R30 keeps shutting down

Message

puckshot · #1 Post by **puckshot** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:12 am

Hi - I'm not really a technical person so forgive my amateurish description here.
I have an R30 with Windows XP running. The recurring problem I have is the when the fan comes on it will either shut down the laptop or it will slow the performance down immensely (eg. scrolling through a word document can take forever).

I went an bought a notebook cooler. It seems to have improved a bit, however, it still happens far to often. Does anyone have any pointers on how I can correct the problem?
Thanks.

#2 Post by **daeojkim** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 8:52 pm

Did this happen before?

It is possible that the CPU is not making contact with the heatsink and/or there is no thermal paste between the CPU and the heatsink. This would cause overheating of CPU and cause it to shut down.

Download the mobilemeter and install it and see how hot your CPU gets. It may be CPU overheating issue.

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValle ... mm0310.zip

If it overheating, download Hardware Maintainance Manual from IBM website and see if you can disassemble to check the CPU and heat sink.

If there is no thermal paste get some from a computer store, reapply the paste and reassemble. Then test the temperature and see if it shuts down.

But of course if it is under warranty you should send it in just in case.

JK

puckshot · #3 Post by **puckshot** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:18 pm

thanks - I'll try that

dswtan · #4 Post by **dswtan** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 5:48 pm

Our R30 does the same (overheating is surely the cause) -- I've also noticed the fan sometimes stops, but this is not the main issue, as it fails without that problem.

I will look into the possible heat paste problem. The machine has become unsuable for more than a few minutes at a time and it's a waste to see it just sitting there. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Update:]
Wow! Problem solved! 2 issues found:

1. The thermal paste pad between the CPU and heatsink (pipes to the fan unit) was nothing like I'd seen before -- almost rust-like. Dark brown, decayed-looking. Hardly anything there. Definitely ripe for replacement, which I did.

2. There was a complete felt-like "pad" embedded in the fan unit's tiny radiator grille. The machine had been used in a dusty environment for a while in the past -- whether this getting bunged-up caused the thermal paste to fail or two separate problems here caused the heat-induced restarts, we'll never know.

But after clearing out the dusty pad in the fan and refreshing the thermal paste, we are now back up running again! mobmeter.exe is reporting a fairly steady 55-58C. Nice!

I am left over one screw from the refit. I guess that is traditional.