Thinkpad T520 Temperatures

What is the safe temperature range for the T520 (or similar/all laptops?)

I received mine a week ago and recall all the components idling at 100Fish and going to about 120F under load, which I was happy with. Since then, the only computationally demanding thing I've done with it is play Stalker SoC for about two hours, and the only physically demanding thing I've done is walk a few miles with it in my (also new, so hopefully dust-free) backpack. My temperatures have spiked, however.


these are my temps with firefox, xchat, speccy, and the wow updater app running.

Why is this happening, are these temperatures safe, are they normal, and what should I do? Thanks!

 

136F is about 57C, which is perfectly normal for a moderate workload on the T520 (typically, people use Celsius to report computer component temperatures, since it's more convenient and more standardized). If that's the idle temperature, though, it's on the high side. Use Process Explorer to monitor your CPU usage over time: if it's between 1-10%, temperatures should not be that high. It's quite possible that some process is using up a high percentage of your CPU, though, and increasing temperatures.

 

Alright! I think the problem's resolved. I lowered my power settings slider thing to halfway, down from near-peak. temperatures dropped to 42c under the same load, which is what it was when I got it.