t61p - too hot?

I got my brand new t61p (7700).. But I am getting a little bit paranoid. It is running at 60C when idle and between 80-85 under load (TAT).. It seemed hot. What do you guys think?

Thanks
Lenny..

 

I have the 14" T61p with a T7300, idle temp is about 40-45C (I've seen 34C when idle under Ubuntu Linux) and load around 80-85C (TAT).
Anyway, I think the temp you got is a bit warm but I wouldn't worry about it unless it is above 90C. These CPUs are rated at 100C.

 

Sounds a bit warm, whats the room ambient temp?

Maybe try checking for bios updates and maybe it'll turn up the fan a bit more for you.

I'm not exactly sure what the usual temps are for the T61p because of video card but it wouldn't hurt to watch the temp of the gpu and cpu. Theres always a chance of poorly applied heatsink.

 

hmm I think it's normal because the bottom my t61p (T7500) gets really hot to the touch when gaming.

 

It seems that both CPUs are working with the highest frequency, even when the profile is adaptive. An instance of svchost.exe is constantly taking 7-15% of the CPU time. So I believe that process is responsible for the higher frequency and higher idle temperature.

It belongs to the services DcomLaunch and PlugPlay. I could not figure out why these services are always active and how to stop them. Any ideas?

By the way BIOS update helped a bit. It is now running around 55C. But while gaming, I still see 80-85C.

Thanks for the help guys..
Lenny

 

I have a T61p WUXGA, and when I put my hand around the air vent, it's really hot. I don't know how to check the temperature. Do I need to download a program for that or is it somewhere in my laptop already? Also what is the BIOS update?

 

Don't have a T61, but 60 degrees at idle is a little warmer than usual. Does the palmrest/keyboard feel hot at this temp?

 

AtomicSpyder, You can update your bios by downloading the latest packages through the lenovo maintenance software.


itr025, when idle keyboard feels slightly warm. When loaded bottom plate is really hot. I have tried using a cooler pad. Bottom cools down but CPU still runs hot.


Lenny..

 

Mine probably runs about 10C cooler than your. I do have it on a cooling pad though (passive). I also forced the fan to always run high in the BIOS as it isn't loud at all.

I have the 15.4" T61p as well for the record. Slower CPU though. Could be your CPU generates a little more heat because of the higher clocks.

 

Mine seemed to run hot also when i got it so i downloaded Rmclock and tpfancontrol. It runs great while idle but it it hits the 80+ range after playing fear for a couple hours.

 

To be honest, after gaming for several hours I am not surprised your temps got that high.

If you aren't using a notebook cooler, you could consider it, it should bring down your temps a bit.

 

Just played World in Conflict for 2.5 hours and the CPU temp gets above 80.

So I'm look into getting an active cooling pad (with fans), but have a question, anyone know in general, those cooling pad with fans, do they blow cool air up to the bottom of the notebook or suck hot air out down?

For example, this Eforcity Chill Pad Laptop cooler.

 

It seems like you would be better off finding something that can blow in air into the vents on the corner. GL finding anything to do that though

 

My t61p (15.4 inch model) gets almost too hot to touch on the bottom when gaming (when i have power settings on high performance). A suggestion I have is putting the power settings on to the lower power setting (i use the one that isn't "energy saver"....i forget what its called and can't check since I'm at work) when your playing a game that isn't too intensive on your system (for example when i'm playing WoW) I find that the bottom stays pretty cool and isn't uncomfortable at all on my lap.

 

Its really a bad case design i think. The vents are way to small and in occward locations. Not really sure any cooler besides the zalman would work, mostly because its so big and covers the whole notebook.

 

Why don't you try a passive cooler like the Thermaltake I-Xoft? Every review I read about it says really good things about it. And since the thinkpad dont really use air intakes at the bottom I think this would be the perfect cooler for it. Plus passive means no need to use up a usb port and it makes no noise.

Even the so called gaming laptop like the Sagers benefit substantially from coolers so I doubt it'll be any different here especially when running intensive games. For normal apps they're not really neccessary.

 

Well, actually I do have the i-xoft passive cooler and after few hours of gaming the pad would be too hot that it will make the thinkpad even hotter as the heat is all trap underneath.

 

erm get 2 pads? dunno but they're pretty cheap from what I recalled ..about $25-29 each maybe. The fact that its hot is a good thing shows that its working. Slip the second pad in when the 1st gets too hot and let that cooldown . A typical active cooler with fans cost about $50 i think so i think 2 pads is viable.

 

I have been using an active cooler with two fans. Bottom of the laptop does not get hot now. But CPU temperature is still high (~85) when gaming.

By the way does anyone know how to set fan speed from BIOS? I could not spot it.

 

only way i was able to control the fans was with tpfancontrol.

 

Not necessary a bad case design I believe. You have totally 70watt generated just by counting the TDP of CPU and GPU, and there is also heat generated by memory, wifi card, hard drive, northbridge chip, etc. So we are talking about 80+ watt of heat here. If put a 80watt bulb into such a small case as the T61p has, there ain't much you can do to make it be any cooler.
I think the main issue is that neither Intel or Nvidia is able to provide some low power chips that have comparable performance as the C2D and FX 570M. The 35w TDP of Core 2 Duo is simply too much, not to mention the power that is wasted on the northbridge because of the lack of the on die memory controler. Look at the pathetic battery life that we are getting from the 9 cells right now compare to what it was during the Pentium-M days, you can barely find a core 2 duo laptop with decent video card that can give you 4-5 hours of battery life with a 9-cell. And a Mobile GPU with 35w TDP?
At least the next generation of dual-core Intel CPU will have a much lower TDP (back to the 25w level), so we will see the coming new laptops running at a much cooler temperature with longer battery life ( usually, each 1 watt of power reduced gives you additional 6-10 minutes of battery life), but the bad news is that the planned Intel quad core mobile CPU will have 45w TDP. Will we have to carry a electricity generator with us during traveling?

 

I think it is bad design, my system works great now after they replaced almost everything.... cpu never goes over 70c.The thing is after watching the tech do the repairs, there is ample room to place a second fan in the system and the vents in the system besides the rear fan assembly do practically nothing.
As for the next gen cpu it is going to be a while before the 25w models come out. The first line will be 35w not till Q208 will we start seeing the 25w cpu with the 1066 MHz fsb. The thing is though the refresh models with 25w are limited to 2.13, 2.4 and 2.53. All of the higher clocked models will me 35w and on top of everything else only the speeds I listed will only have 3MB L2 cash while the 35w 2.8 and 3.01 models will have 6MB L2 cash.