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X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

Old(er) Thinkpads with New(er) Intestines: X62/T50/T70/X210/X330 etc.
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bitonic
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Location: Rome, Italy

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#151 Post by bitonic » Tue Nov 21, 2017 3:41 am

vavet,

I've added a comment explaining the values: https://github.com/bitonic/x62-fancontr ... rol.c#L155 . I still don't really know what they _mean_, but that's the effect they have on the fan speed.

Given the PWM terminology one would think that the fan speed regulates the pulse width modulation frequency, but there are a few jumps in the 0-255 range and even in the range where the change is smooth it does not seem to change the fan speed linearly

bitonic
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Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:54 am
Location: Rome, Italy

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#152 Post by bitonic » Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:01 am

now onto the next problem: the fan emits a very high frequency vibration at low speeds (which i'm hearing for the first time since it was always at high speed before)

wujstefan
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#153 Post by wujstefan » Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:18 am

Other than that:

Battery charge and discharge times are a bit... say, they go mad sometimes. I've installed BatteryBar and it worked just fine with both charging and sicharging times... for two days :) then I needed to reinstall it to make sure what is the exact working time and how long would the system stay alive, and still it jumps every 5 seconds to different value, ranging from 3,5hrs to 8hrs on fresh battery (update every 5 seconds).

Is there any reasonable way to create own powerplan on those systems in W7? I guess you can't change voltage on i5 without changing the clock, but a good utility would be nice in here.
Too many thinkpads not enough time!
(stable under reduction)

NonesensE
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Location: GF/BS/OHA, Germany

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#154 Post by NonesensE » Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:21 pm

wujstefan wrote:
Wed Dec 13, 2017 11:18 am
I guess you can't change voltage on i5 without changing the clock, but a good utility would be nice in here.
You can set a voltage offset (read: undervolt) the X62 with Intel XTU or ThrottleStop (I recommend the latter: Less processor usage, built-in C-state check window which you need anyway for configuring the X62 to save power).
Sometimes coming over from the German forum...
X62s 3rd batch, [s]T61[/s] T70 14" 4:3 1st batch

flyingfishfinger
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#155 Post by flyingfishfinger » Wed Dec 27, 2017 7:35 am

Hi,
Fan control issues here.
Has anyone figured out what the numbers mean in the config file that go along with the Windows fan utility that was posted?
I can't quite figure out how it transitions from one state to another, and additionally it seems to go into states that aren't in the file sometimes (as indicated by the scrolling command line output).

It mostly seems to work for about 10 seconds, then the fan goes silent. Does this have anything to do with how the system cooling policy is set?

I was trying to transcode some video and I ended up with a thermal shutdown...

Rafael

wujstefan
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#156 Post by wujstefan » Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:44 am

Hello Rafael,

I'm fighting pretty similar issue here for some time and it seems that the fan behaviour depends on many variables.

There are 4 values in the text file:
a,b,c,d
[up temperature], [down temperature], [fan speed - PWM modulation], [NULL]
up is when to start this speed
down is when to drop to the previous line
fan speed is in 0-100 range (actually did not try more)

When working w/W7 this thing did not work for me, at all. It worked for - say - 30 seconds, and then the fan started living its own way. No matter what I put in there. fullstop.

However, when I installed W10 it actually started working... the opposite. Figuring the numbers in the default thermal table it seems that the lowest fan speed should be there for "100", and the highest one for "1" - and it worked this way for W7 (for a very limited amount of time, however). On windows 10, while on A/C, it works the opposite - highest fan speed is set at "100", and lowest at "1".

I was happy when I found the solution until I switched to battery. Now the nasty thing is living completely on its own; floating between max and min speeds of the fan all the time when the .exe file is on. Another thing is that the temp monitor is unable to execute from W10 autostart (while all the other apps do not have this limitation).

Still fighting. Will let you know when I make it.

