Temperature high after suspend T61 (ok after boot/hibernate)

Hello all,

My T61 was running really hot ... in the middle 70C while idling and generating a ton of these error messages in the system log:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: ACPIEC
Event Category: None
Event ID: 3
Date: 11-Jun-11
Time: 11:02:08
User: N/A
Computer: T61
Description:

\Device\ACPIEC: The embedded controller (EC) hardware returned data
when none was requested. This may indicate that the BIOS is
incorectly trying to access the EC without syncronizing with the OS.
The data is being ignored.


Yesterday, I finally took the fan assembly out (which had been replaced by Lenovo last fall and reapplied some thermal paste - whoever had put some there before had used a ton of it - otherwise everything was pretty clean/dust free, no obstructions).

My idle temp is now 51C .. which is much better, but I notice that if I suspend the laptop and bring it back up the idle temp is about 10 - 15C higher. However, if I shut the machine down or hibernate it, it comes back with 51C as idle.

I have all the latest drivers and BIOS from Lenovo and for XP - anyone else have come across this problem? I'd prefer to suspend/resume since that's faster than hibernate.

Oh, and in case this is relevant, the system sits in a docking station (the smaller of the two available, I can't recall the model number).

Thanks,
Esmail

ps: I'm using SpeeFan/CPUID Hardware Monitor/Speccy and Core Temp to monitor the temps .. all consistent in their reports.