Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2008 14:55:32 -0800 From: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: overheating Thinkpad X60s with 7.0-RC1 Message-ID: <20080106225532.GA52707@eos.sc1.parodius.com> In-Reply-To: <20080106222040.GB67243@tirith.brixandersen.dk> References: <542798610801060556h28d300f2n4fdcf21d83d2213f@mail.gmail.com> <47813D8E.9080603@fsck.ch> <542798610801061326o63f731d5o32bef2eb2624f85e@mail.gmail.com> <20080106222040.GB67243@tirith.brixandersen.dk>
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On Sun, Jan 06, 2008 at 11:20:40PM +0100, Henrik Brix Andersen wrote: > On Sun, Jan 06, 2008 at 10:26:48PM +0100, Johannes Dieterich wrote: > > X and T series of the thinkpads are rather different, even the cores are > > completely different (I have a dualcore low-voltage version, I assume > > yours is running on a dual Pentium m, or?). > > FWIW, I haven't seen any temperature related issues on my ThinkPad > X60s, which has been tracking -CURRENT for the last year or so. My below comment isn't FreeBSD-specific, but I thought I might chime in with some semi-relevant information anyway. My workplace recently gave us all T60p (widescreen) units which run Windows (originally XP, now Vista (isn't my choice...)). While we were on XP, some of us had a chance to compare thermals using the tp4xfancontrol program. For those not familiar with it, it gives thermal stats of 7 or 8 different regions on the board, ranging from CPU (not on-die cores; those you can get elsewhere) to GPU to battery temperatures to whatever else. It also lets you control fan speed, in case you disagree with one of the two methods being used for automated control. All temperatures were compared when the systems were idling. The variance in temperatures was astounding. In some cases, there was a almost a 20C difference between two machines, especially around the GPU area. In other cases, batteries were reporting insane temperatures on one laptop (over 90C), while on another well within scope (~25-26C). My particular laptop is a problem child when it comes to noise -- that is to say, within literally seconds of the machine finishing POST, the fan kicks on, then 15-20 seconds later, increases speed. My co-workers' laptops do not have this problem. Cleaning out the heatsink area using a can of air made no difference. I won't even bother mentioning what happens when I run something that's CPU or GPU intensive. I haven't had any crashes, but in some cases, I've seen the GPU temperatures reach over 80C -- completely unacceptable, and bordering on insane. It's gotten to the point where to use my T60p *quietly*, I'm forced to prop the rear corners up on little blocks or whatever, and then place a desk fan nearby, blowing cold air more or less underneathe the laptop. This keeps the fan in low speed mode, which is semi-tolerable. I *haven't* had any crashes or random system lockups, but many other co-workers of mine have, and it's safe to say heat is the cause. In my opinion, most of these laptops (the T60p series, and very likely related models!) are being assembled with improper amounts of thermal paste or TIM pads, without proper surface area contact. Apple recently had a case of this happening as well with their Macbook Pros, where their assembly documentation stated they should use an *entire tube* of thermal paste between the CPU and the heatsink. Lenovo should be ashamed at the lack of quality control used when these things are built. Again, this is a laptop given to me by my workplace for work, so it's really not my choice (nor can I disassemble it to examine or fix what the problem might be) -- but if I ever am to buy a laptop for personal use, Lenovo would not be on my list of vendors. I would urge those here to consider booting XP somehow (if possible) and running tp4xfancontrol to check actual temperatures, since FreeBSD's h/w monitoring capability is spotty at best (I think Linux wins out here, but at least there's room for growth...) http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=153962 -- | 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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