T61p GPU overheat

Hi everybody!

Have a problem... i'm running my 15’ t61p under vista ultimate x64. Every time I’m trying to play 3d-games GPU crashes in 15-20 minutes after start (it goes to blue screen of death or returns to vista with message “video driver stopped to respond”). To control the temperature I installed riva tuner 2.0.6. It shows me GPU temperature online in game, so I revealed that crash happens when GPU temp is approx 88-92C. I tried to underclock GPU, it resulted in performance decrease only but not in temperature.
The only one way that I know to solve this problem is to undervolt CPU. But I don’t know any program able to go that in vista x64.

Does anyone know the solution? May be there are rather new programs I didn’t hear about? Or some new alternative videodrivers?

Thanx…

T61p
T7500 + 4gb ram + 2x250 hdd
Vista x64

 

Install tpfancontrol and see what your other system temps are. Back when I did the t61p (15.4" model) review, with the cpu+gpu fully loaded I never broke 80C.

 

Thanks for answer!

But i found that tpfancontrol, which i so liked to use in 32-bit systems, does not work in x64. Moreover, even if it works well, it does not allow neither to undervolt cpu nor to force fans to 64 (boost) state which was available in t60 and earler thinkpads.

 

also make sure all your air vents are clean of dust and get a cooling pad

 

> also make sure all your air vents are clean of dust and get a cooling pad

Already done. Laptop is rather new and i prefer to keep it clean. As addition i use cooling pad, without it video crashes in 5-10 minutes after start.

 

That's rather unusual. It might just be the driver. Does this happen with a lot of games?

 

Looks like you are experiencing the well-known 4gb ram/ nvidia fx570m problem - see this thread for more info http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=47755.
The temperature is not high enough to cause the crash. Take one of the memory sticks out and test. If that fixes the problem, then probably you are going to need a motherboard replacement.

 

88-92C is not normal. But try the above suggestion (remove 1 stick) too. Even if it was the 4gb problem it still shouldn't go that high on stock. Run other temp monitoring apps (PC Wizard 2008) to collaborate those temps.
btw the newest versions of tpfc works on Vista x64...V40 and v41..I'm using v41 here.

 

> That's rather unusual. It might just be the driver. Does this happen with a lot of games?

I played NFS carbon for hours and had no any problems. I also used XP x64 before Vista and had problems with GPU crashes in games but after I undervolted CPU in XP by rightmark cpu problem disappeared in a moment

> Looks like you are experiencing the well-known 4gb ram/ nvidia fx570m problem - see this thread for more info http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=47755.
The temperature is not high enough to cause the crash. Take one of the memory sticks out and test. If that fixes the problem, then probably you are going to need a motherboard replacement.

Thanks for advice, I already saw this tread but didn’t have time to read it all. I’ll try to take out one stick, that’s interesting… ohh, don’t wonna have any deal with warranty – that is a big problem while I’m in Russia 

> 88-92C is not normal. But try the above suggestion (remove 1 stick) too. Even if it was the 4gb problem it still shouldn't go that high on stock. Run other temp monitoring apps (PC Wizard 2008) to collaborate those temps.
btw the newest versions of tpfc works on Vista x64...V40 and v41..I'm using v41 here.

Wow, didn’t know about new tpfc!
I kept an eye on temperatures while I gamed and ran simulations, in 1/2 CPU cores fully loaded average CPU temp was 90/95C, in CPU+GPU fully loaded GPU temp was at least 100C. It had never caused any problems so I always considered it as normal. The idle temps were 45-50C for CPU and 55-60C for GPU...

 

Could you link me to tpfc v41? I googled it and all I get is the old v0.18.

 

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=376319#376319
The link is in the sig of the person who is currently maintaining tpfc - troubadix. Be sure to thank him for his hard work.

 

Thanks!
Also, could you recommend some fan speed settings? And also, if they were, for instance:
Level=48 0
Level=55 1
Level=60 7
Level=68 64
Level=80 128
Does that mean at 80C, the fan runs at whatever speed is associated with 128?

 

> Could you link me to tpfc v41? I googled it and all I get is the old v0.18.

I found it yesterday by google... can send it to your e-mail if you write it.

