CF-29 locks up when hot

My CF-29 will lock up when it gets hot. Doesn't matter if in the car, or in the house. Once it gets hot it doesn't matter if it's plugged in or not. Once it starts locking up, it'll continue to do so unless given about 20 min to cool off. Any ideas?? This is really defeating having the computer in the car!

Also, I belive it's unrelated...but yesterday the touch screen stopped working. A simple re-installation of the drivers should fix this?

CF-29 1.4mhz 760mb ram

 

Its an MK3 btw

 

could be the heat dissipation pads on the cpu, cputhermometer.com used to have a free program that you could monitor the temps of the cpu to let you know what they were running. the temps will cut back processing speed when temps approach 100 C. the brittle pads may not be helping draw the heat into the heat pipe and to the bottom of the case so that may be the problem. there is a lot of info on this website about this. frozencpu has a heat pad material that works well .5 mm and up in thickness along with artic silver 5 that you can replace the pads that should help keep your laptop much cooler. hope this helps.....Driller

 

Do you or are you watching the temps from the start and watching to see if something is kicking in that shoots the heat up?

I can say without any doubt that my CF30 MK3 runs hotter than my MK2. What's wierd is that the heat difference is right on top of the HDD, or at least most of the heat difference is in that area. But they both have SSD's in them which is what throws me off. That stinking MK2 can sit and run all day and it feels like it is running at room temperature

 

It's definitely a thermal heat dissipation issue! New heat pads are in order!

 

take out the ad on RAM and see if it may happen again.



ohlip

 

GOOD CALL TEO!

 

I'll download a CPU temp program and let you know the results, and take out the added ram. Thanks for the input. Are there any detailed instructions on replacing the heat pads?
I'm pretty good with computers, but for some reason I couldn't get the main case open. I don't want to pry too much & bust something!

On another note- shortly after posting the original question, the touchscreen started working! Strange...

 

Remove all screws on the bottom cabinet minus the ones for the handle/port covers and doors along the edges.

there should be 8 smaller screws +4 of the same screw holding the ram cover, then 7 i believe, of the bigger screws, 1 in each corner, 3 in middle including one under the ram cover.

If your cabinet has not been opened since being made it may take some force to get the cab opened, just remove the battery and hdd, then push on the bottom cab from inside the battery and hdd bays, It can take a good deal of force to break the seal.

The thermal pads will be either on the cpu and gpu chips or on the metal plate on the bottom cabinet.

Heartland Services sells the heat pads but it may be a little expensive, im sure others can help you locate them.

 

Also, IIRC, unplug the speaker cable. It's under the ram cover, a two wire connector.

 

Yep, forgot about that one, thanks

 

In the short term, you can also just bunch the pads up a bit so that they re-establish contact.

 

look up replacing the motherboard in ifixit for the cf-29. I know some of the labeling is backwards in what they call things like at one time the hhd bay is called battery bay vice versa but the steps and pictures are very helpful...Driller

 

Driller, simply out of curosity and lack of knowledge on MB's why do you suggest that? Is it to upgrade or was there a problem with those? As stated, no questioning you at all, just wanting to learn!

 

Actually he is not recommending replacing the motherboard only to look it up on that website. It has a pretty good tutorial on how to do it with alot of pictures. Recommendation was to assist in removing the bottom cover.

 

Gotcha. When I went back and re-read Driller's post I see what he was saying now. Must have had one of those brain fart moments

 

no my friend, I think I may be the one with massive methane accumulations in the cranial cavity. anyway, for me the challenged a picture is worth a thousand words.....Driller

 

It is the heat dissipation pads... I am pretty sure. I see these shrunk and looking burned every now and then. Replacing them or (if tolerences permit) adding a little silver or ceramic paste will help or cure your problem.

The RAM could do it too... (Good point Teo!) but I would think that would manifest other issues as well. It usually does in mine/others anyway.

 

Give it some ice cream. Works for me on those 105° Texas afternoons.

mnem
I suggest Pistachio.

 

So I finally got around to buying new thermal pads and did the mod this evening. However I'm still having a lock up problem. One common thing I've found is that when it locks up I have the charger plugged in. It has locked up when not plugged in, but 95% of the time it's charging. I'll take the cover back off and post pictues of what I did, in case I didn't do it right... The old gray pads did look bad, one was black as if it had been super heated, the case isn't getting extremely warm so maybe I didn't use enough...

 

One thing I don't see mentioned here at all. What is the output voltage of the power adapter you are using? It must be ~16v. Don't assume - please check the label of the adapter.

 

The processor is down-clocked when on battery no doubt
Install a software temperature monitoring program and post the temps

 

My AC adapter is 19V output. The DC is a Lind adapter for the Toughbooks, 15.6V output. It's locked up on both the AC and DC adapters.

I just installed the CPU temp program & it isn't showing temps, just a CPU core value %.

 

Take your 19v adapter and smash it against a wall right now

Read this thread for idea's

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/620842-so-i-whipped-cf-29-against-wall.html

Then go on ebay and buy a proper 16v ac adapter

 

Now THAT is computer forum!

Tranquillo