X200s: Major Throttling Problems

Hey guys,

I have an x200s that I have been happily using since December of 2009. It's got a 1.86GHz SL9400, 4GB RAM, and a 80GB Intel M25 SSD.

Over the past month or so, my computer has randomly grinded to a halt. When this happens, the processor is running at either 266Mhz to 398MHz (usually the latter) according to CPUZ. The fan becomes very loud, and the computer is much hotter than usual.

What triggers it? At first I thought it was just GPU use, since I noticed the problem first whenever playing HD content (mkv files). Within 20-30 minutes of video-watching on VLC, the video will stutter and become unwatchable.

However, I then noticed the behavior in other situations. If I try to watch a flash movie while transferring files from an external hard drive, bam. If I do Windows Updates while installing a new application, bam. Finally, today I downloaded prime95, and sure enough, within two minutes, I was down to 400MHz.

This happens on both battery and AC power. Today I did a reformat and reinstall of Windows, to no avail. All drivers are updated. I reset all settings in the BIOS to the default.

I am completely stuck. Do I need to reapply thermal paste to the CPU? What is possibly going on...?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Update: Holy cow. I intsalled TPFanControl and it's reporting 80 degrees CPU temp. During load it hit 100. ? That can't be normal...

 

sometimes there can be a lot of dust clogging the vent, check that first?

 

What is your ambient room temperature?

80C idle and over 100C is way too hot, maybe you need to repaste the CPU or blow out all the dust in your heatsinks/fan/heatfins.

 

Ambient temperature is normal, anywhere from 65 to 77. For a while I had my Ultrabase sitting on top of my speaker amplifier, but moved it elsewhere when the throttling started (I thought the heat from the amplifier was the cause of the problem, and was shocked when it later continued).

I'm reading the service manual for the x200s and it seems like a very intense process to get to the CPU/heatsink, including removing the LCD. Is it as hard as it sounds? I've built desktop PC's before, but never have divulged inside a laptop. Can I handle it?

 

Yeah 19-24C ambient and that is way too hot. Is your x200s still under warranty? You could try repasting. Most ThinkPads make sense to take apart. Just follow the service manual and ground yourself.

 

Warranty ran out in January. I guess I'll spend the day tomorrow and try to take it apart...

 

Whatver you do, don't sit your cpu/laptop near subwolfers..had a old PII and I believe that the magnets in the sub wrecked havoc with my cpu components... Very bad news stay away.

 

If youre seeing 100c temperatures it is the heat thats slowing you down. I would check to see if the computer is clogged with dust, or the fan is even working.

Taking the x200s apart is really easy. To expose everything its just 9 screws. Here is the manual:

Lenovo Support - Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad X200, X200s, X200si, X201, X201i and X201s

Start at page 83.

 

Counterpoint: CPUs aren't affected by the magnets in speaker coils. My home audio system is powered by an X40 which sits directly atop a rather large speaker (and has for about a year) -- it works fine.

To the OP: check that your fan is working and that your heatsink is not clogged with dust, etc.

I have a hard time believing that your CPU is actually clocking down that low, since even an SU9300 in C6 won't go below about 500 MHz or so. I do suspect your machine is overheating -- I just don't think the reported frequency is accurate.

 

Subwoofers effect moving parts and magnetic parts. A cpu has neither. The fan however can be effected by a large magnet.

 

I suppose it's possible for a fan to be effected by such a magnet, but it'd have to be one hell of a speaker...

 

Yeah tell me about it.

 

I've been having overheating problems with my x200s for a long while now. At first, I thought it was because I switched to a 7200rpm drive, but then the overheating continued when I returned to the stock drive.
I run Ubuntu 10.04.2 presently, so I tried using some laptop power settings that helped a bit - but throttling hard drive reads/writes is only a temporary solution.

I use gkrellm now to constantly monitor and alert me of impending heat problems and am able to force heat issues to occur "on command", Specifically, long runs of CPU & GPU operations. For example, watching a high definition flash video forces both cores to be sustained at about 70% and then the temperatures start to climb. I stop my tests when the CPU alerts hit 69-70C and GPU around 56C
The fans are reporting 3700+/- RPM at idle and up to 4100-4200ish when hot.

Does anyone know the maximum safe temperatures for CPU and GPU?

FWIW, I keep the dust blown out of the fan with compressed air and it does appear to be in working order.
Performance doesn't suffer much at the temperatures I listed above, but if I let it run, the machine overheats and crashes.
The ambient air temperature is between 20-24C depending on if my wife is home and in control of the thermostat.

JordanH.
Thinkpad x200s SL9400, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200rpm, Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS