U400/U405 idle temperature

Hi everyone, I have a one-week-old Satellite Pro U400 here that I think is idling a little bit hot. Just sitting there with the CPU switched down to 800 MHz and with 2% processor load the two cores of the T8100 are at 53 and 57 Celsius. Then, as soon as I do anything like reload a web page, the fan comes on for a few seconds. I'm wondering whether it is worth it to have someone look at the heatsink mounting or if that's just how they are. If anyone who owns a similar model could download HWMonitor at the URL below and report their own temperatures at idle it would really help me decide whether there is something anomalous about mine.

http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

 

It sounds like something is wrong - I would take it in for warranty repair. I have an A300 that on idle would run the temp up and then the fan would kick on full blast for about 30 seconds. Then it would stay off for 2-3 minutes, then kick on again. I took it in for warranty repair and they found a stripped wire on the fan that was causing a short. They replaced the fan and it runs like a champ now. My advice - don't waste anymore time like I did trying to figure it out yourself -- take it in. That's what the warranty is for. They fixed mine in 2 or 3 business days.

 

BTW - mine is a different model and I have a T8300 processor, but at idle it is around 32 and 37 degrees C for the two cores (now that it is repaired).

 

i have a u405 w/T550 1.83 ghz, and my idle temps are just about the same with hwmonitor. I too wonder if this is too high. I also keep mine in battery performance setting in vista (so the processor speed is cut in half by default) and after 30 mins, those core temps tend to stay in the upper 40's. low 50's until eventually it just stays in the 50's. The fan tends to run every 5mins or so for 20 seconds. Mine is about to become 4 weeks old. Any help would be appreciated as well.

 

It is still within the safe temperature range for that processor so I personally wouldn't be too concerned.

What are the temps when under load? (nearing 100% use for a long period of time.) That is a more critical measure.

@TimBikes, 32 & 37 is extremely low. How long has the computer been on when you get those measurements?

 

In my case it goes up to 67/72 at full speed under load (Orthos), which is fine. I'm not worried about damaging the CPU, just fraying my nerves when the fan comes on every time I click the mouse on something. My old laptop idled at 40 C and the fan only came on after it had been under heavy load for a minute or so.

Something else that doesn't seem right, is that it doesn't make any difference if it idles in SuperLFM mode at 800 MHz (100 MHz FSB) or 2.1 GHz (200 MHz FSB). It's around 55 C either way, even though the 2.1 GHz mode uses a higher voltage. My old laptop idled a lot hotter than 40 if I locked the CPU to the highest frequency instead of letting it switch down. Also, if I fix it to 800 MHz and then put it under load it doesn't heat up at all compared to the idle temperature. The whole thing just seems screwy.

 

if i run mine under vista's high performance setting, the fan is almost always on with just firefox running. I shutter to think what would happen if i put it under heavy load

 

I got bored tonight (man am I a nerd!) and decided to take it apart and have a look-see. There was a glob of thermal grease about 1/16" thick on the CPU, and some double-sided tape on the northbridge. I removed all that and applied a thin layer of silicone thermal grease to each and put it back together. It lowered the temps by maybe a couple of degrees but unfortunately it didn't make too much difference overall. I guess it's just the way they are.

 

I used Arctic Silver 5 when I took apart my computer last week and it lowered my temps by about 7 or 8 degrees. Of course I run fairly cool anyway.

 

Hi Gregory, that's interesting. I'll keep an eye open for that stuff next time I'm at the computer store and give it a try.

 

how easy was it to crack it open and apply some new grease? I've read about the artic stuff and figured it might help, but I don't wanna risk messing anything up.

 

Some laptops have access to the processor on the bottom, which are very easy. Most, like mine, requires you to take the laptop completely apart. I don't recommend you do it unless you are 100% confident. It seemed easy to me because I've been taking apart gadgets and computers for eight years, but if you aren't experienced with small electronics then it may prove difficult.

EDIT: Also it's not worth doing if your computer is under warranty as it will likely void it.

 

To follow up on Gregory's post, it's not inherently difficult but it is fairly involved to get at the CPU in the U400. You have to remove the motherboard which means disconnecting lots of little cables, each of which has its own trick for releasing it. If you have experience it's not too bad but if you haven't done it before it would be pretty daunting I think.

 

darn, if it was easy access i'd do it in a heartbeat. Oh well. Maybe if the prob persists after the warranty is over i'll think about or find somebody who's confident and I trust.

 

I evaluating the new 13.3" Toshiba U405-S2852 (AMD Turion RM-70 2.0GHz). It's currently idling at ~42C. The 15.4" Toshiba A305-S6825 (Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83GHz) sitting next to me is currently idling at ~40C.

I hope this helps as a baseline...

BTW - I used Everest Ultimate Edition for the readings.

 

Wow...........my X205 is sitting at 34 and 32 on the processor and 46 on the GPU idling here. I just replaced my CPU recently and went with the T9300 which I understand runs cooler, and I used Arctic silver when I made the change.........maybe that's why it's running cool?

That's using PC Wizard 2008 to get the temps.

