Monster in the house!

[zod]

Well, I just could not resist: yesterday I bought W700, T9600 with beautiful WUXGA display and FX2700. It was in almost perfect condition when it arrived, except I had to replace the keyboard because previous owner spilled Coke on it and totally burned thermal pad on cpu, which caused idle temperatures around 66-67 degrees and up to 85-87 on load. On the other side, gpu is cool as it could be, idling at 39-40 and going up to 48 degrees on load. So I've opened it, cleaned everything, applied new cpu thermal paste and temperatures dropped to 58 at idle, going up to 75 at load. That worries me a little bit because I thought cpu temperatures should be lower, but maybe I'm wrong there as I don't have any experience with T9600. I have also noticed that copper surface on heatsink is not polished at all, that would explain why they used pad instead of paste. I will try to lap it today, hope this will improve heat transfer. My T9300 idles at 43-44 degrees, this is a significant difference. So, here are mine impressions about the machine...

Good:

- display
- numeric keyboard
- two hdd bay
- sturdy abs plastic
- speakers
- easy to disassemble

Bad:

- poor single pipe cpu heatsink design
- it's very heavy and bulky
- microphone and headphones ports position
- USB ports position on the right side
- DC connector design
- DC connector soldered to the motherboard
- huge and heavy solenoid assembly on DC cable, making connector prone to failures

[MikalE]

What sort of solenoid is on the DC cable and for what use would there be for a solenoid?

[zod]

Solenoid is used for noise filtering in dc cable as far as I know. It's present on every thinkpad ac adapter, round black plastic thingy in front of dc connector, just not as big and heavy as here.

[Screamer]

Hope you bought that W700 with a reasonable price tag attached to it, I see a lot of them that are overpriced nearly everywhere.

58C at idle seems a little too high for a T9600, do you have any clue what your ambient temperatures are? I find it odd, considering that a X9100 in my W700 idles at 50-53C with an ambient temperature of about 29-32C. The load temperature seems fine though, 75C is not too bad. While I do agree with you that they should be lower in a 17 inch machine like the W700, I believe that is not the case due to the fan's temperature curve.

They used thermal pads for the W700's heatsink assembly? I don't think I have seen such a thing on my W700; it could be possible that the previous owner may have used a thermal pad for the heatsink.

I am surprised that you find the single-heatpipe design poor, because in my experience, the design actually held up pretty well with the X9100 operating at 3.99GHz (1.425v). With the fan forced to run at its maximum speed, of course.

[zod]

Thank you for your answer Screamer, I need some comparison here. Anything above 70 degrees with bios fan setting is red alert for me, maybe I'm exaggerating. Heatsink design reminds me of cheap Acer machines and I would never expect something like that in Thinkpad. I have noticed few scratches on copper surface, so that was the reason for thermal pad, and I'm absolutely sure that previous (also first and only) owner never opened this machine, I was the first one to do it after it left Lenovo production facilities. Price was very tempting, about 4 times lower than overpriced ones on ebay, so I think it was a good deal after all.

[Screamer]

I could make my W700 serve as a comparison machine, but I would need to know how hard you pushed your W700 to reach that temperature in the first place.

I guess the copper's surface being scratched and all isn't unusual, but the thermal pad does not seem to ring a bell in my memory. Probably some sort of a assembly change, most likely.

It is a good deal, 4 times lower than the usual overpriced offerings are quite uncommon.

[zod]

I'm getting 75-76 degrees at 90% cpu load, room temperature is 22 degrees. Just bought 600, 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper, we'll see about results after lapping.

[Screamer]

Well, that is a little vague, but I guess it can do..

I pushed my W700 to the limit (100% load) by running a 1440p60 video on YouTube, which yielded a temperature reading of 79C with the X9100. I guess the temperature for your T9600 is alright, if we are getting the temperature readings from the motherboard's sensors.

This was done with an ambient temperature of 32C, by the way. I don't honestly expect the heatsink to hold the temperature below 70C, since anything below that would require the fan to be spinning at faster speed. Additionally, I brought my X9100's clock speed to match the T9600's, and it nearly gave the same temperature reading of what yours did (hovering at 77C). That more or less, seems normal to me at least. I guess it was just pure exaggeration.

[zod]

It must be, as I'm getting the same results with lapped heatsink. I have polished it shortly with 600, then little bit longer with 1000, and finished with 2000 until I got perfect mirror effect. At least I have a temperature drop of some 10 degrees from the moment it arrived, so if it was working fine then, it would work even better now.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Be careful with the power connector, 9 years of strain, mine broke the power connector on the board clean off.

[zod]

Yes, I know about power connector. Mine is pretty firm and I don't plan to move this laptop around, so it will be safe. Battery is completely dead, so I've made dummy out of it to cover the hole, it will be connected to ac adapter all the time.

[zod]

Just testing W700 with 50% constant load and tpfan. Switching between 2300rpm and 3800rpm makes only 3-4 degrees difference. I think I would need new heatsink, heat transfer is not good on this one. Most probably due to pipe, although i can't see any damage on it. Fan is working fine, everything is clean as it could be, airflow is fine, contact between cpu and heatsink is good and even, but on 3800rpm it blows almost cool air outside and temperature does not drop as it should.

[Screamer]

That temperature difference doesn't sound too good, and yes, you definitely need a new heatsink. If the heatsink was working as it should, the temperature drop should be extremely noticeable at 3800RPM. Heck, I believe it is even possible to get your T9600 to idle at room temperature if the heatsink was working right (with the fan running at 3800RPM, of course).

Be sure to get the W700's single heatpipe heatsink, not the W701's two heatpipe heatsink. The W701's improved heatsink does not fit in at the same spot of where the W700's heatsink would usually fit in, if you did not notice.

