Hate Heat

[larango]

In July 2010 I bought a X100e (AMD Turion - Neo X2 Dual Core L625. 1.6Ghz. With 4GB of RAM and 320 GB of Hard Drive).

I am replacing a very good and loyal T42P. I was looking for a smaller machine and longer battery life.

HEAT
To my surprise my X100e gets extremely hot every time I use it. Starting from 65°C (normal) to over 83°C degrees C. I cannot use it over my lap because of the extreme heat.

It used to shut down every once in a while due to the heat as a BIOS security measure. All that went away after installing TPFcontrol. TPFC manages the fan much better than BIOS, so it doesn't turn off anymore. Hoewever fan is almost on every time.

Battery Lifetime
Out of the box, the battery lifetime was really short. I formatted the X100e using Rescue and Recovery and suddenly the lifetime of the battery improved big time.

However it doesn't go any longer than 3 1/2 hours. I was expecting a lot more -the reviews are not totally fair saying 4 or 5 hours-. You can get over 4 hours working with a non-resource intensive application running, the lowest screen brightness and setting the power mode to high energy savings.

Conclusion
I was expecting a lot more of this machine. I have bee trying to get the good side of it. I can stand the short battery lifetime.

But the heat... the heat is terrible. It is amazing that I have to install an additional piece of software (TPFC) in order to avoid sudden turns off when the temperature is so high that the Bios has to shut it down as precaution.

Some posts in forums talk about installing another software to manipulate the Processor Speed to prevent high temperatures. I cannot believe that a regular user needs to go further than the usual preinstalled software to fix something that was designed wrong from the beginning.

At this point I am very frustrated with my X100e. I will probably replace it for a X201. But I am also afraid about the heat in the X201.

However let's talk about some Pros:
Points in favor: the design, the keyboard -although the scroll lock key is missing-. The trackpoint -a feature I love in a laptop, too bad very few manufacturers build them in their laptops-.

I am glad some of you like your X100e. I don't.

[underclocker]

To my surprise my X100e gets extremely hot every time I use it.

Sorry to hear the X100e isn't working out for you. Out of curiosity, what are you running? I'm trying to figure out why some run hot and others do not. Maybe it's the CPU? I was thinking that maybe it was just the MV-40, since I have the L335 and it doesn't run very hot. Could it be that the L625 runs hot for everyone? If it's a specific program that's causing the heat, I'll try it on the L335. I'd like to see if I can get this one to hot up.

[ThinkRob]

There's something wrong with your machine.

I have an X100e with the L335 (same chip, sans 512KB of L2 cache) and it doesn't get hot enough to go into thermal shutdown, even when running cpuburn for 20+ minutes straight.

[larango]

Out of curiosity, what are you running? .

First of all, thank you both for your kind and prompt comments.

I am running Windows 7 (32 bits). Heat occurs using any application (e.g.:Msft office apps). Forget about a resource intensive application (Video playback or editing), with them the heat is over 80°C as a common mark.

As a matter of fact, right now and just browsing through this forum, I am getting a TPFC software reading of 77°C to aprox 79°C and the fan running at 7 (highest) until the temperature goes down to 70°C and cycles when hitting 79°C. And by touching the bottom of the laptop you can feel the heat is real, not just a software reading.

The above is quite abnormal and I don't know why the temp is that high. Usually temperatures are between 68°C and 74°C. But with videos running, the temp indicator raises the bar over 80°C

Your messages has encourage me to call Lenovo support and report the problem.

Finally, some posts in forums have stated that the heat on the X100e is an issue -see list below-, but in the other hand hopefully it is just me with a defective machine. Regards.

Posts, articles or reviews talking about the heat of the X100e
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/lenovo- ... z15VOrq5FO
They measured temperatures over 100°C and talked about the heat in a full paragraph
regards

http://wadah-it.com/hardwares/lenovo-th ... eview.html

http://www.mybestlaptop.org/lenovo-thin ... eview.html
a review written in January 2010 saying that the new x100e "will probably result in high temperatures and low battery life."

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... -load.html

http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Thi ... d-p/238226

http://computerhardwarespec.blogspot.co ... nkpad.html

[steveg47]

Have you updated to the latest bios? Newer Bios's often contain updates as to when and how fast the cooling fan runs and can significantly improve overall cooling.

[The Solutor]

Fiirst of all use the correct sw to check the cpu temps.

Eg speedfan.