EDIT: OK, it works, and it works perfectly. Maybe the only thing I'm missing is sething this app in startup, but this does not seem to work at all. All I did was a BIOS update and W10 update.
Too many thinkpads not enough time!
(stable under reduction)

wujstefan
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#157 Post by wujstefan » Mon Jan 08, 2018 5:36 am

Another thing: have no idea if this has been already mentioned, but "BatteryBar" app gives true charge/discharge rates under Windows.
Too many thinkpads not enough time!
(stable under reduction)

ktron1
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Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:27 am
Location: Espoo, Finland

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#158 Post by ktron1 » Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:48 am

Has anyone managed to update the Intel CPU microcode on an x62?

I'm suspecting that the microcode updates from Intel check the CPU version, and as the x62 has an ES (Engineering Sample) CPU, it will not update.

There are of course other reasons to update the microcode, but patching the Spectre variant 1 vulnerability (https://spectreattack.com/) is my main concern. And we have probably not seen the last of these kind of CPU vulnerabilities that need a microcode fix..

vavet
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Posts: 233
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Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#159 Post by vavet » Wed Feb 28, 2018 2:18 pm

HI,
does anyone know if there are new BIOS versions available for x62?
I have tried all those fitting 2nd batch from https://forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=vi ... id=1791568

I am using 10/12. The problem with this version is that it keeps the fan up most of the time, so I have to use the temp monitor tool. I have managed to make it run in the bg with auto resume (stop/start) at computer suspend/resume. the only problem is that the Temp Monitor seem to start misbehaving when some inadequate temp readings appear. The solution can be either a more error tolerant version of the tool (with delayed reaction on temp reading jumps) or a better bios version

Another issue is the low emitted noise from fan when it spins slowly. I am using the maglev fan which emits less noise but still can be annoying. My fan configuration skips these speeds that emit noise, but nevertheless the fan jumps to these speeds due to these wrong temp readings ( I suppose).

Any insights on those issues are welcome.
X61 (T9300, 8gb RAM, 120gb SSD, LED SXGA+, integrated webcam, invisible touchpad, modded battery etc.)

SynbiosVyse
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2017 1:06 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#160 Post by SynbiosVyse » Sun Apr 01, 2018 12:05 pm

Bibin wrote:
Thu Nov 24, 2016 4:13 pm
I got my MiniDP working with a VGA adapter. Neither a MiniDP to HDMI nor MiniDP to DVI adapter would work, though. On the bright side, the VGA one was fully cooperative, and hotplugged without issues.
This was also my experience. I tried a mDP adapter to combo VGA/HDMI/DP and it didn't work. The small adapter that goes from mDP to VGA works fine. My mini-HDMI to full HDMI adapter also does not work, and is annoyingly loose. I'm pretty disappointed with the video output options on this thing. They are a deal breaker for someone on the move which is what the X series is geared for in the first place. I wish they just left the VGA port at this point since it's the only thing that works anyways.

Anyone have any other luck?

mDP -> VGA/HDMI/DP -> doesn't work
mDP -> VGA only -> works
mini-HDMI - > HDMI -> doesn't work

This is the one that is working for me:
https://www.staples.com/Staples-6-Mini- ... ct_2094888

NonesensE
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Location: GF/BS/OHA, Germany

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#161 Post by NonesensE » Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:19 am

AFAIK, the mDP doesn't support DP's HDMI/DVI alternative mode. There are, however, active adapters that decode the DP signal and encode it as HDMI. These should work, but I haven't tried yet.
Sometimes coming over from the German forum...
X62s 3rd batch, [s]T61[/s] T70 14" 4:3 1st batch

SynbiosVyse
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Location: Boston, MA

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#162 Post by SynbiosVyse » Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:10 am

NonesensE wrote:
Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:19 am
AFAIK, the mDP doesn't support DP's HDMI/DVI alternative mode. There are, however, active adapters that decode the DP signal and encode it as HDMI. These should work, but I haven't tried yet.
That certainly sounds like the issue.

Regarding the mini-HDMI port, has anyone gotten it to work? I'm not sure what brand mine is but all it is is a direct mini-HDMI to HDMI port and is very loose and isn't detected at all.

