New T61 Hot

My new T61 seems hot to me compared to my old t40. I could put the t40 on my lap for hours, but with the t61 I feel the heat. The heat seems to be coming from the memory area. The amount of heat is in direct proportion to the amount of ram installed, 4gb very hot, 1gb not as hot 2-3gb somewhere in between.

Is this normal? The specs are nothing fancy t8300, 14 inch screen, Vista x64.
I shut down the swap file, so that eliminates the hard drive.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Stu

 

What kind of graphics card do you have? Dedicated cards will cause more heat.

I'm not sure about the 14" but on the 15" the memory area is right under the trackpad. For me it doesn't feel hot there on the top or bottom at all.

Most of the heat on the 15" is focused on the top left where the vents are. Actually the entire left side sometimes feel warm/hot. I can even feel heat coming up through the keys. It's nice on a cold morning.

 

My T61p smokes when playing battlefield2. I recorded a temp of 183F via SIW. While I do not know how accurate SIW is when reporting temps, I know you dont want to touch the area around the left side vents for any lenght of time.

Have fun with your new pad!

 

Thanks for the replys. I don't have the builtin video card and Aero is off. Do you think I got a bad pad?

 

What is SIW, how do i get it?

 

I mean I have the build in video card.

 

sorry about not making myself clear. Info about SIW can be found at http://www.gtopala.com/

 

My computer is Ok. The problem was when I put on my lap, my legs covered the vents underneath. The solution was some re-enforced cardboard. Now running cool!!!

 

First i will like to say,

Welcome to the ThinkPad family! i am hoping that you are having fun with it.

and let me see if i can help you. you know something have had a thinkpad for over 8months. and it is really great. i just love it. heat is never a problem with me. my thinkpad never gives of heat and i have the thinkpad temp monitor. which records the temp as 48F-53F. and i use this thinkpad as my primary system.

i have upgraded my memory to 3gb and yes the memory is right under the trackpad and if i flipped my laptop over i do feel that it gets warm. but never hot (too warm, i think) that it will bother me. the specs are 2.0Ghz, 3GB ram, intergrated grahpics, media card reader, dvd rw, 120Gb harddrive.

and trust me my thinkpad is on most of the day. i am a engineer so i use autoCAD, listen to music , watch movies, browse the net and etc...

if you have any questions let me know i will help to answer them for you

enjoy you new thinkpad.

 

Thanks very much for your offer of help. Yes I am having a lot of fun, now that the cardboard solved the heat problem when on my lap. I have the verizon broadban and I works very well.

Were did you get your thinkpad temp monitor?

 

For something to put on your lap this should help. Should cool the lappie some and at the same time not burn your legs. Comes in black too.

 

acctsw11, if you are looking for a really simple application that shows temperature, I use http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

It's really easy to use because it's just 1 application file that you double click and it shows your machine's temperature.

I've used other monitors, but this one is the simplest just for checking temperature and it seems to be as accurate as others I've used.

 

Hi, thanks for your help guys. I installed hwmonitor. The results were very interesting. CPU and harddrive running cool (41C,35C). My memory banks are peaking at around 55C on M0 and 40C on M1. On M0 I have a 2gb G. SKILL chip on M1 I have the 1gb chip from the factory, a Samsung. Do you think the 2gb chip should be replaced?

 

Acctsw11, think about a putative x64 relation. When I run on Vistax64 my computer gets much more hot compare to when I run on XPx32.

 

I have heard that Vista with Aero off runs about as cool as XP. Never heard about the x64 factor? I still would like to know if a 2gb memory bank should be peaking at about 55C?

 

As cool as XPx32 or as cool as XPx64?

 

I didn't know that x64, whether Xp or Vista was any hotter then x32.

 

It is a suggestion, a putative fact.

 

Well I learned a new word today, thanks!