T21: HD overheated and more

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Artefact · #1 Post by **Artefact** » Sat May 13, 2006 1:56 pm

Hi friends,
I just bought my T21 and have few questions which I hope are not too stupid.

So:

T21
384 Mb of RAM (next day upgrade from 128 Mb)
WinXP Pro

--and I've bought Toshiba MK6026GAX HDD as a replacement for poor old 12 Gb drive. So my questions are:

1. HDDLife shows that the HDD temperature quickly goes up to 50-51 (after WinXP installation). Seems very bad, or am I wrong? Note that I'm planning to use this laptop for hours or even days continuously. Is that possible do something? Old drive worked at approx. 42-45. I can buy a cooling pad for home use, but it's supposed to be a MOBILE computer...
2. The drive works at UDMA2. The speed is really good, but why not UDMA5? Or maybe the motherboard doesn't support higher modes?
3. Why does battery charge go DOWN when I (I mean, my laptop) am on AC power? It doesn't take any charge unless discharged almost completely.

And, finally, I'm glad to join your community which seems to be very friendly. Nice to know the T30 battery is a good boy.

))

Thanks
A

Website · #2 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat May 13, 2006 2:35 pm

Welcome to the Forum!!

Here are some of your answers:

1. The reason the temp is higher is because your old drive was a 4200rpm drive and the new one is a 5400rpm drive. The faster drives create more heat. Note: the 50-51 temps are safe.

2. Not sure.

3. Do you have the correct 72W AC adapter? (16V 4.6A) Or do you have a 56W AC adapter? (16V 3.6A)

Artefact · #3 Post by **Artefact** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:23 pm

> Welcome to the Forum!!

Thanks a lot.

> 1. The reason the temp is higher is because your old drive was a
> 4200rpm drive and the new one is a 5400rpm drive. The faster
> drives create more heat. Note: the 50-51 temps are safe.

Safe that's great new. But what temp would be critical?

> 3. Do you have the correct 72W AC adapter? (16V 4.6A)
> Or do you have a 56W AC adapter? (16V 3.6A)

I guess the 2nd one as everything is original and I guess I occasionally saw fugures you mentioned. Not sure for I'm out of my home right now and will be back on Tuesday to make sure.

But do you mean the ORIGINAL adapter won't charge ORIGINAL battery properly?

I really appreciate you help, my friend.

A.

Website · #4 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:47 pm

The 72W adapter is the original, but I have purchased some T2x laptops from ebay and they came with only a 56W adapter. While the 56W adapter will work with the T2x, it isn't recommended.

Artefact · #5 Post by **Artefact** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:25 pm

> While the 56W adapter will work with the T2x,
> it isn't recommended.

Oh, I didn't know that. Will see on Tuesday. Still have a little hope I've got the better one.

Thank again.
A.

Artefact · #6 Post by **Artefact** » Sat May 13, 2006 6:12 pm

And one more thing...I always used desktop PCs and knew that 50 degree temp is almost a catastroph. And here it's o.k. Sounds funny.

Hopefully I've got the better AC adapter, then I'll buy the T30 battery.

If anyone knows of DMA mode pls write a line, otherwise see you guys on Tuesday and god bless you for your help. If you need an advice on web-design, or Perl programming, or text processing, don't hesitate to ask me via PM.

Take care
Andrey

Website · #7 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat May 13, 2006 6:29 pm

If it helps, my 60gb 4200 drive idles at 44-46 and runs at 48-49 with a normal load.

Artefact · #8 Post by **Artefact** » Sat May 13, 2006 7:19 pm

>If it helps, my 60gb 4200 drive idles at 44-46 and runs at 48-49 with a normal load

Sorry, I didn't get you message first...
Figures are quite close,so I guess everything is o.k.
I assume laptop HDDs are designed for higher temp usage then.