NonesensE
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#163 Post by NonesensE » Wed Apr 04, 2018 12:50 pm

SynbiosVyse wrote:
Wed Apr 04, 2018 8:10 am
NonesensE wrote:
Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:19 am
AFAIK, the mDP doesn't support DP's HDMI/DVI alternative mode. There are, however, active adapters that decode the DP signal and encode it as HDMI. These should work, but I haven't tried yet.
That certainly sounds like the issue.

Regarding the mini-HDMI port, has anyone gotten it to work? I'm not sure what brand mine is but all it is is a direct mini-HDMI to HDMI port and is very loose and isn't detected at all.
I have used a HDMI screen via a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable at work, worked fine. Don't know the brand, though.
Sometimes coming over from the German forum...
X62s 3rd batch, [s]T61[/s] T70 14" 4:3 1st batch

Blzut3
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Location: Akron, Ohio

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#164 Post by Blzut3 » Sat Jun 23, 2018 6:08 pm

Have a 3rd batch X62 that started auto powering on and then automatically and permanently turning off in a few seconds after until power is removed. After some debugging I noticed it worked with the keyboard removed and later narrowed it down to the keyboard screw closest to the video outputs. If that screw is out or loosened the machine works fine, otherwise it appears to be shorted.

Not sure why it spontaneously started doing this, but wondering if anyone has any ideas on why this might be and if there's a better solution to fixing it besides leaving that screw loose?
X62 (3rd batch), T530 (2359-CTO), T61 (7663-CTO), A31p (2653-H5U), T22 (2647-8EU), 380XD (2635-EAU)
W700ds (2753-E7U), X41 Tablet (1867-5GU), T21 (2647-9BU), 760XD (9546-U9E), 755CD (9545-9BD), 755CSE (9545-6BE)
R60 (9461-DUU), R500 (2718-BG1)

RealBlackStuff
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#165 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sun Jun 24, 2018 4:48 am

Maybe there is some obstruction between chassis and mobo at that point, which causes the mobo to bend there, when the screw is tightened.
Probably a poor solder contact.
Remove the mobo, check, and Dremel the obstruction away if so.

dmdsoftware
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#166 Post by dmdsoftware » Sat Jul 07, 2018 8:21 am

I had some issue similar where sometime the machine would power off or on when ran off battery (no AC connected) -- this was on my tablet X62. In particular I had noticed the power off would happen quiet frequently when the screen was moved. I had narrowed down the problem with the metal plate between the motherboard, keyboard and LCD ribbon cable. I had made some adjustment to the screws a few months ago after sometime the LCD cable would pop out when I'm moving the laptop around. I've now revised my strategy to only screw down the top portion of the cable and leave no screws in the part that connects to the motherboard. It was sufficient enough to avoid the cable from popping out and no more random power on/off issues when on battery.

My only remaining problem is one related to the i915. I sometimes get a random hardware freeze (the functions keys work but nothing else does). It doesn't happen often. But I'll run my laptops using suspend/hibernate so that I'll only reboot maybe once a year. I've gone > 1 year on a lot of my systems in the past. I can sometimes only go a month, a week, sometimes only half a day before I get a hard lock. I first attributed to possibly the ram, but I've ruled that out. I'm convinced it has something to do with the i915 driver or one of the settings I'm using. I'm still using jessie, so I'm using a backport X11 that supports broadwell. I think that might be a contributing factor. On my stable systems, they were always haswell or prior, which didn't require the backport X11 version. I believe I had to move to the backport version years ago due to screen artifact and glitching with i915 broadwell. Anyone using their X62 on Jessie?
X62 & X62s & X62T SXGA+ i7 5600u 8-16GB
Helix i7
Carbon X1 i5 UHD
W520 4x-i7
Sony Vaio P799 (8" LED 1600x768)
"Think" Ultrabook i7
LegoThinkpad 11"

in storage:
X131e AMD
X60/X60s, X61/X61s/X61T, T61, T420, X30

past:
X20-X24, 390X

whitelabel
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 3:32 am
Location: Moscow, RU

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#167 Post by whitelabel » Mon Nov 26, 2018 3:46 am

Hi everybody,

I've got some serious issue with my X62. The backlight has died!
It started with a LED indicators (for disk activity, caps/scroll, battery, etc) completely gone few months ago (doesn't work anymore).
And also I had random power-ups with almost blank backlight. In such cases the backlight would turn on after some time and without
having me do something about it. But now it's completely gone.
Our Chinese pal seems like he's more interested in making money selling his stuff than providing adequate level of support for those in need.