Most sw can provide wrong values.

Then update your catalyst drivers to the 10.10 version (not to the 9.6 provided by lenovo updater) and your flash player pulgin and/or activex, you will find that even watching a 1080 video will be a breeze.

The x100 isn't a fresh machine but hits normal temp is around 60C in win7 oer 54C in win xp

[yhp2009]

@larango
Sorry to hear of your x100e woes.
Just to give you hope of what is possible...
According to "Core Temp" software, my x100e runs about 32C to 45C during regular browsing or word processing. And when I have youtube on for 20min, the temp hit about 60C+ with max about 70C but no more.

I think you had a faulty x100e sent to you and you should deal with Lenovo to get it fixed.
Good luck.

[larango]

Fiirst of all use the correct sw to check the cpu temps.

Eg speedfan.

Most sw can provide wrong values.

Then update your catalyst drivers to the 10.10 version (not to the 9.6 provided by lenovo updater) and your flash player pulgin and/or activex, you will find that even watching a 1080 video will be a breeze.

Thank you for the advice. Speedfan registers pretty much the same temperatures. After a few weeks of work with this machine, the heat continues and is annoying when you have to work for long periods of time. I get quite a few shuts downs a week (automatic Windows 7 self shut down to protect high temperatures from damaging the board). Forget about working with the x100e on your lap, heat is very uncomfortable.

Next step is to update catalyst drivers. Then take it to Lenovo repair - service.

However I believe this is something wrong by design in double core machines with the configuration I have.

By the way, during this time I am also experience something odd that I am reporting in the following post, hoping to find a solution.

Brightness control increasing by itself
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=92613

[steveg47]

There is an option in PowerPlay (Catalyst Control Center) called Vari-Bright. Unchecking this option may resolve the "Brightness control increasing by itself" issue you have encountered..

[larango]

There is an option in PowerPlay (Catalyst Control Center) called Vari-Bright. Unchecking this option may resolve the "Brightness control increasing by itself" issue you have encountered..

Thanks for the tip. I tried it out and seemed to work for a few days, but suddenly the bright-up behavior started again. So, the problem still persists. Thanks again for the suggestion.

[clinesr]

Here is a tip about heat I recently discovered.

Go into the Lenovo Battery/Power Manager by clicking on the battery life icon on the windows task-bar.
Click on the Advanced Settings drop down menu and make sure that Active Cooling is enabled for both Battery and when Plugged In.
This setting solved my overheat issues and does not appear to affect battery life according to the Lenovo Power Manager.

[larango]

Here is a tip about heat I recently discovered.

Go into the Lenovo Battery/Power Manager by clicking on the battery life icon on the windows task-bar.
Click on the Advanced Settings drop down menu and make sure that Active Cooling is enabled for both Battery and when Plugged In.
This setting solved my overheat issues and does not appear to affect battery life according to the Lenovo Power Manager.

Thank you. I didn't know that option existed. Checking it out I found it was enable in most of my settings. So even though it is enabled, it cannot do much to solve the heat issue. Thank you for the tip.

[larango]

Just for future reference regarding heat in my X100e, I used a infrared thermometer (a consumer one, not a professional one) to measure the external temperature of the bottom of my laptop and from its side vent.

I started by running common office apps during 10 minutes resting the X100e on a wood desk. Then I took the computer and flipped it upside down and took several readings in a wide area of the bottom. Then I flipped it back and measured the side vent. I did this quite a few times over 3 days to make sure I was getting the same readings.

The results:

Bottom (where the sink heat and memory slots are located at)
Between 42°C and 52°C that means 107.6°F - 125.6°F
in a few occasions I got error readings due to higher temperatures that my thermometer was unable to read.

Side Vent
Over 52°C / 125.6°F
Of course I knew the heat was going to be high, but I didn't expected that high.

Couldn't measure exact temp because my infrared thermometer started to give me error readings due the the high temperatures. Too bad it wasn't a professional one to measure exact temperature.

Note:
Accuracy probably not as good as being measured with a professional infrared thermometer. But just by feeling the heat with your hand you know for sure that the bottom is overheated.

[clinesr]

One more tip that I use on my L625 equipped x100e is to set the processor to set the maximum CPU speed to Adaptive for both battery and when plugged in.

I can't say how much this affects performance when playing games but, it really does seem help tremendously with heat.

Sounds like something is wrong with your x100e. I wonder if the fan is even working in it.