TPFC v41 allowed me to turn fan on boost mode in which I successfully played crysis for half of hour. GPU temperature never exceeded 80C and crush didn’t happen. Nice

 

It means at 80, fancontrol switches to BIOS mode till temp drops to 68 before switching back to Smart mode. I think that's more of a safety fallback feature in case tpfc's smart mode isn't controlling the fans properly leading to a temp rise. So 128 would be use at hi temp lvls ie 80 here.

Those settings look ok. I suggest playing around with it to find what suits you best. I started by using values posted by others initially then found one that's more in line with how my system runs.

 

Mine are :
Level=46 0
Level=54 1
Level=60 7
Level=68 64
Level=80 128

 

Thanks for the help, guys! I've got it now, and I've set my fan speeds to the desired temperatures. However, I'm not too sure how accurate the temperature readings are.

1 cpu 50°C (0x78)
2 aps 38°C (0x79)
3 crd 30°C (0x7a)
4 gpu 47°C (0x7b)
5 bat 50°C (0x7c)
7 bat 28°C (0x7e)
9 bus 31°C (0xc0)
10 pci 41°C (0xc1)
11 pwr 43°C (0xc2)

I'm using RivaTuner and PC Wizard 2008 to check the temps. These two programs seem to agree on the GPU temp, but TPFC reports the GPU temperature about 8C cooler than the other two programs. Also, there seem to be some CPU temperature discrepancies too. Which program should I trust?

Also, temperature 5, the battery, is always at 50C, even when I adjusted the power profile to for minimum power consumption. Is this accurate? I set my fan shut-off temp at 45C, and this is the only sensor that prevents it from doing that. Can I just offset this -5C and not worry about it?

 

You're on AC?
My batt temp never goes that hi even on load. 34C during normal use. 40C when the system is pushed.

You can set IgnoreSensors=BAT in your ini file to ignore that sensor from tpfc's temp readings. I have a bunch of other variables there besides BAT like PWR, BUS etc..

As for GPU temp readings...Every other temp monitor I tried seem to agree except for tpfc....so not sure what's up with that. I tend more to go with the others...gpu readings on tpfc seem a tad low. According to tpfc the gpu temps are lower than cpu even during gaming which doesnt seem right...it should normally be higher than the cpu esp when running a game.

 

When I check the battery temperature from Power Manager, it gives the same temperature as sensor 7, which is the more appropriate temperature. Could sensor 5 be malfunctioning?

 

Could very well be. Your other sensors look alright, only thing that sticks out is sensor 5. When you're stressing your system does that temp go up just like the other sensors or does it stay stuck at 50C?

 

I just fired up a game of Bioshock. The CPU and GPU (corrected) went into the 60's, as expected, but the battery stayed at 50. Does yours work? Is there a big difference in the readings for sensor 5 and 7?

 

I have the same issue. At first it would just hard reboot after a couple of minutes playing MSFS X. I called up lenovo and they had me send it in and they ended up replacing the mobo and some other small things. Now that I've gotten it back I am constantly getting lockups/hangs when and notifications that the "display driver has recovered from a crash" which makes playing games really annoying. With AA on these happen almost immediately.. with them off it takes longer but does happen. This leads me to believe that my gpu is still overheating. I am most likely going to call Lenovo again to see if they can fix this for me. sigh... what a pain..

 

It looks like your sensor 5 isn't working then. Mine goes up (40C max ) just like the others. Just put it in your ignore line in the ini. Might not be a major issue when you're running on AC most of the time but on batt maybe.

 

emilio have you tried running any temp monitors...ie pc wizard2006, rivatuner etc. That's the first thing I'd do if I suspect overheating.

 

Forgot to answer this...but anyway on normal load the difference is about 3C with the higher one being sensor 5. On full load sensor 5 goes up by about 6-7C but sensor 7 remains pretty much the same maybe 1C more.

 

I have same heating problems with T61 if you're setting your constant CPU speed at highest possible.
With T7300 running constant at 2000, bios fan speed, my temperature is so high above 68 degree celcius and my system is shutdown somewhere as you after 2h30 running continuously.

 

I think there's something wrong here. I have it set to max speed as well, but temperature idles at around 60C. Try using Thinkpad Fan Control. Using my own settings, my T61p now idles at 50C.

 

Emilio - is your 2gb ram configured as one or two (2 X 1 gb) memory sticks? If two, take one out and see if the crashes stop.