Does anyone have any idea regarding this issue?

Oh, btw I use that famous SXGA LED daylight kit from Monty.
However I had replaced the driver, but it didnt help. There's something with the mobo.

dmdsoftware
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#168 Post by dmdsoftware » Mon Nov 26, 2018 1:03 pm

When you say "driver" do you mean software driver or the "lcd controller board". I've repaired a lot of Thinkpads in my time, and everything you describe points to the screen's controller board -- the backlight, the system LED lights. And you mentioned you did the LED mod, so either the controller board died (one supplied with the mod kit) or there was a short circuit (there are a ton of warnings that come with the mod kit that shorting something happen if the ground isn't cut). Secondary, it could also be the cable. Do you ever get any flickering? I've had some SXGA cables go bad on me since they are all custom made hack jobs to begin with. I've had a few fail and usually the first sign is the screen cuts out or starts to flicker constantly.. And the supplied one with the X62 is no different. The only SXGA cables that have never failed me, even after 10 years in service were the originals with the SXGA X61t.

I don't think you can even try using the original controller board because I think the LED mod is non-reversible.
X62 & X62s & X62T SXGA+ i7 5600u 8-16GB
Helix i7
Carbon X1 i5 UHD
W520 4x-i7
Sony Vaio P799 (8" LED 1600x768)
"Think" Ultrabook i7
LegoThinkpad 11"

in storage:
X131e AMD
X60/X60s, X61/X61s/X61T, T61, T420, X30

past:
X20-X24, 390X

whitelabel
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Location: Moscow, RU

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#169 Post by whitelabel » Mon Nov 26, 2018 1:17 pm

Hey, thanks for your reply! :D

I meant the hardware driver board, which is located under the display.
I got a spare driver from Monty. I did a quick change off, but no luck.
I'm not sure whether this spare driver is working or not. I suppose it should be OK.
However it shows the same results in this X62 - blank backlight and only BT, WLAN, WIFI LEDs are working.

Yes, this NOS SXGA display came with a CCFL backlight.
It's hard to tell, but I think I have this particular LED-modded X62 for over a year.
LED upgrade was done simultaneously with the installation of the X62 motherboard.

dmdsoftware
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#170 Post by dmdsoftware » Mon Nov 26, 2018 1:39 pm

I guess you only have the one display right? If you have the original XGA screen and XGA cable around, that would help to definitely conclude the motherboard has gone wacky.

The first X62 system I modded the backlight giving me issues. Randomly failing. Sometimes just idly sitting there it would cut out. I dismantled everything and it turned out to be the SXGA cable and the screen and backlight was still working fine.
X62 & X62s & X62T SXGA+ i7 5600u 8-16GB
Helix i7
Carbon X1 i5 UHD
W520 4x-i7
Sony Vaio P799 (8" LED 1600x768)
"Think" Ultrabook i7
LegoThinkpad 11"

in storage:
X131e AMD
X60/X60s, X61/X61s/X61T, T61, T420, X30

past:
X20-X24, 390X

whitelabel
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 3:32 am
Location: Moscow, RU

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#171 Post by whitelabel » Mon Nov 26, 2018 1:51 pm

I don't have any XGA screens (and probably cables) left unfortunately. Can't test it that way.
But I do have a couple of NOS SXGA displays and a pair of SXGA LED daylight drivers from Monty
(from a spare X62 and the forementioned one).
Do you think that this is a display/LED driver related issue? I thought it has to do with the mobo.

Thank you for your ideas! This gives me some additional steps before I decide to give up with this X62...

