T61p GPU overheating, any solution?

Hey guys,

I have my t61p running nothing at idle and gpu will stablized around 78C, but whenever i run any gpu related programs or games, like 3dmark or COD4, it will not last for more than 30 secs before it shuts down automatically. and upon restart, i can see temperature of the GPU reaches over 100C.

I've sent my laptop to lenovo depot and they replaced system board, fan, bottom cover. However, it still crashes like before. Then i dropped it at local service center and they also replaced the system board, fan and processor. Still no luck, the laptop will shut down under 30sec when gaming.

Any suggestion? i'm tired of sending it away as i needed the laptop. i dont wanna waste another 1 or 2 weeks on the repair.

Thanks

 

I don't blame you but... I think you are going to go on a fishing expedition. Lenovo, in good faith, has replaced just about everything that there is and yet you are still over heating. What is your ambient temperature? I dont know what to tell you other than to do check and make sure your vents are are clean and all pet hair is gone.

Renee

 

Sorry to hear that. My T61p had just recently died on me. I blame Nvidia for not stepping up and taking responsibility for their faulty gpus because as you know, the 570m uses the same g84 core as the 8600m, which have been plagued with thermal instability and high failure rates.

I'm lucky it lasted the two years in college so far. I had to periodically reapply thermal paste to keep it from burning itself to death. Either way, my idle temps were much more reasonable at 47-50C, whereas your's are through the roof.

Do you still have warranty? When was it purchased? Was it bought with a credit card?

My recommendation: If you bought it with a credit card, just call up their extended warranty department and ask for a refund due to faulty equipment. There's no way to fix this problem...changing planars will only postpone its quick and inevitable failure. As you can see by Lenovo's lack of action regarding this issue, they just switched to AMD/ATI graphics for the meantime.

 

Yes, everything is replaced under warranty, however, the temperature still goes well over 100C under gaming, the ambient temperature is about 30C recently. As for cleaning the vent, they replaced the fan and system board twice, i dont think there is any dust in them.

Mine still have warranty until 2011, so i dont want to change the paste myself to void the warranty. guess i'll have to send it in again.

Is there anyway that they can replace or refund the laptop if they are not able to fix this shutting down issue?

Thanks for all the suggestions

 

Well may I suggest something.
If you need the machine and want to keep gaming on it, then buy a heatsink compatible with your machine.
Upon arrival, use the original heatsink, replace the thermal paste on the CPU and the pads (I think the T61p uses those), put in some good quality paste such as AS5, MX-2 whatever.
Maybe bending the heatsink on the GPU area to make sure it's in contact with the GPU.

either that route

or just keep sending the machine for service, althogh I must say, that even in the past (T4xp series) had cooling issues to and a simple heatsink readjustment and change in thermal compound fixed it.

You may want to undervolt your CPU to reduce the internal temperature being carried out in the heatpipes.

If the machine for some reason stops working simply wipe off the thermal compounds and put the new fan with the stock compound and pads, Lenovo won't find out.

 

It's no a case of thermal paste. Lenovo has fixed something. It's time to 1.) have a talk with a field service manger and then send it in again.

Renee

 

Changing thermal paste yourself won't void the warranty. Just don't do screw anything up while you're in there.

read: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5040226#post5040226

I posted my solution to this problem.