CPU temperature at 80°C and above, despite fan running at maximum speed (Thinkpad Z61m)

[Johannes Bittner-2]

Hi,

My CPU reaches temperatures of more than 80°C, despite my fan running
at its highest speed (~3200 rpm, level 7 in thinkpad-acpi). To reach
this temperature, I simply ran two processes on my notebook which do
an infinite loop.

Is this normal? I stopped the test at 80°C because I didn't want to
damage my notebook (the temperature didn't stop rising at all). Is it
possible that a dirty fan could cause this behaviour, and how do I
clean it?

It's a Thinkpad Z61m 9450-3HG, the CPU is a Intel Core Duo T2500. By
the way, the CPU temperature right now (mostly idle) is 57°C.

Thanks,

Johannes
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[Damon Lynch]

Hi,

If it gets too hot, it will shut itself down. Gnome is rather nice -- it
will give you a warning that this will happen. I don't know about other
desktop environments.

The only reason I know this is because my previous notebook (a Sony with
a Core 2 Duo) had a failing fan, and the CPU temperatures would get up
to 100 degress C before it shut down.  When the fan was eventually
replaced (after some months, a long story) the technician said the
thermal paste had essentially disappeared. That machine would idle at
about 55 degree C.

If you have access to the fan after lifting off the keyboard, a blower
of the type that is used to clean cameras and lenses can be very useful
indeed. I was able to clean out a substantial amount of dust that way.  
I don't know if blowing in with the keyboard on will have any bad
affect. Maybe if it has  a front and side air vent you'll be fine -- I
don't know.

Best,
Damon

On 01/16/2010 10:54 AM, Johannes Bittner wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My CPU reaches temperatures of more than 80°C, despite my fan running
> at its highest speed (~3200 rpm, level 7 in thinkpad-acpi). To reach
> this temperature, I simply ran two processes on my notebook which do
> an infinite loop.
>
> Is this normal? I stopped the test at 80°C because I didn't want to
> damage my notebook (the temperature didn't stop rising at all). Is it
> possible that a dirty fan could cause this behaviour, and how do I
> clean it?
>
> It's a Thinkpad Z61m 9450-3HG, the CPU is a Intel Core Duo T2500. By
> the way, the CPU temperature right now (mostly idle) is 57°C.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Johannes
>    

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[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh-2]

On Sat, 16 Jan 2010, Johannes Bittner wrote:
> My CPU reaches temperatures of more than 80°C, despite my fan running

1. Clean the fan

If it doesn't fix it:

2. Repair the thermal interfaces between the thermal sink and the chips, and
while at it, wherever a thermal pad is not required, use Arctic Silver 5 or
another A+, high viscosity, high aderence thermal compound.  They are a pain
to apply right, but if whatever the factory used did break, it means the easy
stuff with low viscosity won't last.

While at it, make sure the operating system IS idling your CPU properly, as
that can mitigate the problem.  powertop can help you there.

--
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  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh
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[rocku]

Henrique de Moraes Holschuh pisze:
> 2. Repair the thermal interfaces between the thermal sink and the chips, and
> while at it, wherever a thermal pad is not required, use Arctic Silver 5 or
> another A+, high viscosity, high aderence thermal compound.  They are a pain
> to apply right, but if whatever the factory used did break, it means the easy
> stuff with low viscosity won't last.

I can agree with this. My Lenovo SL500 was running ~65°C when idle and
went to 100°C when at full load, even with fan running at full speed. At
first I thought it was caused by bad design, but eventually I
disassembled the case and did a major clean up from dust and also
removed the heatsinks to reapply some thermal grease under the CPU and
GPU heatsink (firstly cleaned up what remained of what the factory
applied). Now my laptop is running at ~40°C when idle and doesn't exceed
80°C when at full load and the fan is barely audible.

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Pozdrawiam,
rocku
digimortal(at)wp.pl
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[Johannes Bittner-2]

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 12:22, rocku <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I can agree with this. My Lenovo SL500 was running ~65°C when idle and went
> to 100°C when at full load, even with fan running at full speed. At first I
> thought it was caused by bad design, but eventually I disassembled the case
> and did a major clean up from dust and also removed the heatsinks to reapply
> some thermal grease under the CPU and GPU heatsink (firstly cleaned up what
> remained of what the factory applied). Now my laptop is running at ~40°C
> when idle and doesn't exceed 80°C when at full load and the fan is barely
> audible.

I just cleaned my fan, I didn't remove the fan assembly (an therefore
no new thermal grease was applied). The results are very good, when
under full load the temperature doesn't exceed 74°C now, and when on
idle it's about 50°C. Still not optimal I guess, but far better than
before :). Thanks!

Johannes
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[Christoph Bier]

Johannes Bittner schrieb am 16.01.2010 17:54:

> Hi,
>
> My CPU reaches temperatures of more than 80°C, despite my fan running
> at its highest speed (~3200 rpm, level 7 in thinkpad-acpi). [...]

I wonder if this is really the highest speed. On my X200s the
highest speed is more than 5000 rpm.

[...]

Best
Christoph
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[Adrian Filip]

What GPU do you have?
My GPU is ATI and is very hot, about 72C when idle. I don't remember
being so hot on Windows.
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[remur (Bugzilla)]

My ATI card also tends to get very hot with the open drivers as they don't
have much power saving methods included, you should think about using the
(admittedly) bad binary ati blob. There is work in progress to fix this in
both radeon and radeonhd drivers though!
If it's a T400 / T500 just switch to intel ;-)

Karsten

Am Montag, 18. Januar 2010 16:18:24 schrieb Adrian Filip:
> What GPU do you have?
> My GPU is ATI and is very hot, about 72C when idle. I don't remember
> being so hot on Windows.
>
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[Adrian Filip]

I have a T60p with Mobility Firegl V5250 with Fedora Core 12 installed on it.
The latest drivers from ATI are not working on FC12 and they also removed the
support for my card.

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 5:44 PM, Karsten König <[hidden email]> wrote:

> My ATI card also tends to get very hot with the open drivers as they don't
> have much power saving methods included, you should think about using the
> (admittedly) bad binary ati blob. There is work in progress to fix this in
> both radeon and radeonhd drivers though!
> If it's a T400 / T500 just switch to intel ;-)
>
> Karsten
>
> Am Montag, 18. Januar 2010 16:18:24 schrieb Adrian Filip:
>> What GPU do you have?
>> My GPU is ATI and is very hot, about 72C when idle. I don't remember
>> being so hot on Windows.
>>
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>

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