T61 temperature, 90C

My nearly 2 year old t61 seems to be showing some problems with temperature. at idle it will be 45-55C, but when i put it under load temps rise quickly to 80C and slowly rise to around 90C, at which point the cpu scales back and temps quickly drop to 70C and are maintained for a while until the cpu stops scaling back and the cycle starts over again.

I already opened it to clean out the dust after i noticed the temps, and it doesn't seem to have helped.

This is obviously a problem, I don't think a cpu should be hitting 90, and it should never have to scale back to protect itself.

So, what's some advice? I bought the laptop on the epp that was public around memorial day 2 years ago. I have a 3 year accident warranty coverage so even if they blame me for this I should be covered. So should I call lenovo and get them to send me a new heatsink, reseat my current heatsink with better thermal paste, or some other way to use my warranty? I should point out i have some case damage and the Ethernet port doesn't lock the cable in, both things I planned to get fixed before the end of the warranty when i have time.

T61, T7300, X3100, 2 gigs ram, 200gb 7200rpm hdd.

--Chris

 

Could be time for a thermal paste change. Might as well give Lenovo a call to take advantage of your warranty for both problems.

 

By "put it under load", do you mean 3D gaming? If you're stressing the GPU and CPU simultaneously, I would not be surprised to see high temps, especially if you have a discrete GPU. Lenovo simply put in more power into the T61/T61p than it can effectively dissipate. It's great for applications that might require short bursts of CPU/GPU, but it just can't handle sustained, high loads. At least, that's what I get with my T61p. It couldn't handle Warhammer for more than a few minutes, even on a thermally conductive surface with large fans pointed at it.

 

Run Orthos CPU test and check for the temps, I shouldn't be higher that 65 ~ 70 celcius. I would be a good idea to clean the fan and apply new thermal grease.

 

I was using orthos to stress the cpu, its the tool recommended in the undervolting guide. I was thinking about undervolting the cpu when i felt the hotter temperatures, but cpu undervolting shouldn't be used as a fix imo, more as an improvement to an already managed cpu.

 

Maybe the fan heatsink doesn't work right anymore, try getting lenovo to send you a new one and buy a decent thermal paste like arctic mx-2. my cpu only reaches 55C at load, ridiculously low, with gmax3100 graphics.

 

a heatsink is a heatsink, it cant work good and then stop working good. Dont change it.

the fan is the piece that can give out, or get clogged, thus resulting in poor cooling.

also, the KBD can play a role as a heatsink as well (as mine does), so if you have used it a lot, it may have moved, thus minimizing the contact area between it and the chip (part of the heatsink)

The thermal compound may have gotten hard and cracked due to moves, thus limiting again the contact area between the chip and the heatsink.

playing 3D games results in high GPU temps, which end up heating the CPU as well since both chips sit on one heatsink.

When stressed with ortos my CPU hit 82 deg C on the fifth minute of the test, so CPUs can deffanately can go above 70 deg C (somebody mensioned this temps above)

undervolting is a great way of reducing CPU temps (mine went 10 deg C down), and TPFanControl is a great program that can speed up the fan, thus lowering both CPU and GPU temps.

good luck.

P.S. and it's not true that lenovo put more power on T61/p that the laptop can dissipate ... Mine doesn't go above 72 deg C with overclocked GPU (big time) and playind 3D games for hours. You just need to know how to make things work the way you want them to work.

 

ok, so it seems like my best option is to get some good thermal paste, and reset the heatsink; then do some undervolting to help some more. If that doesn't work then I'll call lenovo and get warranty service.

While I don't think I should break anything while doing that (especially with the help of Lenovo's service videos), will it void the warranty? The heatsink isn't listed as consumer-serviceable.

 

I have a problem with my t61 overheating up to 95 and shutting off sometimes. I am online all day and sometimes my ip would glitch and my chat application would overwork itself to re connect. I have not been able to fix the problem, but have discovered a workaround. I downloaded Thinkpad Fan control V0.20 that offerers a manual override of the fan bios. When the laptop is hot, I switch the fan control to manual at level 7, which will cool it down in a few minutes and saves the bios shutting the machine. Like I say, not perfect, but it workes.

 

Perhaps you're right, but in my book, if they sold me a laptop that overheats like mine does, it can't properly dissipate the heat it's putting out. I've heard the same thing from others, so I know I'm not the only one. You're likely right that it's just a matter of "making things work", maybe by undervolting, maybe by using better thermal compound or adjusting the heat sink or heat sink retainers. My problem with is that opening up the laptop and doing anything like that with the heat sink would probably void my warranty. Voiding my laptop warranty (when so much else can break or go wrong with it) is not something I'm anxious to do...

 

The funny think with the warranties is that when they expire, you laptop breaks ..

so F the warranty, make it right once and then enjoy long time. I opened mine and changed the compound because I saw pictures of laptops that were missing compound. Yet it turned out mine had compound .. lol. I ended up changing it anyways.

and to the person above: the last version of TPFanControl is 0.54 . And when you put setting of 64, your fan switches to max speeds, which for out thinkpads is around 4600rpm (compared to the speed of 3400rpm that you get when you put 7 as max setting). This 64 setting does wonders .. and allows me to overclock the GPU a lot while tems stay low. Nice.

good luck