Heating and power consumption after T30 BIOS update

[AlphaCentaury]

Hi everyone,

For some reasons, I updated my T30's BIOS yesterday to the latest version (2.10) and the embeded controller. Everything ran successfully. But since than I first noticed that the CPU fan works more, and more often. I also noticed that the alimentation was heating much more than normally, and I found it finally broken this morning...

How is it possible?
Is it a problem with BIOS parameters? Or with the BIOS version?
I don't have any idea of the version I was using before...

I juste spent some time to build this laptop back, any idea is welcome!

Thank you.

[Harryc]

Define 'broken'. What does and what does not work? Describe what you see and hear from power on.

[AlphaCentaury]

Define 'broken'. What does and what does not work? Describe what you see and hear from power on.

I noticed a low battery message as the power supply was plugged to the T30. I'm also using a X40, so I tried with its power supply, it was charging the battery again. The original power supply is not supply any voltage anymore.

What I meant by this issue is that my T30 appears to generally consume much more (too much) power than before the BIOS upgrade... Is it due the bios reset (possible bad default parameters) or to the BIOS version?

Thank you for your interest.

[Harryc]

So, right now you have BIOS 2.10, and Embedded controller 1.07? The major change for EC 1.07 was "(New) Improve battery current protection logic.".
Hmm, try an earlier BIOS and embedded controller to see if symptoms change.

[AlphaCentaury]

Yes, I upgraded my T30 to BIOS 2.10 and EC 1.07.
I've tried BIOS v1.9 and 1.8, and EC 1.06. Nothing changes.

I measured the power consumption: 26W without battery. It seems to be ok. Maybe was the charger too old and spent too much time under pressure. Can it get really warm sometimes (charging+active use)?

About CPU fan, the CPU doesn't seem to overheat. It's more like if the fan waits too long to stop. Imagine I start the laptop from cold state, and I load the CPU until the fan starts. After that, I close my applications and wait to see if it stops. It takes minutes to stop, and the air stream becomes cold quite fast, despite the fan keeps runing. Is it normal? What is controlling the speed of the fan? The hardware or the system (any driver issue?)?

Or can it be the upgrade that had a kind of negative placebo effect on my perception?.. I'm nearly sure this laptop ran more quietly, I hope it wasn't a fantasm.

Anyway, thank you for your help.

[RealBlackStuff]

What power supply are you using? It should be 72Watt / 4.5A / 16V.
Were you using a 56W unit from an older Thinkpad? That would explain the getting quite warm of the power supply.
Probably because of a loose GPU, your video doesn't work, and heat gets directed to wrong places on the motherboard.
You should replace that motherboard really.