Can the T60 run at Maximum Performance without overheating?

[RaviN]

I've read the temperature control threads but need some clarification: Can the T60 run for extended periods at Maximum CPU Performance?

I ran Spybot on my T60/XP SP2/Radeon X1400 today. With NHC set up for Maximum Performance, the CPU temperature quickly climbed past 95C and NHC went into its shutdown clock. Going to Dynamic Switching got the temperature into the high 70s C.

Per the other threads, I shut down, opened the system, and blew out a lot of dust from the fan area, cleaned the clogged inlets on the bezel, and reassembled it.

After the cleanup, CPU temperatures during Spybot operation were ~65C in Dynamic Switching mode. When I tried Maximum Performance, the temperature shot up past the 90C mark.

Repeatability:
As I started to type this, the system is idling at 48C in a ~25C room in Dynamic Switching. Starting Spybot causes the temperature to jump to 66C. In Maximum Performance mode, the temperature went past 83C in about a minute. Went back to Dynamic Mode and the processor is still pegged at 2GHz, 90C in about five minutes and climbing. Went to Max. Battery to force the CPU speed and temperature down.

The T60 fan is very quiet through all of this. It is on but the sound is not prominent. TPFancontrol shows the same temperatures.

[Miller88]

I've ran my T60 overnight a few times at 100% CPU usage on Max Power (using notebook hardware control). Never a problem with it.

[meekus]

If the CPU temp is spiking all the way to 90C or higher, the cooling fan, the heat sink fins, the thermal block atop the CPU and/or the layer of thermal grease between said thermal block and CPU is/are surely jacked in some way.

That said, I've been running my T60 at maximum performance for nearly 6 months now without any thermal issues whatsoever.

[RaviN]

Dang. I will put fan disassembly on my to-do list. I've never touched this subsystem before so I guess my T60 must have come this way.

[Pascal_TTH]

You can read this :
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ght=firegl

T60 HSF have a poor design due to thick thermal pad between GPU and copper plate.

[RaviN]

Yes, I had read that thread but I've not seen high GPU temperatures.

Progress/Resolution: I downloaded a newer version of TPFancontrol and for whatever reason, the fan started to spin at higher speeds when the CPU was under the load of a Spybot run. Under Dynamic Switching, the CPU stayed at 2GHz but instead of staying at ~3700RPM as it did in the past, the fan speed went up to ~5800RPM. The CPU temperature did climb to 94C but it took a very long time to get there and the scan actually completed. Previously, the system redlined before the 25% point.

I will do more cleaning of the fan housing and perhaps use the Arctic Silver thermal grease that has been recommended.

[Pascal_TTH]

I got a T60p and it never runs so hot even during heavy work or game. The fan never sur such high speed (3700 rpm max). Something must go wrong with your HSF. Contact SAV or if warranty is finished, download HMM, open your T60, clean the HSF plate, CPU, GPU and MCH, then use AS5.

[planetf1]

Before fan replacement I could get my T60p to hit 100 deg.C within about 4-5 mins of "glxgears" and/or "cpuburn" (under linux). Idle was 70-80 deg.C. This was with fan speed reported at ~3900 rpm

Afterwards I ran the same load, at full speed CPU for ~3 hours and struggled to get to 80deg.C. Idle was ~47 Moderate use not much higher. Perhaps 60 with lots going on.

Note - I can't be certain exactly what was fixed, but it seemed to be quick/simple and I was only told the fan assembly was replaced. No idea about hsf/thermal compound etc.

[DarkScythe]

I had a similar issue with my T60.
I couldn't even reinstall Windows because it would heat to a point where it would shut down before Windows setup could finish loading off the DVD even though the fan was spinning.

In Windows, the temperatures kept climbing which seemed to indicate to me that the heat was not being evacuated despite the fan going crazy.

I suspected it was the TIM, so I opened it up and cleaned off the old thermal stuff, applied some random Arctic Silver Ceramique I had lying around, and the temps dropped drastically. I didn't know it was a somewhat widespread problem since I bought my T60 used, but I'd check that if possible.

Afterwards I managed to undervolt the T5500 down to the minimum 0.95v that NHC allowed for my CPU at all multipliers which should help keep temps a bit lower as well.