SynbiosVyse
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Location: Boston, MA

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#172 Post by SynbiosVyse » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:20 pm

sloggy wrote:
Sun Nov 27, 2016 3:10 am
I've accepted that my battery is dead and ordered a replacement. I'm absolutely in love with the machine and haven't experienced many of the issues I've read about (my fan is almost dead silent), though i've noticed that scrolling down webpages and playing games causes a terrible screen tearing effect. anyone have a fix?
Did you ever determine if a new battery fixed your issue?

I've purchased old new stock prismatic battery which refused to charge (understandable). But now my 8-cell which was about 10 months old and working fine with the X62s for a while refuses to charge. I think I let it get depleted too far and for some reason the X62s just refuses to give it some juice to revive it. According to the battery stats on tlp-stat, the capacity is still above design so I think the battery itself would have been fine otherwise.

Then I bought an aftermarket 4-cell which came at 70% charge and just depletes when it's in the machine, that doesn't charge either. I know it's bad to use aftermarket batteries but this one clearly has not been depleted too far.

Finding batteries for this thing have proven a pain.

vavet
Sophomore Member
Posts: 233
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#173 Post by vavet » Fri Feb 21, 2020 6:05 am

I am configuring my x62 with fresh manjaro install. Can not make the sound work. Alsa-tools is installed but still no sound. It worked in past with mint running 4.x kernels but on manjaro I tried 5.4 and 5.5 kernels with no luck.
here is what I have done so far:

installed alsa-tools

Created snd-hda-intel.conf to /etc/modprobe.d/ and add this line into it:
options snd-hda-intel model=auto index=1,0

Add these lines to /etc/rc.local:
/usr/bin/hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x01 SET_GPIO_MASK 0x01
/usr/bin/hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x01 SET_GPIO_DIRECTION 0x01
/usr/bin/hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x01 SET_GPIO_DATA 0x00

the file didn't exist so I created one

do I miss something?
X61 (T9300, 8gb RAM, 120gb SSD, LED SXGA+, integrated webcam, invisible touchpad, modded battery etc.)

vavet
Sophomore Member
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Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#174 Post by vavet » Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:56 pm

just checked with 4.19 kernel still nothing.
I have done all steps described above.
X61 (T9300, 8gb RAM, 120gb SSD, LED SXGA+, integrated webcam, invisible touchpad, modded battery etc.)

ieure
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 9:34 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#175 Post by ieure » Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:55 am

I picked up a 3rd batch X62 semi-recently and it's very nice, aside from the palmrest heat.

For the WiFi, can someone confirm that this is a good replacement card that will run cooler than the stock one?

vavet
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Posts: 233
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#176 Post by vavet » Tue May 05, 2020 7:48 am

ieure wrote:
Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:55 am
I picked up a 3rd batch X62 semi-recently and it's very nice, aside from the palmrest heat.

For the WiFi, can someone confirm that this is a good replacement card that will run cooler than the stock one?
yes it is
X61 (T9300, 8gb RAM, 120gb SSD, LED SXGA+, integrated webcam, invisible touchpad, modded battery etc.)

NonesensE
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Posts: 138
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Location: GF/BS/OHA, Germany

Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#177 Post by NonesensE » Thu Jun 11, 2020 5:48 am

ieure wrote:
Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:55 am
I picked up a 3rd batch X62 semi-recently and it's very nice, aside from the palmrest heat.

For the WiFi, can someone confirm that this is a good replacement card that will run cooler than the stock one?
This is the card that most people use, the most recent Intel with an mPCIe interface and probably the best choice if you don't want to use an adapter (to M.2 as i do for my Intel 8260) or a Chinese design (they made an unofficial mPCIe version of the Intel AX200 which is M.2 originally). I have used one myself for years in a T61, no complaints.
Sometimes coming over from the German forum...
X62s 3rd batch, [s]T61[/s] T70 14" 4:3 1st batch

flyingfishfinger
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Re: X62 problems, quirks, and fixes

#178 Post by flyingfishfinger » Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:52 pm

May I continue to recommend the Azurewave AW-CE123H card? Bluetooth 4.0 and Wifi ac - plus it's Broadcom-based so it'll work on a Hackintosh if you so desire. My workhorse for many, many years.

R

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