Resolved Back on my T60p; overheating issues;

Alright, so I sold my W700 just in time for the W701. Between now and when I can get a W701, I'm back on my T60p. Here's a quick rundown of what I did with my T60p when I got it three years ago. Besides getting the T60p itself, I also got a T7600 CPU, and an Atheros N WiFi card, both of which I upgraded my T60p to so as to get 64-bit capability (it originally had a T2600; 32-bit Core Duo 2.16GHz CPU). Besides that, wireless N has always been important to me, so all of that worked out great.

However, I remember the last month and a half using the T60p, before I received my W700, it had already started overheating to the point where it would just shut off when it got to hot. Or did it??? I say that because the T60 (T2500 2GHz) that I gave my GF about a year and a half ago, does not ever shut down, even though it gets just as fast when playing back a Bluray or DVD movie. Yes, I'll go in and apply more silver paste, and try to clean out the dust from the fan, but I'm starting to think that it's not even necessarily a heat issue. Although when getting extra hot, I can wait for it to simply turn off. Then again, running a 1080p Bluray earlier today made my girl's T60 run super hot for a good while and to the point where you couldn't really touch it for more than a second. It never shut down, though.

One difference is that hers has a 32-bit CPU, and runs Windows 7 32-bit, while mine was upgraded to a 64-bit CPU, and I have read tons of stories linking 64-bit CPU's to running significantly hotter than their 32-bit counterparts. I tried installing Windows 7 32-bit, and while I can work just fine, a movie will bring it down. I do not seem to have to worry about the hear much at all running Windows 7 32-bit, but with my 64-bit installation, it's more of an issue.

Do you think the SSD could have anything to do with it?? It doesn't contribute to heat, that's for sure due to the nature of SSD's, but maybe for some other reason...? I really want to get to the bottom of this, and would welcome your ideas, suggestions, comments, and any other help.

Thanks very much.

 

When you upgraded the CPU, did you look for any BIOS upgrades? Lenovo (like most laptop manufacturers) use the original hardware configuration to number their models. Now that you have changed the configuration, the original model number no longer applies, so you might need quite a search to get a BIOS upgrade for the motherboard that will match the CPU.

What do your senses tell you? Does the base of the laptop get extremely hot when it is about to shut down?

Does the fan go onto high speed? If not, there could be a problem with the Intel thermal control system. That might go back to what I said about getting the correct downloads from Lenovo. Intel will say your motherboard is OEM and to find drivers, etc, at the OEM manufacturer's website.

Have you found problems finding the correct drivers at Lenovo? Do they support running 64bit Windows on the T60P? I might expect that you are running Windows standard drivers (from Windows initial installation), whereas, it probably needs the correct drivers to run the system with the upgraded CPU for the 64bit OS.

CrunchDude, you know my usual replies , you are probably trying fit a round peg into a square hole, unless you can find all the correct drivers.

I have tried 64bit Win XP, but went back to 32bit when I upgraded and wanted to make the old machine into a media center. There were no 64bit drivers for the TV card. I will stick with 32bit until I know 64bit drivers are (very) broadly available.

If you can't find the hardware manufacturer's 64bit drivers, you will be running on Windows standard drivers.

Matt

 

All fixed...

Hey TonyT, mattman, what's going on? Long time no see.

Anyway, yea so it's done. What a difference a little spring cleaning makes. Besides putting AS5 silver paste on the T7600, I also put some on the ATI GPU. I haven't been able to crash it, even though I ran a 720p Bluray for 20 mins., while at the same time had iTunes open, also had 20 tabs in Firefox open, and I changed the power profile from Balanced to High Performance. It barely made it above 60C.

As I'm typing this, temps are in the mid to upper 40's C, and the fan runs very quietly.

@mattman: I've always thought that XP x64 su**ked. Lack of drivers, as you said, poor stability, etc., etc. It never made it mainstream either, unlike Vista x64 and now Windows 7 64-bit. It was consistent, though, as far as my x64 install running somewhat hotter than x86. But it doesn't matter now, and I'll be going back to my Win 7 64-bit shortly. Although how much use will it be on this T60p, which can only handle 3GB of RAM (a system board limitation). My W700 had 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and I was using it, too.

Hopefully, someone will find this thread useful if they're in my predicament.

Thanks for the help, guys.