Palm rest too hot

[richarddd]

The palm rest on my aged X61s has become uncomfortably hot. The area, two or so inches to the right of center, used to be warm, but recently has become much worse.

Nothing has changed which might cause this, so far as I can tell. tpfancontrol has not shown much if any change, generally being in the mid to upper 50s.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[Brian10161]

It's the wireless card creating the heat.

One thing I have done which does help is lowering the power consumption of the card (transmit power). Also, make sure the holes to the right of the palmrest are clear. They do provide some ventilation for the card.

[richarddd]

You are right, it's the area around the wifi card.

I'll try changing power in the device manager - I'll try turning down the the power management setting by a notch or two. I'm currently a notch above center.

[richarddd]

Temperature is now noticeably lower. Hard to tell so far if there's any effect on performance.

Thanks!

[Tasurinchi]

I guess you have the palmrest with the FP reader on the right side and the extra vents for better cooling, right?

Another thing you can do is installing a half sized mini-PCIe, I've put an Intel 6200N in mine and the temperatures went down quite a bit. Check my post with pics in this thread

Cheers

[richarddd]

I'll look for one of those. Where did you get yours? Another alternative would be a USB wifi stick, but that's less appealing.

This is the model? http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?rt=nc&LH ... 86.c0.m301

I currently have an Intel 4965AGN.

I have the PF reader at bit right of center and lots of holes in a row on the top right side

Palmrest has heated up since my last post.

[Tasurinchi]

This is the model? http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?rt=nc&LH ... 86.c0.m301

It seems so. I got mine from Ebay, don't forget to buy the bracket in case the seller doesn't include one with the card. I had to buy both things separately.

My Palmrest had some copper shielding above the place where the wlan card is, but according to this forum some models will have them, some others not. Maybe you can get one with the shielding or check if it's possible to made one.

[richarddd]

It seems so. I got mine from Ebay, don't forget to buy the bracket in case the seller doesn't include one with the card. I had to buy both things separately.[/quote]
None of those include the bracket, but it seems rather inexpensive (assuming this works):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/bracket-mini-ha ... 5297wt_827

Is your palmrest now cool, or is it just less hot?

[Tasurinchi]

Is your palmrest now cool, or is it just less hot?

As posted at the end of the thread linked above, I'm getting around 47°C after browsing the web for a couple of hours. At least according to Gnome Applet under Linux Mint.

Other Thinkpads I have are cooler, but 47°C is not bothering me at all.

[Brian10161]

I think I may opt for one of those cards for my X60s one day. I have a few other projects on the go at the moment, so I don't know when I'll get around to this.

Looks promising, I'll see about getting a 6200N for mine. Thanks for the info Tasurinchi!

[Tasurinchi]

I'll see about getting a 6200N for mine

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the card is not "white listed" for X6x models. In my case it was no problem since I've applied the SATA-II Bios mod to my X61s which also removed the white list. But that BIOS mod is not for X60x models.

There is a famous No-1802 patch but it's only for the X4/T4 series. I'd recommend to take a look in this forum first before buying anything.

My 2 cents...

[claimui]

I have always had the hot palmrest issue with my X61s. I tried adjusting the wireless power management settings, and even turning off the wireless with the wireless switch, but the problem is still there.

I met somebody who was really familiar with Thinkpad models (he did an AFFS display panel swap for me), and asked him about the palmrest heat. He said the wireless card is only part of the problem; the main source of heat is the southbridge that is located on the underside of the laptop, underneath the wireless card. He said switching wireless cards might help, but only a little.

Apparently in later Thinkpad models, Lenovo relocated the southbridge to somewhere under the keyboard so the palmrest heat is no longer an issue with those models.

It's been a long time since I cracked open the bottom of the laptop so I haven't checked it, but it seems to make sense. If so then the only real solution would be to add some extra cooling in that area. My Thinkpad didn't come with the second fan (or the connector on the motherboard), so that is not an option -- although maybe there is some other way to tap power and put a fan in that spot, or put a fan in the PCMCIA slot (but all the PCMCIA fans nowadays seem to be USB-powered).

Anybody else have thoughts on this?

[richarddd]

You might test by turning off wifi, then checking whether the palm rest still gets too hot.

On my machine, the bottom is significantly hotter than the top, and turning off wifi makes the palm rest an acceptable temperature. Turning the power down usually makes the temperature acceptable, although sometimes it gets too hot.