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Date:      Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:50:46 -0500
From:      Josh Paetzel <josh@tcbug.org>
To:        mobile@freebsd.org
Subject:   Heat issues on the IBM/Lenovo T60 resolved
Message-ID:  <200808300950.51698.josh@tcbug.org>

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I've been relatively happy with my T60, with the exception of the heat issu=
es=20
it's had since day one.  The fan would run full out pretty much all the tim=
e,=20
and it would frequently reach 99-100C when doing anything cpu intensive,=20
regardless of OS.  If there was any obstruction to the air vents it would=20
shutdown due to overheating.

It turns out this is not an uncommon problem with the T60/T61, people eithe=
r=20
complain of them being loud, or too hot, or sometimes both.

After going down the road of OS tweaks and BIOS flashes I started burning u=
p=20
phone lines at Lenovo, and I was finally able to talk to someone who said=20
they had some assembly problems that resulted in far too much thermal paste=
=20
being applied to the cpu and heatsink.

So, I disassembled my laptop, and sure enough, the thermal paste was applie=
d=20
much like a 3 year old applies grape jelly to a sandwich.  I cleaned the=20
heatsink, cpu, and gpu and applied some generic thermal paste I found at Be=
st=20
Buy.  (caveat:  The GPU uses a thermal pad that accomodates cooling the=20
memory chips, which are at a different height.  I cut out the area where th=
e=20
GPU makes contact and used thermal paste there, leaving the rest of the=20
thermal pad in place to contact the ram)

Upon reassembly I loaded up both cores with make buildworld and cpuburn, an=
d=20
initially feared I had damaged the fan speed sensor, as FreeBSD reported 0=
=20
rpm.  The cpu temps very slowly climbed to 60C, where the fan spun up to a=
=20
nearly inaudible 2000 rpm

If I leave it at full CPU utilization the fan will eventually spin up to=20
3000rpm, and temps stabilize at 66-69C.  Under normal use the fan rarely=20
runs, a welcome change from it running full out all the time, especially on=
=20
battery. =20

I have a friend that was having similar problems with his T61, and has had=
=20
similar success after reapplying the thermal paste.

=46ow what it's worth, Lenovo said the issue was covered under warranty, I =
just=20
disn't feel like going through the hassle of shipping the laptop to them.
=20
=2D-=20
Thanks,

Josh Paetzel

PGP: 8A48 EF36 5E9F 4EDA 5A8C 11B4 26F9 01F1 27AF AECB

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