sure it gets plenty of fluids :P

No. In all things serious is your fan even working??? Have you taken it apart yet? You'll need the hardware maintenance manual for that.

According to Core Temp 64-bit:

I'm idling about 39-41C. Ambient temp is 70 lovely Fahrenheit degrees today. I'm not sure how high it will go but whenever I check my temps the high temp is usually 45C. This is with Firefox open with a couple of tabs, Pidgin, and sometimes WMP w/the assistance of KLite.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 12:48 pm
by albo
my fan is running at about 2900 RPM pretty constantly. Dual core 2.8 GHz T9600's here. Running between 60 and 70 deg C, with temps around 85 deg C, as reported before.

It'd be nice to open up my machine to clean the fan, but don't have the time right now.

I feel airflow coming out of the exhaust vent, but it's not blowing very hard.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 1:11 pm
by Navck
Compressed air to the vents, sides and bottom. Doesn't require you to even remove the keyboard, just don't hose it down and make sure the fan is spinning.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 1:43 pm
by albo
thanks navck - i'll give it a shot when i can get my hands on some compressed air. a quick try with a hairdryer doesn't make much of a difference.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 2:22 pm
by neenee
I have undervolted my T400 (T9400@2.53GHz, running W7x64) and while running it with the dedicated ATI card with say, World of Warcraft, I get a temperature around 40C. Idle it goes to 20-ish.

Consider undervolting too - there's no drawback to it and there's an extensive guide here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 2:27 pm
by Navck
The problem with the hairdryer is that you don't have a relatively high velocity stream of air blasting the dust off. Basically you'd be doing as much as running your fan on high. I would still recommend you to power your system off, remove the keyboard screws, dismount the keyboard slightly and blast the fan while holding it still. However blasting it with compressed air from the outside can be a quick fix for dust buildup on the heatsink fins.

Re: What's the normal temperature of T400? Mine is around 60c

Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 8:06 pm
by MrMarbles
Right now:
CPU temp 75C
CPU usage 5-20%
Ambient temp 24.4C (76F)
Fan speed 2984RPM

What I did a while ago is open up the keyboard and use a Dustbuster to vacuum the dust off the top of the fan. I don't think it takes care of the dust inside the tubes though.