My ThinkPad is so HOT !!!

Hi there,

Here's the thing: it seems that my T61p has a heat problem... Sooner tonight, I was doing some video conversion in order to have iPhone compatible video files, and my laptop went up to 96 Celsius (both the CPU and the GPU). It's really too hot isn't it ??

Also, I was playing Modern Warfare 2 last night and the laptop just shut down...

I use the little APP TPFanControl to look at the speed of my fan and it was on the state Fan 7 (close to 4000 rpm, is it the normal speed for the maximum state ??). The fan itself seems to work fine. I put my hand beside my laptop and there was really hot air coming out of there...

First, is this normal ?? If not, what is the problem ?? Should I open the ThinkPad and look and the cooling system ?? Maybe add some thermal paste between the CPU (+GPU) and the cooling system ??

Right now, I have some Ice-Packs in the freezer and I put them under my computer when I play video games, but it's not the best. In fact, I was able to play GTA IV without any Ice-Pack last year, and it's a really demanding game too... It looks like the problem is new...

Thank you very much

alber

 

First thing. If the air is hot, that is actually a good sign as the hot air needs to come out of the computer.
Second thing. When the CPU reaches ~100C, it will automatically shut down.

 

Might be dusty. You could open it up and clean it out.

 

Is ~4000 rpm the maximum speed for this type cooling system ??

 

I know, my Laptop shuts down all the time when I play video games. GRRR !!

 

Didn't lenovo offer free fixed on the nvidia graphic card for the t60p.

 

T61p....

To OP, you should try cleaning the fan, try opening up the laptop by removing the palmrest and the keyboard.

 

My T61p never went significantly beyond 80C.
4000rpm as highest fan speed seems a bit low. I think it should go a little above 5000.

In addition to what has been suggested, a short-term workaround might be getting a cooling pad (I don't have one myself, but people here say that's effective).

 

What are the best models to use with a ThinkPad ??

 

Mine never goes above 65-67C during video conversion, 100 percent utilization. Fan speeds are about right. Level 7 (tpfancontrol) is somewhere in the 3700-4000 rpm vicinity. There is an emergency speed (tpfancontrol level 64 I think) that'll shoot it up to like 6000 rpm over the course of a minute. It's loud at that level. It probably wasn't designed to spin that fast for too long.

 

Yeah, I saw that state Fan 64 when I was doing the video conversion yesterday...

 

A bit more information, I actually don't usually run tpfancontrol, so under bios control, my fans never go past level 3 (3000 rpm). For temps, I was wrong, I'm usually at 165-167 F, so about 75C and that's as high as they go, and that's at 100% utilization.

 

If you want you can try setting the fan to absolute max just before you start playing games, on TPfancontrol, 64 is the number for max fan speed on the T61p, 7 is official max but ThinkPads also have sort of an emergency cooling fan speed resserved for when things get critically hot.

I know you're thinking, well that's gonna just kill the fan faster, perhaps, but a heatsink replacement is alot easier than a whole mobo swap due to failure of the GPU from heat problems...

 

Thank you for the tip.. You're right, it's better to risk killing the fan faster than burning my mobo.

Also, I'm thinking about finding another cooling system online.. I think the FRU # is 42X4685 ... Can you confirm this ??

 

Did you already clean out the dust?

 

Yeah I did it an Air Spray Can from the outside of the ThinkPad. It still go up to 100 Celsius when I convert videos for 20-30 minutes... Next step is to open the laptop and check inside I think...

 

I meant inside. If you spray from the outside you may be spinning the fan in the opposite direction it was intended and harm the bearings. So I would only open it and hold the fan in place and clean each blade. Also clear out the dust from the heatsinks and on the motherboard in general.

 

However, since this sudden heat is showing up now, it very well may be symptom of the massive nVidia deffective GPU's. I'd suggest taking the heatsink off and reapplying thermal paste.

 

make sure you clean the inside. 99% chance your problem will disappear.

 

Are you still under warrantee? because you may have to get the motherboard (or maybe the whole laptop) replaced if the GPU fails. Extreme amounts of heat is one symptom of a failing GPU.