T400s Overheating - Escalation Team? on the case

[mpcook]

Never had this happen before, my T400s is overheating and when I called it in (I have onsite warranty) the agent told me this goes to the escalation team and I would get a call back in 24 hours. She said she could not put it in the queue. Always before when I had onsite warranty repair, I was set up immediately with a tech to come out next day. Now because it goes to the escalation team, it seems that escalation leads to longer response??

It is 9.30 pm Eastern time so I am curious when the call back will come. Luckily it's my work Thinkpad, so I am not so worried about it. If it was one of my personal Thinkpads, I would be escalating the heck out of it right now.

As far as the overheating, this to me seems to be a result of a system board replacement gone awry. Cannot prove it, but it will be interesting to see what gets done when they come to repair it. The last time, they reused the fan, but I did not see any artic silver or anything like being used when it was reseated.

Mike

[Harryc]

The last time, they reused the fan, but I did not see any artic silver or anything like being used when it was reseated.

, That is the problem. The tech must apply thermal paste to the fan/heatsink or it will overheat eventually.

[mpcook]

Well, I got the "escalation team" out to replace the fan. The running temps went from the mid 80's to 39-41. This is running cooler now than when it was new, then it ran in the high 40's - low 50's. Leads me to believe this unit had a problem when new. Hopefully now I get a couple of problem-free years.

Mike

[mpcook]

, That is the problem. The tech must apply thermal paste to the fan/heatsink or it will overheat eventually.

The tech said the new fan has thermal paste factory-applied, they don't bring any out to add. The first tech who re-used the old fan should have applied new paste, or used a new fan. I guess IBM would rather replace the fan than send a tube of paste out with the techs.

Mike

[Harryc]

The tech said the new fan has thermal paste factory-applied, they don't bring any out to add.

Right, I had forgotten about that. If you applied a high quality thermal paste you could potentially drop the CPU temp even further, but not worth the effort if you are happy with the current repair. When I get a new fan the first thing I do is clean off that pre-applied goop .

[Tony Chan]

.. This is running cooler now than when it was new, then it ran in the high 40's - low 50's. Leads me to believe this unit had a problem when new...

That's typical behaviour of thermal paste. It takes few power cycles ( sometimes it's up to couple of weeks with 10-15 complete power cycle ) to settle in and fill the tiny gaps/air bubbles before the paste reaches it's maximun performance.

[penartur]

Well, I got the "escalation team" out to replace the fan. The running temps went from the mid 80's to 39-41. This is running cooler now than when it was new, then it ran in the high 40's - low 50's.

Do you mean Celsius, or Fahrenheit?

[mpcook]

Do you mean Celsius, or Fahrenheit?

Celsius