[zod]

You must be mindreader. I searched for heatsink and saw two-pipe model for 701. Then I've noticed it does not fit, nor covering the chipset. What a pity. Only reasonable offer on ebay was brand new heatsink for W700 in Texas for 26 USD. Not delivering to Serbia, of course... Fortunately, winter is coming here, so I have few months to find it.

[zod]

Now I'm really confused. I let W700 work over night in order to cure thermal paste, and now cpu idles at 48-49 degrees with higher room temperature (now it's 24 degrees) on bios fan setting (2270 rpm). Google Chrome + TP forum makes it go up to 55 degrees, lower than yesterday idle temp. This really makes no sense at all.

[MikalE]

Solenoid is used for noise filtering in dc cable as far as I know. It's present on every thinkpad ac adapter, round black plastic thingy in front of dc connector, just not as big and heavy as here.

You are talking about an RF filter coil. A solenoid is an electro-mechanical device and is something entirely different.

[CrazyTPFan]

So I've opened it, cleaned everything, applied new cpu thermal paste and temperatures dropped to 58 at idle, going up to 75 at load.

The idle temp should be a bit lower, but under load that's usually how hot my C2D gets in my R400.

[zod]

Solenoid is used for noise filtering in dc cable as far as I know. It's present on every thinkpad ac adapter, round black plastic thingy in front of dc connector, just not as big and heavy as here.

You are talking about an RF filter coil. A solenoid is an electro-mechanical device and is something entirely different.

Does it really matter? We call it solenoid locally, it can be RF filter coil if it is so important. I don't see how it's connected to this topic anyway, unless you're on some kind of error checking & correcting / teaching a lesson mission here. Two posts, not a single word on W700 from you, just provocative attitude. That's really annoying, much more then inadequate terminology I dare to use for RF filter coil.

[zod]

Now 26 degrees room temperature, cpu idles at 43 degrees for the last hour. Go figure. It's 15 degrees difference from yesterday test, right after polishing the heatsink and applying fresh MX-4, with ambient temperature being 4 degrees lower. Makes no sense at all, I didn't notice that Arctic Silver need any brake-in period, at least not with such dramatic difference. GPU idles on 44 degrees and it's in accordance with ambient temperature raise.

[Screamer]

It makes no sense, but hey, you have way better temperatures than before. Also, that is a relief to see too. I was thinking that the problem had something to do with the heatsink.

Either way, at least you have a cheap W700 that works well and is completely fine. Good to know the results, enjoy your W700!

[zod]

Well I was absolutely sure something is wrong with heatsink, but it works just fine. You are right, it's time to quit on mystery solving, abandon obsessive temperature monitoring and enjoy this beautiful machine. Many thanks for all your help and concern, Screamer!

[MikalE]

My apologies for not mentioning your great find. It's a nice system.

My post was not meant to nit-pick your choice of words. We are a technically oriented forum and I'm under the false impression we all know what the names of different devices are whether it be electrical or electro-mechanical.

I was genuinely wondering why a power cable would have a solenoid of some kind connected to it and what it controlled.

[Thinkpad4by3]

I was genuinely wondering why a power cable would have a solenoid of some kind connected to it and what it controlled.

I'll plug my Thinkpad into my Electromechanical slot machine(it has an outlet inside for some reason and you'll see how I plug my Thinkpads into some solenoids .

Also, I was wondering that too but I was pretty sure I thought it was choke, inductor, or a RF something or other.

[axur-delmeria]

The general term is inductor.

In this case it's a choke, as it's used to smoothen the DC input by blocking high-frequency signals.

[WarhawkCZ]

Solenoid is used for noise filtering in dc cable as far as I know. It's present on every thinkpad ac adapter, round black plastic thingy in front of dc connector, just not as big and heavy as here.

Hi there, you probably meant something else. Solenoid is an actuator which e.g. opens and closes a valve. You probably mean a ferrite bead which acts as an RF filter.

Edit: I started reading from the top and now I see that this has already escalated quickly.

[zod]

Glad to see so many unbelievably intelligent, undoubtedly charming and absolutely superior technical savvy guys at one place discussing important matters.

[ajkula66]

Battery is completely dead, so I've made dummy out of it to cover the hole, it will be connected to ac adapter all the time.

I've never owned a W70* of any kind, so congrats to you first and foremost...

Some ThinkPads won't run at full speed unless a working battery is present. You may want to check whether that's the case for W700.

Enjoy !

[Thinkpad4by3]

Battery is completely dead, so I've made dummy out of it to cover the hole, it will be connected to ac adapter all the time.

I've never owned a W70* of any kind, so congrats to you first and foremost...

Some ThinkPads won't run at full speed unless a working battery is present. You may want to check whether that's the case for W700.

Enjoy !

The W700 does infact use the internal battery from time to time, and needs it even on AC power. It's the only thing that explains why a laptop that has spent ALL of its life on a charger and moved probably a dozen times downstairs to another charger, but the battery drained down to only 5wh capacity.

[zod]

I've never owned a W70* of any kind, so congrats to you first and foremost...

Some ThinkPads won't run at full speed unless a working battery is present. You may want to check whether that's the case for W700.

Enjoy !

Thanks George! Benchmarks does not show anything wrong with AC adapter only, but I'm going to get fresh battery for it anyway. I was thinking about recelling this battery, it used Sony cells and power manager tells me it's not good due to normal battery wear. Cells are completely dead, I have measured 0,4V max per single cell. I could try recelling here, but I'm afraid how controller will react to replacement cells. Other option is Chinese replacement battery for 35 EUR, but I would rather have no battery at all.

[MikalE]

Glad to see so many unbelievably intelligent, undoubtedly charming and absolutely superior technical savvy guys at one place discussing important matters.

Like eight year old Thinkpads...