 

I have toshi U405 model , same spec. My fan turns on @ 54 degrees (low speed). The notebook goes into passive cooling under 54. So fan only turns on when it's 54 or above. Under load, my temp never goes up beyond 62.

When temperature goes above 59, it's full speed.

I think it's just way the Bios is programmed.

HOwever, it's kind of annoying when temperature is 53/54 because fan turns on when it's 54 and turns off when it's 53...i would rather have it on all the time (at low speeds) when temperature is below 53..hopefully toshiba does something on their next bios release.

 

Does anyone have experience with the Toshiba U405 with the AMD RM-70 versus the Intel Centrino ? The Intel model runs hot (actually hot to the touch). The AMD model appeared to be cooler when I sampled it at Best Buy. Any comments ? Also, is there a performance difference between the two ?

 

well, glad others have similar temps so nothing major is wrong with mine. And yeah, it is annoying that after 30 mins or so, the fan comes on and off every few minutes, but I can live with it if its on the lowest fan setting. Also I notice on battery its much quieter, so I was happy bout that.
now i'm trying to figure out why my antivirus is running at 100% cpu for the first 2-3 mins when i start up. Rather annoying since that just helps generate heat faster.

 

I had mine for a couple of days, but today, aside the hot weather (101 degree F) the touchpad is hot like hell too. CPU temp was like 67 degree Celcius. What's underneath the touchpad on this U405 model ?

 

The wireless card is right underneath the touchpad. It can get pretty hot, especially if it has to crank up the amplifier to pull in a weak signal.

 

hm, i'm gonna disable the card and see if it's still hot. btw, I'm running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 + 4GB of RAM on this baby. Super fast. It runs faster than Vista.

 

Hello all,
This is an interesting thread. I live in Canada and we can only order the U400 (regular or pro) with the T5750 processor and I recently ordered the regular version (it had better overall specs). Out of the box everything worked like a charm but within 20 minutes of having it on, I noticed that the touchpad was getting very warm. So I started researching..... and low and behold found this thread.

I used the PC Wizard tool mentioned in the thread and found that both Cores were idling at around 67C - which seems inline with what other people have reported. I also shut off the wireless antenna and it made no change to the idle temperature.

The root of all this background is that I wonder whether or not this is truly "normal". I don't think that I can deal with this temperature going forward, but I like the laptop. I am just worried that getting a replacement will just yield the same result. Has anyone gone through the process of returning a "hot" laptop and get a replacement that wasn't "hot"?

 

Ottawa, 67C seems pretty high to me, mine is usually around 53C. Is your fan on all the time? My touchpad also doesn't get that hot, only a little warm sometimes, but this is a Satellite Pro and it's constructed differently (not flush with the palm rests, different material). I think if you can't get it below 67C that would be grounds for an exchange because that is pretty high.

 

Thanks for the response trwrt.

I am debating returning the Home U400 and getting a Pro U400. From a technical perspective, they share most of the same components except the Pro has only 2GB RAM/160GB HDD whereas the home has 3GB RAM and 320GB HDD. Is the only difference between the 2 platforms build quality/ruggedness?

 

I don't know if the Pro is any more rugged, mine seems fairly sturdy though. The differences are that the Pro doesn't have the super-glossy Fusion finish all over everything (thank goodness) and the Pro also doesn't have the set of touch-sensitive media controls between the keyboard and the screen. The touchpad on the Pro is inset into the palm rest instead of being flush-mounted. There is also the free-fall accelerometer that parks the hard drive if you drop it, I'm not sure if the regular Satellites have that or not. Other than those essentially cosmetic differences I think they are pretty much the same machine.

 

One last question... (I know, infamous last words.)

One thing I noticed on the home U400 is that the keyboard deflects quite a bit while typing. Is the Satellite Pro the same?

 

I watched for a little while as I banged on the keys and it certainly moves a little bit. Not to the extent that is has caused me any problems typing on it, but I guess it depends on your typing style. The movement is all in the center where there is a folded-over ribbon cable underneath it, which I think makes the keyboard want to spring up a little. I'd estimate it moves about 1/16" after the key bottoms out on the B and N keys, and less than that on the top rows or the sides.

 

So here is something interesting. I tried using the Hardware Monitor program and it is giving me significantly different readings from PC Wizard.

PC Wizard shows:
Core 1: 69C
Core 2: 69C

But the HWMonitor tools shows:
Core 1: 54C
Core 2: 54C

Anyone seen similar results? Which one should be believed?

 

I've used HWMonitor, and my temps agree roughly with yours. I've never tried PC Wizard. I have used other programs, though, like RightMark which shows a few degrees lower than HWMonitor. So, I guess various programs have differing ideas about how to convert whatever they read out into temperature values. One that seems to be pretty unambiguous, though, is the ACPI THRM device, which you should also see in HWMonitor. All the programs I've tried that read that one out agree. On mine it is right around the CPU core temps according to HWMonitor.

 

I received similar temps. I trust the HW monitor more. Just seems to high the wizard. No way would the fan wait to kick in at 60something. 50 something sounds bout right to me.