Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 06:04:34 -0700 From: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org> To: nlaroche@vt.edu Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Lenovo Thinkpad t61p and FreeBSD? Message-ID: <20080604130434.GA24817@eos.sc1.parodius.com> In-Reply-To: <1212505961.48455f69d37b8@webmail.vt.edu> References: <18501.12329.638264.761303@cs.wpi.edu> <20080603122218.GA69827@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <1212505961.48455f69d37b8@webmail.vt.edu>
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On Tue, Jun 03, 2008 at 11:12:41AM -0400, nlaroche@vt.edu wrote:
> Quoting Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org>:
> > Based on my experiences with my workplace-provided T60p, it's safe to
> > say I'll never recommend a Lenovo product. The temperatures of these
> > laptops are absolutely insane, supported by an incredibly loud fan. I'm
> > not interested in a product that can have a GPU reaching temperatures of
> > almost 70C **while idling**.
>
> I purchased a T60p about two months ago and I haven't had any of these happen
> (yet?) running Ubuntu 7.10. The machine only gets slightly warm to the touch
> after a few hours idling.
I pointed out earlier in the thread that Linux appears to have full ACPI
support for the Thinkpad series, including extras -- which probably
manage some of the thermal-related features better.
> Does your fan run all the time that loud?
Within 10-15 seconds of logging in (to Vista), the fan kicks on medium
speed. As we all know, Vista enjoys chewing CPU and disk prior to and
after logging in, and takes about 5 minutes to relax (assuming you
disable Indexing, ReadyBoost, and SuperFetch). After about 10-15
minutes, the fan usually kicks into high mode, and remains that way
until the laptop has a chance to go into sleep/power save mode -- or, if
the rear of the laptop is raised up off the desk. The amount of hot air
coming out of the fan slot on the left side is fairly substantial,
indicating the overall design of the laptop is bad, thermal-wise.
A couple of my co-workers (but only a few!) do not have this problem.
Their laptops run with the fan off, or in low mode. When we were all
using XP, I had them run the Thinkpad monitoring utility (an open-source
app) to look at the thermals of all the different parts in the system.
Their temps were substantially lower than mine (particularly the GPU),
but in others, were higher.
This could indicate a problem similar to Apple and their Macbooks, where
assembly line folks were applying entire tubes of thermal compound to
the CPU heatsink area. I haven't taken the time to open one of the
Lenovo laptops up -- company rules don't permit me to do so, and I don't
trust the coherency of our IT department anyways. ("Sounds isolated,
better just replace the entire laptop" "Umm, no...")
There are other problems with these laptops, not just thermal-related.
The laptop emits high-pitch noises as a result of some power-saving
modes the Centrino Duo chipset has. They've been documented in full on
the RMClock forum, and there are workarounds using either RMClock or (my
preferred method) turning off two options in the BIOS. If you can't
hear the noise, then your hearing isn't as sensitive as some peoples. I
can dig up the exact BIOS labels if you'd like them.
> I'm wondering if there were changes made at the factory to fix this
> type of problem if it was wide spread.
Possibly. There's quite a lot of evidence on the Web about this problem
with Lenovo laptops. IBM/Lenovo's T43 series did not behave this way,
but they were on older (cooler, temperature-wise) hardware.
--
| Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
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