Artefact · #9 Post by **Artefact** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:58 am

Hi again,

Now I'm back from a business trip where I had enough time to analize your advices. A strange thing: hard drive health status changed from 100% 2 weeks ago to 41% today (according to HDDLife). Which means that ~50 deg. temperature is NOT o.k.

And you were definitely right about the AC adapter, the more powerful one solved all the battery problems. Despite the fact that 16V & 5.36A adapter IS recommended as it is clearly printed on the Thinkpad bezel.

#10 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Tue May 30, 2006 1:16 pm

At one point I ran a 600E with a 40gb Toshiba MK4026GAX and overheating was an issue in my computer as well. I once left the computer on for a few hours to get Win XP SP2 installed and the computer was just crazy hot. I eventually replaced the drive with a Hitachi 5k80 and I'm still yet to get the same heat issues with that drive.

Artefact · #11 Post by **Artefact** » Tue May 30, 2006 5:43 pm

So wrong brand is the issue in my case?..

Artefact · #12 Post by **Artefact** » Tue May 30, 2006 5:51 pm

Just wondering, how can a drive go so much down in "health" factor in 2 weeks? What must happen and what must be written to S.M.A.R.T to look like that?..

Website · #13 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:36 pm

If it helps, the one in my T21 is a Hitachi, I believe. It could very well be that the Toshiba 5400rpm drives are running too hot. I just checked the status of my hard drive, with PC Doctor and everything is ok...it is sitting at 49 right now. It went up to 54 by the end of the test.

Artefact · #14 Post by **Artefact** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:52 pm

tfflivemb2,

may I ask you to try HDDLife? You can get an eval version here:
http://www.shareup.com/HDDlife-download-28308.html
It's just couple of minutes...I'd really appreciate that. I wonder what's your drive "health" factor after 54.
PC Doctor shows that everything is ok in my case as well, but I have some bad experience with it not showing upcoming problems.

Website · #15 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:03 pm

Kewl program....it gave me the model number of my hard drive. It is a Hitachi DK23FA-60.

Work time: 8 months 13 days 21 hours
(6093 hours)

health status: OK!

performance: EXCELLENT!

By the way, it is sitting at 51 degrees now, according to HDDLife, and 50 according to MobileMeter.

Artefact · #16 Post by **Artefact** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:10 pm

Thanks a lot!

And what was the percentage of health? Mine was 41 with the same "O.K." statement (after 152 hours

(().
And the program is good, yes.

I think it's good time to look for a new HDD. What a pity.

Website · #17 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:28 pm

It took me a few minutes to get the temp. I could only get it by setting my mouse over the icon in the system tray.

It said 100%. Here is a screen shot.

Artefact · #18 Post by **Artefact** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:52 pm

Oh, sorry, I didn't know that the eval version has those limitations.
Funny, but mobmeter and hddlife temps are always different (~1 degree).

Thanks you so much anyway.

I see you have all the bells and whistles in your XP -- do you prefer that look, or you just don't mind? I personally always disable all the unwanted stuff just after install, the use some registry hacks to increase menu speed etc... is anyone interested in optimizing performance, especially on old machines, I could help. My laptop is 1.3 times faster than my friend's acer travelmate 1.4 GHz, that's funny. 87 Mb of memory used without applications.

Website · #19 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Tue May 30, 2006 8:03 pm

No problem, I like the eval version. It appears to still give you the info by setting the mouse over the icon in the system tray.

As for XP, yes, I have all the bells and whistles. I am not a speed freak. I prefer to have options more so than speed.

Its funny, because I use the T21 which is a PIII 800, instead of my R40 which is a P4 2.2GHz, because I like the comfort of it.

Artefact · #20 Post by **Artefact** » Tue May 30, 2006 9:00 pm

Yes, T21 (all Thinkpads I believe) is a great machine, before I got it I wasn't even sure I needed it and then I fell in love.

I haven't bought the T30 battery yet, it's going to be even more fun then.

T21: HD overheated and more

T21: HD overheated and more

2 weeks later...

You mean that

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