R60 getting hot?

[rorlover]

I just upgraded to a R60 and it was taken very well care of. When under full load my cpu will get close to 70c. Is that to hot? And is my hdd getting hot to its running at 40c.
Thanks!

[Cigarguy]

At full load everything seems pretty normal to me. I'd be concern once you hit mid-80s deg C and higher. Of course the HDD will get hot too as it is enclosed in the same case.

Whenever I pick up an old Thinkpad, I'll strip everything apart, clean and blow the dust out, apply new thermal paste and reseat the CPU, GPU and chipset.

[Medessec]

Since it's an R60, it's probably because you've put a Merom CPU or a really high-clocked Core Duo in an R-series chassis/motherboard/heatsink that isn't made to cope with the heat... as much. At least-I assume that's the case. I'm not completely sure the R60's cooling properties compared to the T60 are really that significant.

If not, just make sure that when the upgrade was done, that thermal paste was re-applied. It's never good to just take a CPU out, then stick another in, hoping the stuff already on there does the trick. Also make sure your fan is spinning up just fine, and is pushing hot air out.

40C is about what HDDs will hit in laptops. It's not a critically hot temperature for them. Same with your CPU, as long as it's not hitting 70C all the time, you should be ok. But anywhere above 80C(as Cigarguy said) and that's not good for the CPU or the laptop. You said the upgrade was "very well taken care of". Did you have it done, or did you do it?

[RealBlackStuff]

He did not modify an existing laptop, but acquired a new one (R60).
And an R60 is bigger than a T60, so it is actually better suited for high(er) temps.

Since the machine is about 5 years old, the original thermal past will have dried out.
Remove the fan and clean it and the CPU with Isopropyl alcohol.
Then apply fresh AS5 thermal paste (about the size of a rice corn, on only the CPU), spread it out evenly with e.g. a credit card, and reassemble.

[rorlover]

Well when i said i upgraded i didnt upgrade the laptop i bought a newer one to replace my old one. And it does have a fairly decent processor its the core duo t2500 running at 2.0ghz. I have blown the dust out even tho there wasnt much. And im not to comfortable with reapply thermal grease to a laptop since im more of a desktop person.

[RealBlackStuff]

Well, it's your problem then...

[rorlover]

Alright so im gonna pick some thermal paste up and whats a good cheap stuff or should i just get artic silver? And how difficult is this process? On a desktop its fairly easy and have done it multiple times.

[Cigarguy]

If you are semi-competent on the desktop side. It's not difficult to work on Thinkpads at all. For me it's one of the reason why I love this series so much. Download the Maintenance Manual which will walk you through, step by step, the disassembly. As for applying thermal paste, thermal paste is thermal paste, you do it all the same. IMO, there's hardly any difference between good TIM, AS5, MX4, Noctua, etc, they are all within a few degrees of each other. It's the technique and application that matters.

[Medessec]

Indeed- It's fairly easy, just be careful not to shred the screws when unscrewing them. Thinkpads(especially the T60 and R60) are fairly easy to get inside. I'd recommend AS5(Arctic Silver 5) There's sellers on ebay who let the stuff off for under $8.

You said you're familiar with desktops. If you happen to have some spare paste laying around, you can probably use that. Just make sure it's good stuff, and make absolutely sure to clean off whatever was on the heatsink before.

The HMM for the R60-series can be found here: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 749_02.pdf

If you're not comfortable taking apart your laptop, and you can't find someone to do it for you, you'll have to deal with the high temperatures. Which isn't critically bad for the laptop, but I imagine it'd be a bit uncomfortable or annoying.

[rorlover]

So just ordered some thermal paste. And I'm very careful with the screws already had to drill one out because the guy I bought it off installed a new keyboard and stripped it out. when I get the thermal paste I'll see if it helps. Thanks a lot everyone.

[Medessec]

No problem. Hope it works out for you.

[rorlover]

Well i reapplied thermal paste and it hasn't done much other than lowering idle temps at idle its 40-50c. While i wish i could say that it helped when its under full load it hasn't. It will go above 70 almost to the 80s as it did before. But i only got it that hot when i played 4 1080p videos other than that it stays a little bit cooler. So what else could i do? should i try to use that program for thinkpads fans or just a different processor. Im used to the cool under 40c on full load of my desktop pc.